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Volker Bruch as Inspector Gereon Rath, a combat veteran of the Imperial German Army during World War I and a policeman newly transferred from his home town of Cologne to Berlin; he struggles with morphine dependence linked to his war experiences, particularly his survivor's guilt over the loss of his brother (seasons 1–4)

Liv Lisa Fries as Charlotte Ritter ("Lotte"), a flapper from the slums of Neukölln and an occasional sex worker at the Moka Efti cabaret, who works as a police clerk and dreams of becoming the first female homicide detective in the history of the Berlin Police (seasons 1–4)FFSA

Peter Kurth as Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Bruno Wolter, a Berlin Police investigator whose affability masks unseemly tendencies; he becomes the primary antagonist in season 2 (seasons 1–2)

Matthias Brandt as Councillor August Benda, the Jewish chief of the "Political Police" department of the Berlin Police. A tenacious investigator and true believer in the Weimar Republic, Benda is equally loathed by monarchists, communists, and Nazis; for years, he has been investigating the Black Reichswehr (seasons 1–2)

Leonie Benesch as Greta Overbeck, a down-on-her-luck childhood friend of Charlotte Ritter who eventually finds a job as domestic servant to Councillor Benda and his family and reluctantly gets entwined in an assassination scheme (seasons 1–3)

Severija Janušauskaitė as Countess Svetlana Sorokina ("Sveta")/Nikoros, a White Russian émigré, cross-dressing singer at the Moka Efti cabaret, and spy for the Soviet secret police (seasons 1–2)

Ivan Shvedoff as Alexei Kardakov, an anti-Stalinist Russian refugee and the leader of a fictional Trotskyist cell in Berlin called the "Red Fortress" (season 1; guest season 2)

Lars Eidinger as Alfred Nyssen, a steel manufacturer with links to Reichswehr and Freikorps officers plotting to overthrow the Republic and restore Kaiser Wilhelm II to the German throne and who detests the ruling Social Democratic Party of Germany (seasons 1–4)

Anton von Lucke as Stephan Jänicke, a young detective in the Berlin Police who has been assigned by Councillor Benda to investigate Wolter for ties to the Black Reichswehr (season 1; recurring season 2)

Mišel Matičević as Edgar Kasabian, "the Armenian", the impeccably dressed owner of the Moka Efti cabaret and the leader of organized crime in Berlin; a ruthless but deeply principled gangster, he acts as a secret protector to Inspector Gereon Rath for personal reasons (season 1–3; recurring season 4)

Henning Peker as Franz Krajewski, a drug addict who works as a police informant (season 1; guest season 3)

Fritzi Haberlandt as Elisabeth Behnke, a kind friend of Bruno Wolter who maintains a boarding house where Inspector Rath stays (seasons 1–4)

Karl Markovics as Samuel Katelbach, an eccentric writer and sometime journalist who befriends Rath at the boarding house (seasons 1–4)

Jens Harzer as Dr. Anno Schmidt, a mysterious doctor whose atypical practices are considered fringe by the Berlin medical community but heralded by others, including the Armenian (seasons 1–4)

Ernst Stötzner as Major General Wilhelm Seegers, a member of the Reichswehr's General Staff and DCI Bruno Wolter's commanding officer during the Great War; he opposes the Republic and is up to many secret activities (seasons 1–2; guest seasons 3–4)

Jördis Triebel as Dr. Völcker, a communist doctor who disagrees with the practices of the Berlin police department (seasons 1–4)

Christian Friedel as Reinhold Gräf, a photographer for the Berlin police department who works closely with Rath (seasons 1–4)

Denis Burgazliev as Col. Trokhin, a Soviet diplomat and official of Joseph Stalin's secret police who targets anti-Stalinists (seasons 1–2)

Thomas Thieme as Karl Zörgiebel, the stern police chief of Berlin and former chief of Cologne (seasons 1–3)

Hannah Herzsprung as Helga Rath, Inspector Gereon Rath's secret lover of more than ten years and the wife of his brother, who has been missing since the First World War (seasons 2–4; recurring season 1)

Ivo Pietzcker as Moritz Rath, Gereon Rath's nephew and Helga's son whose curiosity gets him into trouble (seasons 2,4; recurring season 3)

Benno Fürmann as Colonel Gottfried Wendt, an ambitious and untrustworthy political police counselor who is a power player with the NSDAP (seasons 2–4; guest season 1)

Ronald Zehrfeld as Walter Weintraub, the mysterious and ruthless partner of the Armenian who returns from time in prison (seasons 3–4)

