{"id":94536,"date":"2024-02-14T09:31:41","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T14:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/german-shows-netflix\/"},"modified":"2025-02-12T19:11:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T00:11:46","slug":"german-shows-netflix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/german\/german-shows-netflix\/","title":{"rendered":"13 Best German Shows on Netflix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fast-paced spy thrillers, lavish period dramas, amazing sci-fi that\u2019ll get you thinking\u2014Netflix has all of these and more<\/a>. Several of them are mini-series too with ten episodes or less, so you can finish them fast.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a roundup of the best German series on Netflix that you can watch right now. We’ve also covered some of the shows on our YouTube channel<\/a> if you prefer a video review.<\/p>\n

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1. Dark<\/a> (2017)<\/h2>\n

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Genre:<\/strong> Science fiction
\nMain Actors:<\/strong> Louis Hoffman, Lisa Vicari, Maja Sch\u00f6ne, Oliver Masucci<\/p>\n

As Netflix\u2019s first German-language original series, \u201cDark\u201d was a major success. It\u2019s the top show that I want to recommend here because it\u2019s mind-blowing.<\/p>\n

Two children disappear mysteriously in a small town. During the investigations, the secrets of four main families are unearthed, including illegitimate children and several affairs.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the series is time travel. Several characters take advantage of a hidden wormhole, traveling as far as the 1950s and even the distant future. However, they struggle to break the time loop\u2014where the past and future need to be consistent so events cannot be changed.<\/p>\n

2. Biohackers<\/a> (2020)<\/h2>\n

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Genre:<\/strong> Science fiction
\nMain Actors:\u00a0<\/strong>Luna Wedler, Jessica Schwarz, Thomas Prenn<\/p>\n

Genetic experiments outside the laboratory, scientists testing out new substances on themselves, mice glowing in the dark… The German thriller \u201cBiohackers\u201d explores these, showing how cutting-edge science can be used in morally questionable ways. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mia, a medical student, wants to find out the truth behind her brother\u2019s mysterious death. She suspects that it\u2019s linked to genetic experiments done by a prominent biology professor, Dr. Lorenz. As she tries to expose him, she becomes deeply interested in biohacking herself and starts to draw the attention of influential researchers and even corporations\u2014all with their own agendas.<\/p>\n

3. How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)<\/a> (2019)<\/h2>\n

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Genre:<\/strong> Comedy
\nMain Actors:\u00a0<\/strong>Maximilian Mundt, Danilo Kamperidis, Lena Klenke<\/p>\n

This quirky coming-of-age series is about a high school student, Moritz, who teams up with his best friend, Lonny, to sell ecstasy online. Somehow, their shop becomes one of the most popular drug marketplaces in Europe. While his goal at first is to win his ex-girlfriend back, it gets harder and harder to maintain his regular high school life while handling rival drug dealers and dodging the police.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an entertaining watch because Moritz isn\u2019t your typical drug dealer at all. In fact, he\u2019s a bumbling teenager who sees himself as a good student. The details are pretty authentic\u2014Reddit and Discord get featured a lot!<\/p>\n

4. Barbarians<\/a> (2020)<\/h2>\n

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Genre:<\/strong> Action
\nMain Actors:<\/strong> Laurence Rupp, Jeanne Goursaud, David Sch\u00fctter<\/p>\n

\u201cBarbarians\u201d is an action-packed show that revolves around a defining moment in history: the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The main character here is Armenius, a chieftain of a Germanic tribe who was raised by Romans. Back then, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful in the world, and the Germanic tribes were mistreated under their rule. Because of this, Armenius decides to rally the tribes to rebel against the Romans. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Visually, \u201cBarbarians\u201d doesn\u2019t hold back, from intense battle scenes to full-on whippings and crucifixions. I found it cool that the characters also spoke German and Latin all throughout. \u00a0<\/p>\n

5. King of Stonks<\/a> (2022)<\/h2>\n

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Genre:<\/strong> Comedy
\nMain Actors:<\/strong> Thomas Schubert, Matthias Brandt, Larissa Sirah Herden<\/p>\n

\u201cKing of Stonks\u201d is based on the Wirecard scandal, which is the biggest fraud incident in Germany ever.<\/p>\n

A fintech company called CableCash is about to release its IPO, and it promises to revolutionize the banking industry. Felix Armand is its ambitious yet somewhat amoral CFO. As the pressure mounts on him to exceed everyone\u2019s expectations, he starts to make increasingly unethical decisions, including manipulating stock prices, faking financial reports and even doing money laundering.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s chaotic, exciting and brimming with dark humor. I binged all six episodes in one go because events were so fast-paced!<\/p>\n

