Created, written, and directed by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, and Hendrik Handloegten, it is loosely based on novels by Volker Kutscher.

The 16 episodes of the first two seasons were adapted by Tykwer, von Borries and Handloegten from the novel Der nasse Fisch (The Wet Fish) (2008) by Volker Kutscher[11] and were filmed over eight months beginning in May 2016.

[citation needed] In a January 2020 interview with Berliner Zeitung, actress Liv Lisa Fries said that production would likely begin on the fourth season in late 2020 or early 2021.

[4] The creators of Babylon Berlin have stated in numerous interviews that they intend to end the series at the year 1933, with the assumption of power by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

[26][27] Handloegten, von Borries and Tykwer said in a press release: In the final season of Babylon Berlin, we put February 1933 under the magnifying glass: Rarely has a society been torn apart more radically in such a short period of time than Germany in this chaotic month.

Not only Gereon Rath and Charlotte Ritter, but all our protagonists also must realize that they only have a few options left: Subordinate themselves, risk their lives in open opposition, retreat into inner emigration or flee into exile.

[27]In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, one of the show's co-creators, Tom Tykwer, spoke about the era: At the time people did not realize how absolutely unstable this new construction of society which the Weimar Republic represented was.

Women had more possibilities to take part in society, especially in the labour market as Berlin became crowded with new thinking, new art, theatre, music and journalistic writing.

[28]Nonetheless, Tykwer insisted that he and his co-directors were determined not to idealize the Weimar Republic: "People tend to forget that it was also a very rough era in German history.

The show depicts what became known as Blutmai, violence between communist demonstrators and members of the Berlin Police in early May 1929,[29] and extra-legal paramilitary formations promoted by the German Army, known as the Black Reichswehr.

[30] In the first season, the Soviet ambassador in Berlin, who appears to be a loyal Stalinist, is involved in the massacre of Trotskyists in the printing shop, who were buried in a mass grave outside the city.

The Rotes Rathaus (Berlin City Hall) was used for most closeup scenes involving the exterior of the police headquarters, because their red brick appearance and architectural style are very similar.

A lengthy suspense sequence set during a performance of The Threepenny Opera, was filmed at the historic Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, where the play actually ran at the time.

The headquarters of the Katholischer Studentenverein Askania-Burgundia Berlin, located in a villa in Dahlem, were used for the residence of Councillor Benda and his family.

[38] Other scenes were filmed on Museum Island, in the Hermannplatz U-Bahn station, at the Hoppegarten Racecourse [de], and the Church of the Redeemer on the Havel river in Potsdam.

The Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, a disused steel plant near Duisburg, was used as the factory adjacent to Bruno Wolter's apartment, in which numerous sequences take place.

[citation needed] Scenes involving a steam train were filmed in the state of Bavaria at the Bavarian Railway Museum near Nördlingen.

Named after the nightclub featured in Babylon Berlin, The Moka Efti Orchestra is a 14-member group and is fronted by the Lithuanian actress Severija Janušauskaitė as Svetlana Sorokina.

The song "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" ("The Ballad of Mack the Knife") is featured in that scene, and also as a plot device.

[46] The international distribution rights for the third season were sold to more than one hundred countries and many different networks including Netflix, HBO Europe, and Viaplay in early 2019.

Charlotte tries to visit Greta in prison but she does not want to see her; in the meantime she takes her crime scene permit exam, but is failed by Ulrich on a technicality, against Gennat's wishes.

Masked and cloaked, they watch as Dr. Schmidt summons Betty Winter's spirit in a seance, before Böhm breaks the ceremony up with a gunshot.

General Seegers' daughter, Marie-Luise (MaLu), who is a law student and volunteers in Litten's office, reluctantly agrees to attend Frau Nyssen's party with him and her sister.

Nyssen describes to the General's group how the manipulation of over-extended small investors is about to cause the economy to collapse and suggests that, by short-selling massive amounts of stock, they could make billions, creating an opportunity to change society radically.

At her suggestion, a follow-up inspection on the roof of the film studios is carried out and Rath finds a bloody knife, identical to the one already found where Weintraub and Vera fell.

Back in the present, Ulrich shows Rath that Weintraub's fingerprints are on the knife that was discovered, but Charlotte is not convinced as the attacker wore gloves.

On Rotten Tomatoes the first season holds approval rating of 100% based on 30 reviews, with the critics consensus reading: "Babylon Berlin's humor and humanity pair nicely with its hypnotic visuals, resulting in a show that dazzles within its oversaturated genre.

[18] Carolin Ströbele of Die Zeit praised the pilot, saying that it "is highly dynamic and unites sex, crime and history in a pleasantly unobtrusive manner.

"[60] Christian Buss, cultural critic from Der Spiegel, praised the series for staying true to the tradition of "typically German angst cinema", in the vein of 1920s silent movies such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis or Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

[64] In the same year, everyone majorly involved with the production of the series won a Grimme-Preis, including Volker Bruch, Liv Lisa Fries, Peter Kurth, the three directors and several members of the technical team.