Watching popular German TV shows online is an excellent way to gain cultural fluency while honing vocabulary and listening skills. Luckily for language learners, Netflix and Amazon Prime are quickly adding German TV series to their streaming lineups.
Here are some of the best German shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime in the US as of December 6, 2022. If you’re not in the US, click the title to check if the show is available in your country. If it’s not available, it’ll display an error or redirect to Netflix’s homepage.
If you are an advanced learner, try using German subtitles if available as studies show it enhances language learning.
To amp up your German learning, try Google Chrome browser’s free Language Reactor (LR) extension. It allows you to watch subtitles in two languages, listen to dialogue one line at a time, and change playback speed. There’s also a pop-up dictionary, and LR suggests the most important words for you to learn.
Netflix originals will stick around, but watch the rest while you can, because content disappears as licensing agreements expire.
Also, don’t miss my list of top German movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Best German TV Shows on Netflix
Note: Be sure to select German audio, as Netflix defaults to the dubbed English version.
1. Dark
For a show that has nothing to do with the Cold War or Nazis, try Dark, Netflix’s first German-language production. The supernatural thriller has become one of Netflix’s most successful non-English shows ever.
This bingeable series opens in a German small town with a child’s disappearance, sending four families on a frantic hunt for answers. Follow them down the rabbit hole to unearth a mind-bending mystery that turns time on its head.
2. Biohackers
This fast-paced science thriller follows Mia Akerlund, a medical student at the University of Freiburg.
Mia’s interest in revolutionary biohacking technology is not limited to scientific reasons: She wants to win the trust of star lecturer Professor Tanja Lorenz. Both women are connected by a dark secret. To shed light on the mysterious death of her brother, Mia enters a dangerous world of illegal genetic experiments.
Filmed at the University of Freiburg as well as at studios in Munich.
3. Kleo
Quirky revenge thriller with great acting and a retro DDR vibe.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, former Stasi agent Kleo uses her deadly skills to exact revenge against those who betrayed her. Recommended for fans of Quentin Tarantino-style dark comedy.
4. How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)
This German teen comedy follows nerdy Moritz, who launches an online drug business with his best friend. He soon becomes one of Europe’s biggest dealers.
The series is largely based on a true story that took place in Leipzig in 2015.
5. Babylon Berlin
Gripping noir thriller set in 1920s Berlin with superb acting and lavish sets.
A cop suffering from PTSD and a typist aspiring to become a police inspector uncover a dangerous web of intrigue when they investigate an underground porn ring.
6. Das Letzte Wort (The Last Word)
If you enjoyed “Six Feet Under,” try this funny, heart-wrenching German drama about Karla, a widow who starts working as an eulogy speaker.
She’s unapologetic, loud, and unconventional. Karla ignores her own life until she’s surrounded by total chaos and has to ask herself: Is there a right way to grieve? And if so, what’s her right way?
7. Parfum (Perfume)
Patrick Süskind’s best-selling novel Das Parfum about smell, passion, and serial killing gets a contemporary spin.
In boarding school, a group of six friends bond over their intense passion for scent. When one is brutally murdered years later, disturbing secrets about the group are revealed when the police investigates each as a suspect.
8. Dogs of Berlin
The murder of a famous Turkish-German soccer player leads two cops into a battle with Berlin’s underworld as tensions mount throughout the city.
9. Altes Geld (Old Money)
This dark Austrian comedy revolves around the dysfunctional family of a wealthy Viennese patriarch as they compete to find him a new liver at all costs.
Backstabbing, blackmail, and revenge abound in this satirical soap described by its creator as “Dallas for psychos.”
10. Das Hausboot (The Houseboat)
No English subtitles available for YouTube trailer. Click here to watch English-subtitled trailer on Netflix.
Fun four-part docuseries with a lot of heart. Two musicians struggle to renovate a houseboat owned by the late Gunter Gabriel, known as Germany’s Johnny Cash.
11. Wer kann, der kann! (Nailed It! Germany)

German spin-off of Netflix’s hilarious pastry disaster show.
Savor the lighthearted Schadenfreude of witnessing untalented home chefs compete for cash with their epic baking fails. Lots of Umgangssprache (slang).
12. Wir sind die Welle (We Are the Wave)
Slick German coming-of-age drama loosely based on the 1981 American YA novel The Wave.
A mysterious new classmate recruits a group of bullied teens in a rebellion against a rising tide of nationalistic fervor. However, what begins as an idealistic and playful anti-establishment revolt soon develops deadly momentum.
Wir sind die Welle was shot in several cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, including Köln (Cologne).
13. Zeit der Geheimnisse (Holiday Secrets)
No English subtitles available for YouTube trailer. Watch English-subtitled trailer on Netflix.
Short three-part German miniseries about family secrets. A Christmas reunion becomes a gateway to the past in this saga of three generations of women that explores the complexities of one family’s history.