Meret Becker as Esther Kasabian, a former actress married to the Armenian who dreams of returning to acting as well as reconciling the men she loves (seasons 3–4)

Udo Samel as Ernst "Buddha" Gennat, the stern but kind head of Berlin's Homicide Department, based on a real director of the Berlin criminal police (seasons 3–4; recurring season 2)

Luc Feit as Leopold Ullrich, detail-oriented police analyst (season 3; recurring season 2)

Trystan Pütter as Hans Litten, a pro bono attorney interested in Greta's case, based on a real lawyer (seasons 3–4)

Thorsten Merten as Alfons Henning, a homicide investigator working under Rath with Czerwinski (seasons 3–4; recurring seasons 1–2)

Rüdiger Klink as Paul Czerwinski, a homicide investigator working under Rath with Henning (seasons 3–4; recurring seasons 1–2)

Godehard Giese as Wilhelm Böhm, a high-ranking homicide detective who often clashes with Rath and Ritter (seasons 3–4; recurring seasons 1–2)

Saskia Rosendahl as Marie-Luise Seegers, a communist law student who disagrees with her father, General Seegers (seasons 3–4)

Sabin Tambrea as Tristan Rot, aka Herbert Plumpe, widower of Betty Winter, a melodramatic actor with an interest in the occult (season 3)

Julius Feldmeier as Otto Wollenberg/Horst Kessler, a friend of Fritz with villainous intentions (season 3; recurring seasons 1–2)

Jacob Matschenz as Fritz Höckert/Richard Pechtmann, a friend of Otto with villainous intentions (season 3; recurring seasons 1–2)

Irene Böhm as Antonie Ritter ("Toni"), Charlotte's younger sister (season 4; recurring seasons 1–3)

Hans-Martin Stier as Albert Grzesinski, Zörgiebel's successor (season 4; guest season 3)

Hanno Koffler as Walter Stennes, a young Nazi lieutenant who collaborates covertly with Wendt (season 4; recurring season 3)

Martin Wuttke as Gustav Heymann, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Tempo (season 4; recurring season 3)

Sebastian Urzendowsky as Max Fuchs ("Reinstecke"), Kasabian's right-hand man (season 4; recurring seasons 1–3)

Mark Ivanir as Abraham Goldstein, a Jewish American gangster (season 4)

Moisej Bazijan as Jakob Grün, a jeweler and a relative of Goldstein (season 4)

Marie-Anne Fliegel as Annemarie Nyssen, Alfred's mother (season 4; recurring seasons 1–3)

Holger Handtke as Georg Wegener, the Nyssen family lawyer and Alfred's confidant (season 4; recurring seasons 1–3)

Peter Jordan as Fred Jacoby, a journalist and Gräf's romantic partner (season 4; recurring season 3)

Recurring

Laura Kiehne as Ilse Ritter, Charlotte's older sister (seasons 1–3)

Pit Bukowski as Erich Ritter, Ilse's husband (seasons 1–2; guest season 3)

Anton Rattinger as Dr. Joseph Schwarz, a forensic pathologist at the University of Berlin (seasons 1–4)

Lilli Fichtner as Doris, a friend of Charlotte (seasons 1–4)

Johann Jürgens as Rudolf Malzig ("Rudi"), a medical student and friend of Charlotte and Stephan (seasons 1,4; guest seasons 2–3)

Joachim Paul Assböck as Major Anton von Beck, General Seeger's adjutant (seasons 1–2)

Waldemar Kobus as Joseph Döhmann, a pharmacist who regularly supplies Gereon with morphine in exchange for pornography (season 1)

Marie Gruber as Emmi Wolter, Bruno's wife (seasons 1–2)

Jeanette Hain as Irmgard Benda, August's wife (season 1–3)

Emil von Schönfels as Arndt Scheer, a young member of the SA and a friend of Moritz who has sexual relations with Wendt (seasons 3–4; guest season 1)

Caro Cult as Vera Lohmann, an actress who replaces Betty Winter in the film Demons of Passion after her murder (season 3)

Bernhard Schütz as Jo Bellmann, a film director (season 3)

Jenny Schily as Rosa Helfers, the warden of Barnimstrasse women's prison (season 3–4)

Lola Witzmann as Renate Cziczewicz, a young girl and vagrant who befriends Toni (seasons 3–4)

Ades Zabel as Hugo Wannmacher ("Red Hugo"), a mob boss who owns the Immertreu boxing ring (season 4)

Lenn Kudrjawizki as Oskar Kulanin, a Soviet double agent and Marie-Luise's love interest (season 4)

