For German language learners, it has never been easier to practice your listening skills. Many online streaming video services now allow you to watch German TV shows. There are quite a few German series on Netflix that you can choose from and most are Original Series that you will not be able to find elsewhere. But whether you are looking to practice your German language skills or you just want to be entertained (or maybe a little of both!), I have pulled together twenty great German shows that you can stream now.
If episodic television isn’t your thing, check out my list of 25 movies you can stream now on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video.
Updated for 2024, to add new TV shows and remove those that are no longer available for streaming.
We Children from Bahnhof Zoo
In the late 1970s, two journalists wanted to document the dark side of life for Berlin teens. They began interviewing 16-year-old Christiane F. In 1979, a book called Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo was published based on these interviews. The book shocked Germany with its accounts of teens addicted to heroin, involved in the sex trade, and more. In 1981, a film was made of the book which included an appearance and music from David Bowie. In 2021, Amazon rebooted it as a streaming television series.
Watch We Children from Bahnhof Zoo on Amazon.
Babylon Berlin
A dark thriller, Babylon Berlin captures the excitement, indulgence, and uncertainty of the German capital city in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Based upon the books of author Volker Kutscher, the series tells the story of Gereon Rath, a police detective from Cologne, and Charlotte Ritter, a flapper who aspires to become a police detective. Rath is sent to Berlin to assist in one case but gets wrapped up in something larger.
Babylon Berlin is, without a doubt, one of the most lavish German TV shows. The series is written and directed by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, and Hendrik Handloegten and stars Volker Bruch and Liv Lisa Fries.
Watch Babylon Berlin on Netflix.
Dogs of Berlin
On Dogs of Berlin, a German TV show on Netflix, police officers Erol Birkan and Kurt Grimmer investigate after a famous (and fictional) German-Turkish soccer star is found dead hours before an important game. As the investigation into the murder starts, no one seems to be quite as honest as they first appear. And that includes the police!
Watch Dogs of Berlin on Netflix.
You Are Wanted
One day, Lukas is managing a hotel in Berlin on You Are Wanted. The next day, after a cyberattack, he is a suspected member of an activist terrorist group. No matter where Lukas turns, he is being pursued and followed. No one trusts him. Not even his own family. Can he figure out who is behind this? And, more importantly, how to end it?
Matthias Schweighöfer portrays Lukas while Alexandra Maria Lara plays his wife Hanna. You Are Wanted was the first Amazon Original Series not in English to be released internationally.
Watch You Are Wanted on Amazon Prime Video.
Nailed It! Germany
Wer kann, der Kann!, as it’s known in Germany, is the German version of the American Netflix series Nailed It! Each episode of this baking show features three contestants who are ordinary people with no real baking experience. The host challenges the contestants to make something fantastic to look at and delicious to eat. It’s colorful, silly, over-the-top, and not a good representation of baking.
Watch Nailed It! Germany on Netflix.
Bad Banks
Jana Liekam (portrayed by Paula Beer) is a young woman working in investment banking and she has big ambitions. After she is wrongly fired, she is quickly pulled into a scheme controlled by the head of her former company. Jana’s given her dream job in Frankfurt but everything comes with a price. And on Bad Banks, everyone has their own designs on power and money.
The show bounces around between Luxembourg and Frankfurt, among other spots. As such there’s a mix of German, French, and English spoken. Once you start watching Bad Banks it can be difficult to stop!
In addition to Beer, the show also features Albrecht Schuch as Jana’s coworker Adam and Tobias Moretti who portrays Quirin Sydow, the chief financial officer of Deutsche Global Invest.
Dark
Dark is the first original German series on Netflix. Set in Southwestern Germany, the show delivers on the title’s promise. After children begin to vanish in the town, families begin a frantic search to find them. But their search takes them where they least expect it: time travel into the past.
Das Boot
Das Boot sails again. The thrilling book turned dramatic film is now a television series. A sequel to the 1981 film, the series picks up roughly nine months later in 1942. The series follows the life and work of a crew for a German U-boat as well as the French Resistance.
Freud
No doubt that you have heard of Sigmund Freud, but you may never have seen him like this. In the German series Freud for 2020 on Netflix, the psychoanalyst is still an unknown young man in Vienna, Austria in the 1880s. The series follows Freud as he investigates a murder and gets mixed up with the rich and powerful.
Unorthodox
Based on the 2012 autobiography of Deborah Feldman (Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots), Unorthodox is a four-part Netflix miniseries following Esty, a young Jewish woman.
After Esty flees an arranged marriage and her Ultra-Orthodox community in Brooklyn, New York, she ends up at her mother’s in Berlin. Esty is forced to navigate a new life in a new country while her husband decides to try and find her.
The miniseries is not solely in German; it is in English and Yiddish, too.
Inside Borussia Dortmund
If you love German soccer (or, if you prefer, football), then Inside Borussia Dortmund is for you. The four-part series goes behind the scenes of one of the Bundesliga’s top clubs during their 2018-2019 season. Each episode is more than an hour long and offers interviews with players and staff while also offering a peek inside the locker room, training facilities, and more.
Amazon offers the series both with English subtitles or dubbed in English. But dubbing won’t help you practice German so stick to those subtitles if you need them!
Watch Inside Borussia Dortmund on Amazon Prime Video.
