'Babylon Berlin' Final Season Premieres Sept. 10 — SkimNews
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- 'Babylon Berlin' writers Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, and Henk Handlogten expanded their planned ending beyond Hitler's Jan. 30, 1933 appointment as Chancellor after recognizing the five weeks leading to the March 5 elections were equally crucial to the Nazi takeover.
- The show sold to more than 140 territories and racked up over 94 million views on Germany's ARD online platform across its first four seasons alone.
- Leads Volker Bruch and Liv Lisa Fries return for one final investigation in the fifth season, which drops all episodes simultaneously on ARD's Mediathek on Sept. 10.
- MhZ Choice, which secured U.S. exclusive rights in early 2024, will stream the final season stateside in 2027.
- Tykwer noted that Europe's political shift during the show's 13-year development unexpectedly informed the writing, with viewers drawing direct parallels between the Weimar collapse and their own contemporary anxieties.
- Von Borries called the wrap 'the biggest thing I've made in my life,' describing the screening where he cried throughout and crediting the collaborative editing process — 'editing is definitely re-editing as well' — for the final shape.
Why it matters: A flagship German prestige drama that helped define European television closes on a storyline whose resonance has deepened in real time — Tykwer says viewers kept mapping Weimar-era fragility onto their own politics, making the finale not just a period piece but a pointed mirror. American audiences wait until 2027 to see it.
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