Sascha Nathan as Hermann Blank, editor-in-chief of the Nazi newspaper Der Angriff (season 4)

Joachim Meyerhoff as Dr. Ferdinand Voss, a corrupt judge and leader of the White Hand (season 4)

Nicolas Wolf as Wolf-Heinrich von Helldorff, Stennes' rival in Sturmabteilung Ost (season 4)

Wiebke Puls as Helene Voss, Ferdinand's wife and the warden of Sonnenborn detention facility (season 4)

Barbara Philipp as Elisabeth Krüger ("Iron-Else"), the mob boss who controls the boxing rings in the northern part of Berlin (season 4)

Karlheinz Schmitt as Eduard Brüning ("Knife-Ede"), a mob boss known for using knives as his signature weapons (season 4)

Herold Vomeer as Adolf Leib ("Muscle-Adolf"), a mob boss closely aligned with Weintraub (season 4)

Tobi B. as Jacob Reinhardt ("Blinde-Bob"), a mob boss from the northern part of Berlin (season 4)

Roberto Thoenelt as Robert Fitzek ("Rat-Robert"), a mob boss who is known for disposing his victims with rats (season 4)

Hannes Wegener as Johann "Rukeli" Trollmann, a German Sinti boxer and suspected half-brother of Charlotte (season 4)

Le Pustra as Edwina Morell, the flamed-haired host of Kabarett der Namenlosen and owner of the Luxor Nightclub (season 3–4)

Development

The series was co-directed by Tom Tykwer, Hendrik Handloegten, and Achim von Borries, who also wrote the scripts. The 16 episodes of the first two seasons were adapted by Tykwer, von Borries and Handloegten from the novel Der nasse Fisch (The Wet Fish) (2008) by Volker Kutscher and were filmed over eight months beginning in May 2016.

German public broadcaster ARD and pay TV channel Sky co-produced the series, a first time collaboration in German television. As part of the arrangement, Sky broadcast the series first, and ARD started broadcasts by free-to-air television on 30 September 2018. Netflix purchased rights for the United States, Canada, and Australia, where the series became available in 2018 with English dubbing and subtitles.

With a budget of €40 million that increased to €55 million due to reshoots, the series is described as the most expensive television drama series in Germany, as well as the most expensive non-English language television drama series ever produced.

The third season of Babylon Berlin was filmed over six months from late 2018 to May 2019. At the 32nd European Film Awards in December 2019, showrunners Achim von Borries, Henk Handloegten and Tom Tykwer stated that the third season was in post-production and that a fourth season was planned.

The third season was developed loosely around the second novel in Volker Kutscher's trilogy The Silent Death. The showrunners chose to diverge from the source material to better address the social and political unrest during the period as they felt that the Weimar Republic is often overlooked by both media and historical sources. The third season is set in late 1929 around the Black Tuesday stock market crash and navigates the rise of the subversive Black Reichswehr and communist political groups as well as the advent of talkies.

In a January 2020 interview with Berliner Zeitung, actress Liv Lisa Fries said that production would likely begin on the fourth season in late 2020 or early 2021. Planning and writing for the fourth season, based on the novel Goldstein, began in October 2020. Filming began in early 2021 and was completed in September 2021, with the production having shot for 129 days at Studio Babelsberg and at locations around Berlin. Season 4 is set in late 1930 and early 1931. It premiered on 8 October 2022.

The creators of Babylon Berlin have stated in numerous interviews that they intend to end the series at the year 1933, with the assumption of power by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Handloegten has stated that: "We decided to go on until 1933... if you call the show Babylon Berlin, it is about this special city in a very special time. And this special time, the Babylon times, the free and liberated times, just ended in 1933." Von Borries has spoken along similar lines, saying:

We always said it was over in 1933. If there is a final season, it would be the first months after the so-called seizure of power before the Reichstag fire. The National Socialists had turned the country upside down so fundamentally that the Babylonian in Berlin was over. After that we don't want to go on.

After Sky Deutschland decided to stop ordering scripted originals in June 2023, the producers of the show ARD Degeto, X Filme Creative Pool and Beta Film committed to developing a fifth season.

