Best German TV Shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime (2022)

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.

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

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.

Read more about Charité.

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 on real-life events in the German town of Mödlareuth.

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.