Babylon Berlin Press Kit
Series by director Tom Tykwer set in 1920s Berlin
On 28 September, the new series "Babylon Berlin" had its world premiere in Berlin. visitBerlin made a €150,000 contribution to the production of the series set in the Berlin of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933). Berlin is not only in the name of the series, but also plays a starring role, with many key scenes shot on location across the city. The high-end series by famous director Tom Tykwer (Run, Lola, Run, Sense8, etc.) follows the work of a police detective investigating crime in 1920s Berlin as German society is thrown into chaos with political change, the return of wounded soldiers, hyperinflation, and the rise and subsequent clashes between the Communists and Nazis. The series will premiere on 13 October on Sky Germany and then air on the public ARD network next autumn. It will air on Sky in the UK and on Netflix in the United States. The series is expected to have a positive impact on Berlin tourism.
Facts and Figures about "Babylon Berlin" and Berlin as a film location
„Babylon Berlin“
• Production: Director Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, Henk Handloegten
• Actors: Volker Bruch, Liv Lisa Fries, Benno Fürmann, Lars Eidinger, Fritzi Haberlandt, Hannah Herzsprung
• Initial broadcast: from 13 October 2017 on Sky, from autumn 2018 on ARD; airing on Sky in the UK and Netflix in the US
• Budget: €45 million makes this the world's most expensive TV series ever produced in a language other than English
• Shoot: 180 days from May to December 2016 on location in Berlin and on sets in Potsdam-Babelsberg
Berlin as a film location
• Berlin is capital of TV and film production of Germany, if not all of Europe
• More than 330 productions are filmed every year in Berlin: cinema films, TV series, shorts, documentaries
• Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH provided €22.7 million in support to 104 film and TV productions in 2016, including €1.8 million for TV series
• 5,000 days spent each year filming in Berlin (all productions combined)
• In Berlin and Brandenburg, the productions have added more than €150 million to the local economy, returning €6 for every euro in subsidies
• Berlin-Brandenburg productions sold for €7.5 billion in 2016, up from €6.6 billion the year before (source: Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg)
• The states of Berlin and Brandenburg had increased their annual production subsidies by €1.2 million in their 2018-19 budgets.
Interview with Stefan Arndt and Burkhard Kieker
What makes Berlin so special in the 1920s? How do film and TV productions like Babylon Berlin affect tourism to the city? The answers to these and more questions are provided by Babylon Berlin producer Stefan Arndt and visitBerlin CEO Burkhard Kieker in an interview.
For visitors to Berlin: Our "Babylon Berlin" Info Page
In the footsteps of the Detective Gereon Rath, the 1920s, and filming in Berlin: visitBerlin has assembled a lot of information about the series "Babylon Berlin" and places key for exploring the 1920s in Berlin.
visitBerlins exclusive Preview
On October 11, two days before the official start of the new series "Babylon Berlin", visitBerlin welcomed 150 exclusively invited guests at the Zoo Palast to a preview. visitBerlin's colleagues, partners, friends and colleagues from politics, culture, business and tourism saw the first two episodes of the currently most important German series production. A special highlight of the evening was the welcome by Stefan Arndt, producer of X-films ("Das weiße Band", "Amour", "Cloud Atlas").