6. Woman of the Dead<\/a> (2022)<\/h2>\n

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Genre:<\/strong> Thriller
\nMain Actors:<\/strong> Anna Maria M\u00fche, Yousef Sweid, Felix Klare<\/p>\n

This Austrian thriller presents a compelling revenge story.<\/p>\n

Blum, a funeral home owner, is devastated after her husband dies in a hit-and-run accident. She suspects that there\u2019s foul play behind it, and she soon uncovers a deeper conspiracy involving influential members of her town. While she\u2019s originally a caring wife and mother, she becomes consumed by thoughts of revenge and even starts to become violent, targeting those involved one by one.<\/p>\n

Her character is pretty unique because she takes advantage of her skills as a funeral home owner, such as knowing anatomy very well. There are plenty of breathtaking shots of different parts of Austria, including the Alps.<\/p>\n

7. Oktoberfest: Beer and Blood<\/a> (2020)<\/h2>\n

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Genre:<\/strong> Thriller
\nMain Actors:<\/strong> Misel Maticevic, Martina Gedeck, Klaus Steinbacher, Mercedes M\u00fcller<\/p>\n

We normally think of Oktoberfest as a fun festival, but \u201cOktoberfest: Beer and Blood\u201d shows its dark side.<\/p>\n

Let’s rewind to the year 1900. Munich is about to celebrate Oktoberfest, but this year, a brewer named Curt Prank wants to secure a prime spot at the festival. He\u2019s willing to use ruthless tactics, such as bribing, sending out thugs and ruining other brewers\u2019 property and reputation. \u00a0<\/p>\n

This has messy consequences that even Curt himself couldn’t have predicted, with other businesses betraying him. To make it worse, his daughter has her eyes set on the heir of a rival brewer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Murder, violence and political manipulation\u2014they\u2019re all here, and it’s loosely based on true events too!<\/p>\n

8. Freud<\/a> (2020)<\/h2>\n

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Genre:<\/strong> Crime
\nMain Actors:<\/strong> Robert Finster, Ella Rumpf, Georg Friedrich<\/p>\n

\u201cFreud\u201d is the first Austrian Netflix original. I watched it as soon as it was released, and the plot twists constantly kept me on my toes since the show turned out to be a psychological thriller (with magic involved)! \u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1880\u2019s Vienna, Freud hasn\u2019t invented psychoanalysis yet\u2014he\u2019s still at the start of his career and eager to make a name for himself. The story takes a supernatural turn as he\u2019s called to help in a series of grisly murders and occult rituals. To figure out what\u2019s really happening, he teams up with a medium named Fleur Salom\u00e9 and a war veteran, Alfred Kiss.<\/p>\n

9. Billion Dollar Code<\/a> (2021)<\/h2>\n

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Genre:<\/strong> Thriller
\nMain Actors:<\/strong> Leonard Scheicher, Marius Ahrendt, Mark Waschke, Misel Maticevic<\/p>\n

This eye-opening courtroom drama delves into who really created Google Earth.<\/p>\n

Two German computer visionaries, Juri M\u00fcller and Carsten Schl\u00fcter, develop an innovative software called Terravision in the 1990s. It\u2019s a precursor to Google Earth and shows the earth in a digital, three-dimensional way using satellite imagery and data visualization.<\/p>\n

Years later, after Google launches Google Earth, Juri and Carsten realize that their pioneering technology was used without their permission. They decide to sue Google for patent infringement, leading to a high-stakes legal battle.<\/p>\n

The narration is engrossing, and I felt disturbed afterwards at how big companies can just sometimes take other people’s inventions as their own. \u00a0<\/p>\n

10. Kleo<\/a> (2022)<\/h2>\n

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Genre:<\/strong> Thriller
\nMain Actors:<\/strong> Jella Haase, Dimitrij Schaad, Julius Feldmeier, Vladimir Burlakov<\/p>\n

\u201cKleo\u201d might be a spy thriller, but it\u2019s also hilarious and sometimes absurd.<\/p>\n

Kleo Straub, a former East German spy and assassin, is wrongfully imprisoned in 1987. She\u2019s released after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but then discovers that her imprisonment was part of a deeper plot involving former Stasi members and West German businessmen. Fueled by revenge, she goes on a deadly mission across Berlin and beyond to track down and eliminate those who betrayed her.<\/p>\n

\u201cKleo\u201d actually throws a lot of unpredictable curveballs, to the point that I still can’t get over the finale. There’s tons of dark humor too!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