The fifth and final season began filming in the winter of 2024 and completed filming in December 2025. It consists of eight episodes and is based on the fifth novel in the series, The March Fallen (Märzgefallene). The season follows Charlotte investigating a series of murders of soldiers, while Gereon goes missing. It begins on 30 January 1933, when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, and continues through a five-week period of violence by the Nazis against their political opponents, culminating with the German federal election on 5 March 1933, when Hitler gained total control of the government. Handloegten, von Borries and Tykwer said in a press release:

In the final season of Babylon Berlin, we put February 1933 under the magnifying glass: Rarely has a society been torn apart more radically in such a short period of time than Germany in this chaotic month. Not only Gereon Rath and Charlotte Ritter, but all our protagonists also must realize that they only have a few options left: Subordinate themselves, risk their lives in open opposition, retreat into inner emigration or flee into exile. However, this decisive month also opens the possibility of changing the course of history at the last second.

Many of the series cast members return in season 5, with new faces including Clemens Schick, Ulrich Noethen, and Devid Striesow. It is scheduled to premiere in Germany on 10 September 2026. It has been sold to over 140 countries around the globe, and is scheduled to air early in 2027 on MHz Choice in the US and Canada, and on public broadcaster SBS Television in Australia.

Locations

Babelsberg Studio constructed a massive addition to its Metropolitan Backlot for the filming of the series and for future productions. This permanent standing set is billed as one of the largest in Europe. The set includes recreations of various Berlin neighbourhoods, from a range of economic classes. It also includes the large exterior of the night club Moka Efti.

The series was also filmed on locations throughout Berlin and in the surrounding state of Brandenburg. Numerous scenes were filmed on Alexanderplatz in front of the historic Alexanderhaus. The police headquarters, once located directly behind it, and other surrounding buildings, were destroyed in WWII, but were recreated with computer simulations.

The Rotes Rathaus (Berlin City Hall) was used for most closeup scenes involving the exterior of the police headquarters, because their red brick appearance and architectural style are very similar. Interiors of the police headquarters lobby were filmed at the Rathaus Schöneberg, including scenes with its paternoster elevator, while the elegant Ratskeller restaurant in the same building was used as the nearby café Aschinger in multiple scenes. Other interior scenes in the police headquarters were filmed in the historic Robert-Koch-Forum.

Interior scenes in the Moka Efti were filmed at the 'Delphi Cinema' in Berlin-Weissensee. Bar Tausend, in Berlin served as the show's Holländer Bar. A lengthy suspense sequence set during a performance of The Threepenny Opera, was filmed at the historic Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, where the play actually ran at the time. The Immanuelkirche in Prenzlauer Berg was used for scenes of Anno and Helga's wedding. The headquarters of the Katholischer Studentenverein Askania-Burgundia Berlin, located in a villa in Dahlem, were used for the residence of Councillor Benda and his family.

The atrium of the Behrensbau was used as Dr. Schmidt's psychiatric clinic. The interiors and exteriors of the historic former Deutsche Bank headquarters complex were used as numerous locations in the series, including as the exterior of the Soviet Embassy. Because the complex was empty at the time of filming, it was also used as the production headquarters, and to house the show's thousands of costumes. Other scenes were filmed on Museum Island, in the Hermannplatz U-Bahn station, at the Hoppegarten Racecourse, and the Church of the Redeemer on the Havel river in Potsdam.

Portions of the series were filmed in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Scenes set at Schloss Liebenberg, the estate of the Nyssen family, were filmed at Schloss Drachenburg, a castle in the Rhineland. The Rheinisches Industriebahn-Museum in Cologne was used as the Anhalter Güterbahnhof. The Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, a disused steel plant near Duisburg, was used as the factory adjacent to Bruno Wolter's apartment, in which numerous sequences take place.

Scenes involving a steam train were filmed in the state of Bavaria at the Bavarian Railway Museum near Nördlingen.

New locations were introduced in Season 3. Berlin's Old City Hall served as the interior and exterior of the Berlin Stock Exchange. The Ullsteinhaus was used as the editorial offices of the Tempo newspaper, which were actually located there at the time. The Kammergericht in Berlin served as the Ministry of the Reichswehr. The Cafe Grosz doubled for the historic Romanisches Café, destroyed in WWII.

The District Council Hall of the Rathaus Treptow was used for the court room for both Greta's trial in Season 3 and Katelbach's trial in Season 4. The Gästehaus am Lehnitzsee, a hotel housed in the historic Landhaus Adlon, the pre-WWII mansion of Louis Adlon, manager of the famed Hotel Adlon, was used as the villa of Edgar and Esther Kasabian.

New locations introduced in Season 4 include the Karl-Marx-Allee, used in multiple episodes as the Kurfürstendamm; the Amtsgericht Wedding, the exterior and interior of which appear in multiple episodes as the Landgericht Berlin-Mitte; and the GASAG Building on Littenstraße, used as the Berlin headquarters of the Nazi Party.