The story is purportedly set in Germany’s gorgeous North Sea coast, but the series was actually filmed in Denmark and Budapest.
14. Skylines
In this gritty crime drama set in Frankfurt, a hip-hop producer is hurled into the violent world of organized crime when his record label becomes the center of a deadly drug business.
Best German TV Shows on Amazon Prime
I hope you love my German TV show recommendations! Just so you know, I may get a small fee from purchases made using the Amazon links in this section at no extra cost to you.
If you’re an Amazon Prime member, try these German television series available to stream for free in the US. Not a member yet? Click here to start your free 30-day trial.
1. Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter (Generation War)
This excellent World War II miniseries follows the different paths of five young German friends through Nazi Germany and the war. They are Wehrmacht soldiers on the Eastern Front, a war nurse, an aspiring singer, and a Jewish tailor.
2. Charité
Note: Available free on Amazon with an PBS Masterpiece channel trial.
This six-part miniseries was a massive hit in Germany. At Berlin’s Charité hospital in 1888, young nurse Ida finds romance, a path to her dream job in medicine, and an inside look into the cures for tuberculosis and diphtheria.
3. You Are Wanted
Amazon’s first original German series follows Lukas, a young hotel manager who finds himself a victim of a hacking attack. His online information is altered to implicate him as the mastermind of a cyber-attack on Berlin resulting in a city-wide blackout.
Suspected as a terrorist, Lukas scrambles to find out why he’s been targeted, as even his family and friends begin to doubt his innocence.
4. Beat
This Prime Original tells the story of Robert Schlag, called Beat, a Berlin club promoter addicted to Berlin’s nightlife, including drugs and sex with men and women. Beat works for Berlin’s most famous techno club, owned by his best friend.
Given Beat’s connections, the European Security Intelligence (ESI) recruits him to investigate the clubs. Emilia, an ESI agent, partners with Beat on his dangerous journey through organ trafficking and arms trades against the backdrop of Berlin’s party scene.
5. 4 Blocks
Gritty, addictive gangster drama about a Lebanese mafia family in Berlin. Toni Hamady wants to leave organized crime behind and lead a quiet life with his wife and daughter.
But when a police raid with devastating consequences derails his plans, Toni has to assume the leadership of his clan once more. Will he be able to escape the downward spiral of the drug trade?
6. Hotel Sacher
Very witty trailer, unfortunately with no English subtitles available
Note: Available free on Amazon with an PBS Masterpiece channel trial.
A soapy but well-made two-part period drama about the iconic Hotel Sacher in Vienna, beginning with the takeover by Anna Sacher after the death of her husband.
7. Inside Borussia Dortmund
This four-part docuseries goes behind-the-scenes with Borussia Dortmund, one of the Bundesliga’s biggest clubs.
Football fans can relive the thrilling 2018/19 season from the team’s point of view. Discover their training facilities, experience the locker room drama first-hand, and become acquainted with the players’ personal lives.
8. Hotel Adlon
No English subtitles available for trailer
Note: Available free on Amazon with a PBS Masterpiece channel trial.
This opulent Downton Abbey-like drama traces the history of Berlin’s most famous luxury hotel through the eyes of two families whose fates intertwine over four generations and two world wars.
9. Der Tatortreiniger (Crime Scene Cleaner)
Note: Available free on Amazon with an MHz Choice channel trial.
In this immensely popular dark German comedy, Bjarne Madel stars as Schotty, a man whose work begins where others pass in horror. He’s a contract cleaner, sent to sanitize crime scenes after the police have finished their investigations.
Also available for free with German subtitles in the ARD Mediathek.
10. Tatort: Cologne
Note: Available free on Amazon with an MHz Choice channel trial.
This cult crime show stars smooth-talking Max Ballauf and his robust, level-headed partner Freddy Schenk, Cologne’s best homicide detectives. The two are among the most popular investigators in the almost 50-year history of Germany’s iconic Tatort franchise.
Fun locations in Köln (Cologne) like the Wurstbraterei, a currywurst sausage stand made famous by the series.
Tatort: Köln is also available for free with German subtitles in the ARD Mediathek.
11. Bukow & König
Note: Available free on Amazon with an MHz Choice channel trial.
This crime drama consists of selected episodes featuring detective team Bukow and König from the long-running German crime franchise Polizeiruf 110. This show was originally created in East Germany in 1971 as a counterpart to the West German Tatort. That’s why, at the beginning of Bukow & König episodes, you see the Polizeiruf 110 logo.
They’re Frick and Frack, opposites united by the job of investigating crimes in the port city of Rostock, Germany. She’s cerebral and analytical; he’s emotional and reactive. Together, they’re the detective duo Bukow and König, a great crime-fighting team — when they’re not fighting each other.
Polizeiruf 110 is also available for free with German subtitles in the ARD Mediathek.
For yet another Tatort odd couple, try Tatort: Weimar, also on Amazon.
12. Tannbach (Line of Separation)
Note: Available free on Amazon with a PBS Masterpiece channel trial.
