Berlin, setting of many famous films and series

Where better to set the scene for a spy movie than Berlin? It must be acknowledged that Berlin has inspired incredible stories for cinema and television. Let's focus on an institution, the Adlon Hotel. It overlooks Pariser Platz and faces the Brandenburg Gate. This highlight of the capital has spanned eras. It has hosted Joséphine Baker, Marlene Dietrich, or Charlie Chaplin. Destroyed, it only regained its original appearance in 1997. Why does Philip Kerr set his Berlin Trilogy there? It's ideally located, a stone's throw from the main embassies. If you go there, it's very likely that you will enjoy a fine beer such as the famous Fösters Feine. Then you will be immersed in the Berlin of intelligence agents. You might even find yourself believing that your neighbor, sitting behind you, is not just a simple journalist but works for the FSB. Not only has Berlin been a favorite location for writers. It has recently become a filming location for movie and series directors. I invite you to stroll through the German capital through images…      

The Wings of Desire

 Wings of Desire, the masterpiece by Wim Wenders from 1987, takes place, as you remember, in Berlin.  The story? Two angels, Cassiel and Damiel, descend from the sky and mingle with humans unseen. They meet a former angel (Peter Falke) who senses their presence and communicates his faith in humanity to them. Then Damiel falls in love and decides to stay on Earth. When he is perched on top of a church, it is from the top of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church that he observes. This monument, whose spire was bombed during World War II, does indeed exist. You can find it at the entrance to Kurfürstendamm. The same applies to the Victory Column (Siegessäule) topped by its golden statue of Victoria, which pays tribute to Prussia. You can observe it in the Tiergarten, in the current district of Mitte. Not far from there is the State Library, which also appears in certain scenes. We hear the inner voice of the students immersed in their reading.   

Where better to set the scene for a spy movie than in Berlin?

The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others. This thriller from 2006 by director and screenwriter von Donnersmark, which won numerous Oscars and even a Golden Globe, was filmed in Friedrichshain in Berlin. The performers, including Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Mühe, and Martina Gedek, delivered high-quality performances. What was the plot? In 1984, an East German intelligence officer is tasked with surveilling a couple of theater artists suspected of hostility towards the regime. Gradually, the agent becomes attached to them to the point that he provides a false report to the Stasi to protect them. He thus compromises his career and ends up delivering newspapers. At the end of the film, he is struck by a book in a Karl-Marx bookstore window. He realizes that the playwright has discovered his role and wants to pay tribute to him. Both the streets you see and the couple's apartment are located in this neighborhood. And you will be surprised to learn that the bookstore still exists today.

Good Bye, Lenin

Good Bye, Lenin is set right in Friedrichshain. This 2003 drama tells the story of how a son makes his mother, a devout citizen of the GDR who wakes up from a prolonged coma after the fall of the wall, believe that life continues unchanged in East Berlin. Through a series of schemes, he manages a tour de force. He restores the apartment exactly as it was. The exterior shots of the building were filmed at number 21 Berolinastrasse in Friedrichshain.  Similarly, the fake news broadcast that the son creates from scratch and shows to his mother daily only reports news about this district. Eventually, when she manages to escape her children's supervision and leaves the house, it is in the streets of Friedrichshain that she gets lost. Did you know?  Paradoxically, it is the territories that were located in East Berlin that are the trendiest. In Friedrichshain, where many artists live, you will find excellent vegetarian restaurants such as Küfa or Vöku.

Babylon-Berlin

Babylon-Berlin, this high-budget German series aired beginning in 2017 about the Weimar Republic has Berlin as its setting. Despite rising extremism, the youth seek to forget World War I through a bustling nightlife. The protagonist is a vice squad inspector. You will recognize many scenes filmed at Alexanderplatz (Alex). Note that the square had been razed and then rebuilt. To this end, certain modern buildings had to be erased. While the cabaret has long since disappeared, the producers took care to recreate the Moka Efti as it was. This establishment was exotic and unprecedented. It had an elevator, a massage room, a billiard room, a pastry lounge, miniature trains... It was the Delphi studios that ingeniously reconstructed this place, the series having been entirely filmed in Germany.

Ku’damm 56 - Ku’damm 59 is simply the abbreviation of Kurfürstendamm, this majestic avenue in Berlin. Broadcast on ZDF in 2016, this German series tells the story of a dance school director and her three daughters in 1950s West Berlin. Frau Schöllack is conservative and is determined to marry her daughters to well-off suitors. The music and dances from the United States bring a wind of modernity which she considers degenerate. The dance school was located on the Ku’damm. This avenue  stretches over 3 kilometers and Berliners enjoy walking there. Formerly, it faced Alexanderplatz, which was the nerve center of East Berlin.  Today, the Ku’damm houses major department stores like the KaDeWe, akin to Harrods.

To conclude, we are eagerly awaiting the final installment, Deutschland 89, which will bring us back to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Thanks to the previous two seasons, Deutschland 83 and Deutschland 86, we have followed the adventures of an Eastern spy played by Jonas Nay in West Germany. The series, which aims to entertain, does not advocate for the West but also doesn't plunge into ostalgie*. What is most curious is that these are true stories, freely adapted. Several locations in Berlin are recognizable within the series, for example, the Checkpoint Charlie border crossing, the fortifications along the Wall, or Unter den Linden.

NB : film enthusiasts, it is in Potsdam where you will find the famous Babelsberg studios that were used as sets for the movies The Blue Angel, The Pianist, or Inglorious Basterds.

Excerpt from the poem by Peter Handke, leitmotif of the film Wings of Desire:

When the child was a child,
 It was the time for the following questions :
Why am I me and not you ?
Why am I here and not there ?
When does time begin and where does space end?

Peter Handke

*Ostalgie: nostalgia for East Germany