Goodbye to Babylon Berlin, the 1920s TV drama that has eerily foreshadowed real-life politics

The Guardian World Monday 31 August 2026, 06:00 UTC By Deborah Cole in Berlin 1 min read

Key Points

The long-running drama reaches Hitler’s rise to power in its final season as its creators reflect on the unsettling parallels between Weimar Germany and the present dayIt’s the global hit TV series that pulled audiences straight into the chaotic hedonism of 1920s Germany, dramatising the brilliance and brittleness of a newly built democratic system with unprecedented ambition. But in the 13 years that the German makers of Babylon Berlin have worked on the show, modern democracies from the US...

The long-running drama reaches Hitler’s rise to power in its final season as its creators reflect on the unsettling parallels between Weimar Germany and the present day

It’s the global hit TV series that pulled audiences straight into the chaotic hedonism of 1920s Germany, dramatising the brilliance and brittleness of a newly built democratic system with unprecedented ambition.

But in the 13 years that the German makers of Babylon Berlin have worked on the show, modern democracies from the US to Hungary to South Korea have come under pressure in ways the creators say they could never have imagined when they started.

Babylon Berlin (LOCATION) Hitler (PERSON) Weimar Germany (LOCATION) Germany (LOCATION) German (ORG) US (LOCATION) Hungary (LOCATION) South Korea (LOCATION)

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Goodbye to Babylon Berlin, the 1920s TV drama that has eerily foreshadowed real-life politics

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