FC Bayern – Behind the Legend
Borussia Dortmund aren’t the only German team that has let their fans see what happens behind the scenes. German football juggernaut FC Bayern Munich has its own streaming series on Amazon. The series was recorded following the team’s 2020 Treble-winning season – when the team won the UEFA Champions League, Bundesliga, and the DFB-Pokal. The club was also reevaluating some management challenges. The team is full of many strong personalities and the series is sure to entertain many football fans.
Watch FC Bayern – Behind the Legend on Amazon Prime.
Criminal: Germany
In the fall of 2019, Netflix released their Criminal series in an unusual way. Four series, based in four countries (France, Spain, the UK, and, of course, Germany), were all released on a single day. Each series has three episodes set in a police interrogation room. In addition to being a very unique German series on Netflix, this is a must-see for fans of psychological thrillers and crime stories.
Criminal: Germany stars Nina Hoss and Peter Kurth (who you can also see in Babylon Berlin).
Watch Criminal: Germany on Netflix.
LOL: Last One Laughing Germany
In 2016, a Japanese television show called Documental challenged ten comedians. The comedians had six hours to attempt to make one another laugh. The twist? Anyone who laughs is eliminated. Since then, the show has spawned international versions under the Last One Laughing name.
In the spring of 2021, Amazon Prime launched LOL: Last One Laughing, the German version of the show. Hosted by Michael Bully Herbig, the German LOL has been a big hit in the country. Which German comedian will win? You’ll have to watch to find out.
Watch LOL: Last One Laughing Germany on Amazon Prime.
Maxton Hall
Maxton Hall – The World Between Us is based on the book Save Me by Mona Kasten. The series has been an international hit, lauded as Amazon Prime Original’s most successful launch for a non-American series.
The Young Adult show focuses on a group of students at a private school named Maxton Hall. One of those students is Ruby. From a more modest background, Ruby was awarded a scholarship to attend the school and she has big ambitions for her future. But when she sees something she shouldn’t have, a super wealthy student named James makes it clear she shouldn’t open her mouth.
Watch Maxton Hall on Amazon Prime.
The Gryphon
The Amazon Prime Original series The Gryphon is based on Wolfgang and Heike Hohlbein’s 1989 best-selling fantasy novel Der Greif.
Set in a small town, Mark is a bit of an outcast. On his 16th birthday, his brother Thomas reveals that their family has a big secret. For generations, the family has passed down the chronicle that describes the Gryphon. Thomas assures Mark that this is not a mythical creature, but one they have to fight. That’s when Thomas is kidnapped in the Gryphon’s world and Mark decides he needs to save him.
Watch The Gryphon on Amazon Prime.
Love Addicts
When Zoé lets her private life interfere with her professional life, she suddenly finds herself in a group for Anonymous Love and Sex Addicts. There, she meets Nele, a romance addict; Ben, who struggles with relationships; and Dennis, who simply wants to please everyone he meets. In the comedy series Love Addicts, the four bond over their struggles and try to support one another.
Watch Love Addicts on Amazon Prime.
One Mic Stand
German comedian Teddy Teclebrhan wants to make everyone a stand-up comedian. That’s the premise of One Mic Stand, an Amazon Original Series. In the show, well-known comedians mentor celebrities who are not necessarily known for their humor. Hazel Brugger assists politician Dr. Karl Lauterbach while famed late-night host Harald Schmidt guides footballers Mats Hummels and Christoph Kramer.
Watch One Mic Stand on Amazon Prime.
Joko Winterscheidt Presents: Climate Change – the World’s Most Dangerous Show
For years, Joko Winterscheidt has been doing crazy and silly stunts on television with comedy partner Klaas Heufer-Umlauf. With The World’s Most Dangerous Show, the comedic television host turns his attention to a more serious topic: climate change. The six-part series is a documentary that investigates how we can live in a more sustainable world and the individuals who are trying their best to do something about it.
Watch Joko Winterscheidt Presents: Climate Change on Amazon Prime.
The Teddy Teclebrhan Show
Anyone who has seen Teddy Teclebrhan on Last One Laughing knows just what a wild card he is. On The Teddy Teclebrhan Show, he unleashes new characters and sketches and brings celebrities into his chaotic world. All of this in front of a live audience and with live music.
Watch The Teddy Teclebrhan Show on Amazon Prime.
Tips for Streaming German TV Shows for Language Learners
- Streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video are subscription services. But, some German television broadcasters offer streaming of their shows online for free. Usually, there’s an expiration date, so to speak, on these episodes so be sure to prioritize!
- From a language learning point of view, you can assume that shows from German providers will be broadcast in German and potentially offer German subtitles. All other providers will likely offer the show in German or dubbed in the local language. Similarly, there will likely be subtitles in the local language. The one exception to this is Netflix which frequently offers subtitles in German regardless of your location.
- Don’t have Hulu or another streaming service to watch these German TV shows? Some shows are available, for a fee, on other platforms. For example, Das Boot is included with Hulu but is also available for purchase on Amazon Prime.
- TV comedies and thrillers are great, but they aren’t for everyone. If you prefer drama, here are 5 German soaps to stream. (And learn German, too!)
- If you want to get a taste of Munich and Bavaria without leaving your sofa, check out these movies and TV shows set in Munich and Bavaria!
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Tatort is in Mhz choice in Prime or their own plataform with English subtitles.
Most European series and film.