This gripping historical drama is set after the fall of the Third Reich in the fictional village of Tannbach located on the border of Bavaria and Thuringia. Tannbach is cruelly divided in two by the Iron Curtain, and the town’s inhabitants suffer the consequences.
The story is based
An award-winning ZDF mini-series exploring the traumatic period of German history between the end of World War II and 1952.
13. Spuren des Bösen (Anatomy of Evil)
Note: Available free on Amazon with an MHz Choice channel trial.
Viennese police psychologist Richard Brock is a loner who blames himself for his wife’s suicide. He fights crime and his own demons in this dark mystery series set in Austria with gorgeous backdrops.
14. Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries
Note: Available free on Amazon with an MHz Choice channel trial.
Venice’s crumbling beauty provides the backdrop for these lush versions of Donna Leon’s bestselling mystery novels.
The suave Commissario Guido Brunetti confronts crime with canal boat rides instead of car chases in this series that provides insights into Italian and Venetian culture, such as the importance of family, relationships, and good food.
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Nice, thank you! Oder besser : Vielen Dank!
Bitte sehr!
Super helpful info about using subtitles when watching foreign shows/films, etc. This is a question I always have when showing my high schoolers videos. Most of them say they don’t want subtitles. But now I know that it’s actually in their best interest to keep them on. Thanks!!! UND ich freue mich auf dich! Schon nächste Woche – unglaublich!!!
Hey, there’s an editing feature now! 😀 Great!
Ha! Personally, I love watching with subtitles… like the big nerd I am, I keep a notebook close by to jot down any interesting new words! But if they really hate them, then maybe keep them off? I do believe we learn best when doing things we enjoy… Bin schon am Münchner Flughafen und freue mich sehr auf das Wiedersehen mit dir und E!
Babylon Berlin and Dark, the best of the “bestest”. Would I love to see more of them!
Great news… Dark Season 2 and Babylon Berlin Season 3 are scheduled to release in 2019! 🙂
Amazing stuff is going on on Netflix and one of them is “Charité”.
When can we see Der Fall (Austrian/Swiss)?
Right now I can’t find a release date for that show, but I monitor both Netflix and Amazon Prime for new German television shows each month, so if it gets added I’ll list it here.
Vielen Dank, sehr hilfreich
Amazon Prime’s shows, at least in the US, aren’t available IN German, they’re only available in English.
Hi Cheryl, some shows like You are Wanted, Beat, and 4 Blocks are also available dubbed in English on Prime Video, but I’ve linked to only the German-language versions in my list.
I noticed that Amazon also mistakenly lists the Audio Language as English in the episodes of some shows like Deutschland 83 and Der Tatortreiniger, although they are in German with English subtitles.
A great source for German movies and series is the ARD Mediathek. You can download the app for tablet or phone for free.
Many of the series and movies are available outside Germany but some are not. For instance, in France, where I live, you cannot get Der Tatortreiniger on Prime but it is available for free on the ARD Mediathek. All the Tatort series too.
Also ZDF Mediathek is similar. The second German tv channel.
Bobby, thanks so much for this fantastic tip. I’ve added a link for each show to the Mediathek where available. In future I’ll try to add new sections for the Mediatheken as well.
Thank you very much that will help. However Netflix doesn’t provide verbatim subtitles(I don’t know if Amazon does this also). I find it difficult and annoying that subtitles are not transcribed exactly as the audio being spoken. Do you know why Netflix is doing this? Many thanks.
Hi Frankie, it’s certainly frustrating when they don’t match. Unfortunately, subtitles are made for viewers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing rather than us language learners.
Netflix has stated their official policy is to include as much of the original content as possible. They only truncate the original dialogue when reading speed and synchronicity with the audio are an issue.
That means dialogue is often abridged to reduce the amount of text the viewer has to read. It’s hard to have verbatim subtitles that are actually readable because people understand speech much faster than they can read. So for example, verbs in Perfekt tense (e.g. “hat geschrieben”) are often changed to Präteritum (e.g. “schrieb”) to save space. I imagine this kind of subtitle paraphrasing happens even more frequently in German due to its long words.
I always find the subtitles very helpful IF I can get them in German; subtitles translated to English are not always accurate. Back in the dark ages, the only way to do that was to get videos manufactured in Europe and play them on a PAL machine with an electrical transformer. Here in the US, it seems like the only options are English, Spanish, or French.
Yes, subtitles in German are best, but sadly not always available outside of Netflix!
I really enjoyed Deutschland 83 and 86, kept me wide awake the whole time. Now looking forward to Deutschland 89. Thank you for taking the time to put this list together for us : )
Glad you’re enjoying the list, Christine!
Just read that there will be 8 episodes in the third and final season about the fall of the Berlin Wall. It’ll be available in 2020 on Amazon Prime Video in Germany, Austria, India, and Japan and on Sundance TV and Hulu in the US.