Berlin, 1929 · Sky and ARD, 2017–2026
The series pasted its 1929 city together from real buildings.
Scissors, paste and fourteen real places
No single building plays the Rote Burg or the Moka Efti. The series cut each one together from several real places, the way Berlin artists of 1929 cut up photographs. Pick a piece from the tray and glue it where it belongs.
Rath’s police headquarters
Choose a piece from the tray, then the slot it fills.
The tray · eight pieces left
Nothing glued to The Rote Burg yet.
Which real places play the Rote Burg, the Moka Efti, the ministry and the court; the paste-up board is this page’s own.
visitBerlin: the Red Town HallvisitBerlin: Alexanderplatz in Babylon Berlintip Berlin: Babylon Berlin, a tour of twelve filming locationsvisitBerlin: Theater im DelphiWikipedia (German): Moka EftivisitBerlin: the Kammergericht in Babylon Berlin
Mitte · €27 · 3 hours
A three-hour Babylon Berlin walk through Mitte with iPads to compare the scenes, for up to 15 people, ending at Friedrichstraße station. €27 a head; you choose the date when you book and need a BVG ticket.
See the walkFriedrichstraße at Leipziger Straße
Giovanni Eftimiades opened the first Moka Efti in March 1926 on the corner of Leipziger Straße and Friedrichstraße. In April 1929 he moved it across the street into the Equitable-Palast.
It became Berlin’s most successful café, pouring 25,000 cups a day, and at night its most popular dance house.
Under one roof were a café, a fish restaurant and a dance hall, with a hairdresser, a billiards room, a stenography service and a chess room.
It was one of the first restaurants in Berlin with an escalator open to the public, between its first and second floors.
The Equitable-Palast was built in 1888–1890 for an American insurance company, came through the bombing with relatively little damage, and was demolished after the war.
The series’ Moka Efti is not the real one: it gives the club a brothel in the cellar and makes it an early kind of disco.
The building has gone. Stand on the corner of Friedrichstraße and Leipziger Straße and look at the plot on the corner.
John-F.-Kennedy-Platz · Schöneberg
Rathaus Schöneberg plays two parts of the Rote Burg and the restaurant downstairs. Its paternoster keeps circling, open cabins with no doors. Step in, ride, step out.
A cabin is coming past. Step in.
The cabins pass every few seconds.
A working town hall. The Ratskeller in the basement is open Monday to Thursday 7am–2.30pm and Friday 7am–2pm. The two public paternosters are stopped during building work.
The state, played by other buildings
Elßholzstraße 30–33, Schöneberg
In the third season it plays the Reichswehr Ministry, where Manu Seegers demands to be let in to see her father.
The court opened in 1913. The show trials of the 20 July 1944 conspirators took place here, and the Allied Control Council met here after the war.
The grand staircase in the foyer is the part to see.
Enter from Heinrich-von-Kleist-Park on Potsdamer Straße. The historic plenary hall can be visited.
Otto-Suhr-Allee 100, Charlottenburg
It plays the Amtsgericht, the court where Rath gives false testimony about the May Day shootings.
A working town hall on Otto-Suhr-Allee; see it from the street.
Theater am Schiffbauerdamm · The Threepenny Opera
Two foreign ministers, Stresemann and Briand, are in the house. One gunman waits on the lighting bridge; the other is hidden somewhere up in the light. Find him.
The house lights are down. Light the drops one by one.
The assassin inside the chandelier, the second on the lighting bridge, Stresemann and Briand, and the parts of the theatre the crew used during the summer break.
Bertolt-Brecht-Platz 1, Mitte
Assassins wait for the foreign ministers Gustav Stresemann and Aristide Briand at a performance of The Threepenny Opera: one crouches inside the chandelier, unseen by the audience, another on the lighting bridge. Rath gets in their way.
The crew used most of the theatre during its summer break: the foyer, the stage, the tiers, the cellar, the attic and the fire escape in the courtyard.
It was founded in 1892 as the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, and Brecht’s Threepenny Opera had its premiere here.
A working theatre by the Spree, a few minutes from Friedrichstraße station. See it on a performance night; The Threepenny Opera is still in the repertoire.
Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30, Mitte
The cinema, which opened in 1929 and is still running, was a location for scenes of the series.
Hans Poelzig designed it in the New Objectivity style. It opened on 11 April 1929 as a silent-film cinema with an orchestra pit and an organ.
Its organ is the only cinema organ in Germany still played where it was first installed.
A working cinema opposite the Volksbühne, with silent films to live music on its programme.
Rathausstraße 15, Mitte
The Rotes Rathaus plays the police headquarters where Gereon Rath works.
It is the seat of the Governing Mayor of Berlin; the nickname comes from its red clinker brick.
