A quick note—in addition to murder and torture, this graphic novel has adult situations and nudity.

It’s 1929, and the Golden Era of the Weimar Republic is coming to an end. Detective Inspector Gereon Rath arrives in Berlin as the newest member of the Vice Division.  It’s not a job Rath wants, but he’s been tainted by the shooting death of a suspect in Cologne, and it’s the only job his father’s connections can obtain.

“…his personal ambitions are swept up by…the larger political interests of Nazis and Communists…”

As he settles in to his new life, two significant events occur.  A man breaks into the rooming house where Rath is staying, demanding to see a Russian named Kardakov.  A few nights later, a car drives straight into the Landwehr Canal.  The driver— already very deceased when the car sank into the water—has also been tortured.  Recognizing the dead driver as the same man who tried to break into his home, Rath sees an opportunity to solve the homicide and hustle his way out of Vice and into Berlin Homicide.

Unfortunately, this is Berlin…and Rath soon finds that his personal ambitions are swept up by Berlin’s underworld, as well as the larger political interests of the Nazis and Communists who want to take over the Republic.

“…masterfully place the fictional events of this graphic novel within the real history of Weimar Berlin.”

An adaptation and translation of the original 2008 German police procedural, Babylon Berlin is still a dense read. That’s a good thing—there are many people to meet and a lot of material to process over this book’s 216 pages.

Both the original writer Volker Kutscher and writer/artist Arne Jysch masterfully place the fictional events of this graphic novel within the real history of Weimar Berlin. An underlying tension permeates throughout, as the Berlin police are slowly drawn into the competing interests of the Nazis and German Communists.

When police chief Karl Zörgiebel prohibits marches on May 1^st, the German Communist Party ignores the ban and demonstrates. Zörgiebel orders a massive police response and Rath has a front-row seat to the riots that end with the death of 33 civilians. “The damage…to the reputation of the police and the state, was perhaps irreparable,” Rath narrates, foreshadowing the later rise of the Nazi regime.

As his investigation continues, Inspector Rath takes us on a tour of the darker and grittier parts of Berlin. These are the locked apartments used by pornographers, the jazz clubs where cocaine can be sampled, and the alleyways where people are literally stabbed in the back. This is the cabaret of Sally Bowles and Christopher Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin. It’s a stark contrast to the external elegance of Berlin’s architecture.

“…the locked apartments used by pornographers, the jazz clubs where cocaine can be sampled, and the alleyways where people are literally stabbed in the back…”

The artwork in Babylon Berlin recreates 1929 Berlin and immediately places you within this time period.  The architectural details and angles are sometimes spread across two pages, creating wide shots of the city.  Just as compelling are the traffic and street scenes—vehicles aren’t just background creatures, but are almost characters of their own. The fight scenes are marvellous too, creating dramatic cinematic experiences in their striking wordlessness.

It’s not surprising that Babylon Berlin has been turned into a German TV series. Before you search for it on Netflix, however, you should definitely read this graphic novel.

Babylon Berlin
Arne Jysch (writer, artist)
Based on the novel Der Nasse Fisch by Volker Kutscher
Titan Comics (released 2018)

Dietrich Orlow has authored numerous books on the Weimar Republic.  For more info on police chief Karl Zörgiebel, check out Weimar Prussia, 1925–1933: The Illusion of Strength (University of Pittsburgh Press).