11. The Empress<\/a> (2022)<\/h2>\n

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Genre:<\/strong> Drama
\nMain Actors:<\/strong> Devrim Lingnau, Philip Froissant<\/p>\n

Fans of \u201cThe Crown\u201d should totally go for this period drama. It\u2019s focused on the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the 19th<\/sup> century. Also known as Sisi, she unexpectedly becomes the empress after falling in love with Emperor Franz Joseph.<\/p>\n

Because of her free-spirited and rebellious personality, she has a hard time adjusting at first to her new status as royalty. Aside from this, her relationship with Franz gets strained too as they deal with the politics of the Austro-Hungarian empire and personal vendettas from the court.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not historically accurate, but the production quality is top-notch, with gorgeous costumes and palace scenes.<\/p>\n

12. The Signal<\/a> (2024)<\/h2>\n

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Genre: <\/strong>Thriller
\n<\/strong>Main Actors:\u00a0<\/strong>Florian David Fitz, Peri Baumeister, Yuna Bennett<\/p>\n

You can fly through this new Netflix limited series in just a few hours.<\/p>\n

A female astronaut named Paula goes missing after boarding a flight to see her family, which leads them on an eye-opening, life-altering journey to find her. Paula works for the International Space Station as a scientist, and the more her family learns about her disappearance, the more they learn about her work.<\/p>\n

This leaves them with more than questions about where she is. It makes them question everything they know about the world they live in.<\/p>\n

Soon, everyone in the family finds themselves in danger. And wrapped up in a new, mind-blowing discovery Paula makes.<\/p>\n

13. Crooks<\/a> (2024)<\/h2>\n

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Genre:<\/strong> Thriller
\nMain Actors:<\/strong> Frederick Lau, Kida Khodr Ramadan\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Crooks” is a new Netflix Original German crime drama that follows a former safecracker named Charly.<\/p>\n

Charly lives a peaceful life with his family in Berlin, but suddenly he’s forced to face his past and reenter criminal life. The mission? To steal a highly valuable coin.<\/p>\n

But the odds aren’t in his favor. And when the heist goes wrong and risky complications arise, Charly finds himself running from gangs, a new mysterious master thief and other secret criminal groups searching for the same coin.<\/p>\n

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With all of these highly rated German series, you can prepare some popcorn, get cozy and start watching!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aside from being entertaining, German TV shows<\/a> can help you improve your German language skills. To learn German through TV show and movie clips<\/a>, there’s FluentU.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\r\nFluentU is one of the best websites and apps for learning German the way native speakers really<\/em> use it. FluentU takes real-world videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons<\/a>.<\/strong>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWatch authentic media to simultaneously immerse yourself in the German language and build an understanding of the German culture.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nBy using real-life videos, the content is kept fresh and current. Topics cover a lot of ground as you can see here:\r\n<\/p>\r\n\"learn-german-with-videos\"<\/a>\r\n

\r\nVocabulary and phrases are learned with the help of interactive subtitles and full transcripts<\/strong>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n\"learn-german-with-subtitled-video-clips\"<\/a>\r\n

\r\nHovering over or tapping on any word in the subtitles will automatically pause the video and instantly display its meaning. Interesting words you don\u2019t know yet can be added to a to-learn list for later.\r\n<\/p>\r\n\"learn-german-with-interactive-lessons\"<\/a>\r\n

\r\nFor every lesson, a list of vocabulary is provided for easy reference and bolstered with plenty of examples of how each word is used in a sentence.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nYour existing knowledge is tested with the help of adaptive quizzes<\/strong> in which words are learned in context.\r\n<\/p>\r\n\"practice-german-with-adaptive-quizzes\"<\/a>\r\n

\r\nTo keep things fresh, FluentU keeps track of the words you\u2019re learning and recommends further lessons and videos based on what you've already studied.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThis way, you have a truly personalized learning experience.<\/strong>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nStart using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fast-paced spy thrillers, lavish period dramas, amazing sci-fi that\u2019ll get you thinking\u2014Netflix has all of these and more. Several of them are mini-series too with ten episodes or less, so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":739,"featured_media":249248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"13 Best German Shows on Netflix | FluentU German Blog","description":"Stream top German shows on Netflix now, such as Dark, Barbarians and Babylon Berlin. You'll find the best picks in this post. Choose from mind-bending sci-fi, fast-paced crime series, gorgeous historical dramas and more, all with strong storytelling and memorable characters."},"footnotes":""},"categories":[525,526,540],"tags":[],"coauthors":[208],"class_list":["post-94536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-german","category-resources","category-video-resources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/739"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94536"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250409,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94536\/revisions\/250409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94536"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=94536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}