Babylon Berlin’s fourth season, which premiered in Germany in 2022, opens at the tail end of 1930 with a revelation sure to make viewers uncomfortable: the downbeat, if dedicated, Gereon Rath (the always excellent Volker Bruch) is wearing the uniform of the Sturmabteilung, the Nazi Party’s paramilitary organization. He is still a police inspector, but his sideline as a fascist brownshirt comes as an unpleasant surprise. When homicide-unit colleague Charlotte (Liv Lisa Fries) runs into him one night while he is participating in a violent SA action, she vows to have nothing to do with him.
Later in the season, when it is safe to do so, Rath reveals to Lotte that he has been engaged in an undercover operation designed to take down SA regional commander Stennes (Never Look Away’s Hanno Koffler). Though relieved to have her friend back, Lotte loses her hard-won job as a deputy detective when stern boss Böhm (Godehard Giese) catches her breaking the rules to save her sister, Toni (Irene Böhm), from conviction for a murder she did not commit. Beyond the fact that Toni had been living on the streets and lost her boyfriend to the actions of a corrupt cop, Lotte has reason to believe she will not receive a fair trial.
The indefatigable Lotte forges on by preparing for a dance marathon—much like the one depicted in Sydney Pollack’s 1969 Depression-era downer They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?—that could solve her money problems. Later, Rath will take her on as a private investigator. With no other significant attachments, the two are finally free to act on their feelings for each other, so the season does not lack for romance or sex, even if all the other relationships on the show do not end quite so happily.
Things go very wrong, for instance, when industrialist Nyssen (a newly blond Lars Eidinger) gifts his greedy bride, Helga (Hannah Herzsprung), the Blue Rothschild, a famed jewel believed lost at sea—much like Titanic’s “Heart of the Ocean” diamond—but actually stolen from a Jewish family. When a friend of that family informs American gangster Abe Gold (Israeli-Ukrainian actor Mark Ivanir), he travels from Brooklyn by airship to get it back—no matter what it takes.
Other storylines involve the relationship between Colonel Wendt (Benno Fürmann) and communist spy Miss Seegers (Saskia Rosendahl); SA member Moritz (Ivo Pietzcker), who saves Toni from another corrupt cop but endangers his uncle Gereon; and the White Hand, a right-wing “people’s court” that metes out vigilante justice whenever they feel the legitimate courts have not gone far enough. Once Lotte discovers their hiding place, she turns double-fisted action heroine in order to prevent them from carrying out any further executions. It is not the most plausible scenario, but the fully committed Fries makes it work.
Though Babylon Berlin segued to MHz Choice, a streamer specializing in European dramas, after Netflix dropped it, the fourth season is just as action-packed as the first three. Over twelve episodes, the show also takes on dirty deeds in the boxing world, the end of a popular cabaret (site of all the musical set pieces), a set of closely guarded negatives that could save the life of an endangered journalist, and Gereon’s plan, by way of a figure from the past, to broker peace between the underground factions.
The increasingly tense series has been renewed for a fifth and final season, set in 1933, as the Nazi Party takes control in Germany.
What is the educational value of Babylon Berlin?
Babylon Berlin offers a vivid, detailed portrayal of Weimar-era Germany at the dawn of the Nazi rise to power. Its meticulous production design, storylines about hyperinflation, the 1931 banking crisis, extremist street militias, and shifting gender roles give viewers an immersive sense of how economic anxiety and political fragmentation paved the way for Nazism. It presents historical movements, organizations, and real-world figures with nuance, providing valuable insight into how authoritarianism took root during this chaotic period.
Where can Babylon Berlin be watched?
Babylon Berlin is available to stream on MHz Choice, a platform specializing in European television dramas. It is also available on DVD and Blu-ray.