The real headquarters, the Rote Burg on Alexanderplatz, was built at the end of the 19th century and was, after the palace, the largest building in the city. It was badly damaged in the Second World War; the Alexa shopping centre stands on its site.
The seat of the Governing Mayor. The hall can be visited Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm; ring 030 9026 2032 first, because it closes for events.
Alexanderplatz 1, Mitte
Many scenes of the series are set on Alexanderplatz, where the Rote Burg, Rath’s police headquarters, stands.
In the trailer the square appears without the TV Tower and the GDR buildings.
Peter Behrens built the Berolinahaus in the style of New Objectivity; it is an important example of late-1920s architecture.
A public square. The Berolinahaus stands on its south-west side, beside the S-Bahn viaduct.
Neukölln, Weißensee, Wannsee, Babelsberg
Away from the town halls the series goes underground, down into a gravel pit, out to a lake and through a cemetery gate, and ends up on a street that exists only in Potsdam.
Hermannplatz, Neukölln
Rath meets his informant Krajewski at a platform kiosk here. The crew could film only at night, when no trains were running.
The series also filmed outside the Karstadt store on the square.
The U7 station opened in April 1926 and the U8 platform above it in July 1927, by Alfred Grenander and Alfred Fehse. It was the first station on the network with escalators, and Karstadt built a tunnel straight into its store.
A working station where the U7 and U8 cross; the tall U8 hall is the one to see. A fare is needed for the platforms.
Schierker Straße 8, Neukölln
For the fourth season the designers laid an ice rink in front of the Orangerie. Students harass the jeweller Jakob Grün there until his cousin Abraham Goldstein steps in.
The park was a gravel pit, which is why it lies several metres below the street. Franz Körner gave it to the city in 1916, on condition that it carried his name.
A public park with a café and a gallery in the Orangerie, and concerts on the lawn in spring, summer and autumn.
Herbert-Baum-Straße 45, Weißensee
In the fourth season Abraham Goldstein brings a stone to his uncle’s grave here. The gravestone exists only in the series; it was made for it.
More than 100,000 graves, from grand mausoleums built before 1933 to plain headstones, cover an area of more than 55 football pitches.
It is the custom to leave a stone on a grave you visit in a Jewish cemetery.
A working Jewish cemetery. Check the opening days before you go, cover up and keep to the paths.
Wannseebadweg 25, Nikolassee
Two young men stand in the water here and look across at their rich neighbours’ rowing clubs. They pass as communists, but they are convinced National Socialists.
When it opened it was the largest and most modern open-air lido in Europe. After a fire in 1927 the city architect Martin Wagner built its long changing halls in the New Objectivity style; they are protected today.
A public lido on the lake, busiest at summer weekends.
Studio Babelsberg, Potsdam
The production designer Uli Hanisch designed the Neue Berliner Straße for Babelsberg, so the series could film streets from all over Berlin in one place.
The backlot covers 15,000 square metres: four streets and 54 façades, 12 to 15 metres high, with 600 doors and windows. It can be dressed as Berlin, New York, London or Paris.
Babylon Berlin filmed there for its first four seasons; the Moka Efti’s street front stands on it, and the May Day street battles were shot there.
A working backlot inside the studio grounds in Potsdam-Babelsberg. It is not open to visitors.
Potsdam
Live marketplace results for day trips to Potsdam and the Babelsberg film studios. The backlot itself is a working set; check what each trip includes.
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Compare toursThe people
Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries and Henk Handloegten created, wrote and directed it, loosely from Volker Kutscher’s Gereon Rath novels; the first two seasons adapt Der nasse Fisch. Volker Bruch plays Rath, a war veteran and police inspector, and Liv Lisa Fries plays Charlotte Ritter, a clerk who wants to be a homicide detective. Peter Kurth, Leonie Benesch, Lars Eidinger and Matthias Brandt are with them. Tykwer and Johnny Klimek wrote the score. In 2018 the series won a Grimme Prize; the fifth and last season arrived in September 2026.
Creators, source novels, cast, score, the Grimme Prize, the premieres on Sky in October 2017 and on ARD in September 2018, the €40 million budget rising to €55 million, and the fifth season in September 2026.
54 façades on the backlot.
25,000 cups a day at the Moka Efti.
14 places you can visit in Berlin and Potsdam. The Babelsberg backlot is a working studio: it is on the map, but not open to visitors.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The seat of the Governing Mayor. The hall can be visited Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm; ring 030 9026 2032 first, because it closes for events.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public square. The Berolinahaus stands on its south-west side, beside the S-Bahn viaduct.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The building has gone. Stand on the corner of Friedrichstraße and Leipziger Straße and look at the plot on the corner.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working theatre by the Spree, a few minutes from Friedrichstraße station. See it on a performance night; The Threepenny Opera is still in the repertoire.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working cinema opposite the Volksbühne, with silent films to live music on its programme.
Rathausstraße 15, Mitte
The Rotes Rathaus plays the police headquarters where Gereon Rath works.
The seat of the Governing Mayor. The hall can be visited Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm; ring 030 9026 2032 first, because it closes for events.
Alexanderplatz 1, Mitte
Many scenes of the series are set on Alexanderplatz, where the Rote Burg, Rath’s police headquarters, stands.
A public square. The Berolinahaus stands on its south-west side, beside the S-Bahn viaduct.
Friedrichstraße at Leipziger Straße, Mitte
Giovanni Eftimiades opened the first Moka Efti in March 1926 on the corner of Leipziger Straße and Friedrichstraße. In April 1929 he moved it across the street into the Equitable-Palast.
The building has gone. Stand on the corner of Friedrichstraße and Leipziger Straße and look at the plot on the corner.
Bertolt-Brecht-Platz 1, Mitte
Assassins wait for the foreign ministers Gustav Stresemann and Aristide Briand at a performance of The Threepenny Opera: one crouches inside the chandelier, unseen by the audience, another on the lighting bridge. Rath gets in their way.
A working theatre by the Spree, a few minutes from Friedrichstraße station. See it on a performance night; The Threepenny Opera is still in the repertoire.
Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30, Mitte
The cinema, which opened in 1929 and is still running, was a location for scenes of the series.
A working cinema opposite the Volksbühne, with silent films to live music on its programme.
Stay
A film-themed hotel a short way from the Babelsberg lot.
Potsdam-Babelsberg
A 65-room hotel at Großbeerenstraße 75 in Babelsberg, near the film studios and the Filmpark, its restaurant themed on the song Lili Marleen and its rooms hung with film posters.
See the hotelGo there
A Babylon Berlin walk through Mitte, and day trips out to Potsdam.
Mitte · €27 · 3 hours
A three-hour Babylon Berlin walk through Mitte with iPads to compare the scenes, for up to 15 people, ending at Friedrichstraße station. €27 a head; you choose the date when you book and need a BVG ticket.
See the walkBerlin
Live marketplace results for Babylon Berlin and Golden Twenties tours. Check each route for Alexanderplatz and Friedrichstraße.
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Compare toursPotsdam
Live marketplace results for day trips to Potsdam and the Babelsberg film studios. The backlot itself is a working set; check what each trip includes.
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Compare toursWhat’s on
A silent film with live piano at the Babylon, Nosferatu in the Delphi and The Threepenny Opera at the Berliner Ensemble.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
Kutscher’s first Rath novel in English, and the third season’s soundtrack.
Volker Kutscher · Sandstone Press
The first Gereon Rath novel, Der nasse Fisch (2008), in Niall Sellar’s English translation, published in 2016. Seasons one and two adapt it.
Find the bookVarious artists · CD, BMG, 2020
The soundtrack of the third season on CD, released by BMG in 2020.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
14 of 14 places · 15 of 15 Moments
Rathausstraße 15, Mitte
The police headquarters where Gereon Rath works.
Alexanderplatz 1, Mitte
Alexanderplatz outside the Rote Burg, without the TV Tower or the GDR blocks.
Friedrichstraße at Leipziger Straße, Mitte
The café and dance house on Friedrichstraße that gave the series its club’s name.
Bertolt-Brecht-Platz 1, Mitte
An assassin hides in the chandelier at The Threepenny Opera, and Rath interferes.
Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30, Mitte
Scenes of the series were filmed at the 1929 cinema.
John-F.-Kennedy-Platz 1, Schöneberg
The entrance hall of the police headquarters, and the paternoster where Rath and Charlotte collide.
Rath eats at Aschinger, played by the cellar under the town hall.
Elßholzstraße 30–33, Schöneberg
Manu Seegers demands to be let in to see her father at the Reichswehr Ministry.
Otto-Suhr-Allee 100, Charlottenburg
Rath lies in court about the May Day shootings.
Hermannplatz, Neukölln
Rath meets his informant at a kiosk on the platform, filmed at night with the trains stopped.
Schierker Straße 8, Neukölln
Abraham Goldstein steps in when students harass his cousin on the ice.
Gustav-Adolf-Straße 2, Weißensee
Charlotte dances at the Moka Efti, a party full of glamour and decadence.
Herbert-Baum-Straße 45, Weißensee
Goldstein brings a stone to his uncle’s grave.
Wannseebadweg 25, Nikolassee
Two young men in the lake watch the rowing clubs of the rich.
Studio Babelsberg, Potsdam
The May Day street battles, shot on the Babelsberg street set.
