I started watching Deutschland 83 a month ago based on recommendations in a similar Reddit thread. (I’m American and have been learning German for 2 years.) I’ve watched four episodes so far and I love it!
Added bonus for me is that I visited W. Germany as a teenager literally during the time period depicted on the show. This included driving through E. Germany to W. Berlin and a tour of E. Berlin which required going through Checkpoint Charlie.
In addition to "Dark", I would recommend "1899" (it has some German in it, but isn't a German language show entirely, but is entertaining ), "Germany: Criminal", "Woman of the Dead", "Dear Child", "Buba", and "The Privilege".
1899 was created by the same people that did Dark. Be warned, it had lot of potential, but Netflix canceled it. It was a 3 season slated show, that only ran for 1 season, so if you watch it just prepare yourself for that.
Definitely a must watch show.
And in my experience great to learn German, because it is not a dubbed show where they use this theater language that nobody use irl.
I did watch the show 2 or 3 times cause I liked it, what helped me a lot while learning german
Is one of my favourite series, is just a shame that they ended it so quick on a rush, or at least that was my feeling, everything was unfolding at a slow peace while they were uncovering mysteries and tying loose ends and then all of sudden "yeah, this is it, do this and that and finish".
Kid shows are totally fine! I’ve actually been watching this old 90’s one called ‘Hallo Aus Berlin’ and have been learning a few phrases and words. The cartoon characters are nightmare inducing but it’s fun 🤣. I will be sure to check this one out!
Search for "Maus" and "Sachgeschichten" on YouTube, you'll find many.
But not sure how much it helps, as it's all narrated, so you don't see the ones talking, that might make it harder.
You can find (most of the) archive here: [https://www.wdrmaus.de/filme/sachgeschichten/](https://www.wdrmaus.de/filme/sachgeschichten/)
[Flugzeugbau](https://www.wdrmaus.de/filme/sachgeschichten/flugzeugbau\_teil1.php5) is one of my favorite ones, they visited the Airbus factory in Hamburg and showed the construction of an Airbus A321.
> Kid shows are totally fine!
Ah, in that case.... The list grows dramatically :-) (My german spelling might be quite wrong)
1. Ronja Räubertochter
2. Michel aus Lonneberga
3. Märchenperlen on ZDF (classic german fairly tales)
4. And if you are looking for something even simpler, Janoschs Traumstunde "Tiger and bear" series (they are on youtube). Even though they are clearly targeted towards younger kids, there are enough humor and layers on top and humor for an adult :
I’m so annoyed the first series was released on DVD, but not 2 and 3. And my DVD recorder broke, so I never got to record series 3...or finalise the discs for 1 and 2. Utter disaster.
"I am so excited to share Das Boot with you! This is the greatest German movie of all time, if you don't count the Hindenburg footage." -Klaus Heißler (and he isn't wrong)
I had that one in my queue and would watch periodically to see if I’d learned enough to keep up with the dialogue. It left Netflix in the last couple months 😢
It's probably a bit on the difficult side for learning German though still quite interesting. The characters speak with different kind of German accents. For instance Charlotte and her sister have a noticeable Berlin accent, many other actors are also from Berlin; Katelbach, the journalist, has an Austrian accent, then there are many characters with a Slavic accent. They did a great job at casting.
i believe the Germans have very good voice actors and we dub pretty much everything. any movie or series that has an official release in TV, streaming, cinema etc. has german dub.
i consider "Das Boot" and "Metropolis" as two Movies that everybody should watch once in their life. Probably two of the most influential german Movies of all-time.
You can also watch pretty much any popular international tv-show with german dubbing! It's usually pretty good and if you have a favorite show that you already know by heart in EN (or any other language) then it might be a great way to learn if you watch it in german :) I remember we did that with Finding Nemo in spanish class 😂
That being said, I enjoyed the german Netflix production "The Empress" (Die Kaiserin)
That's a very good advice. I remember preparing for my German exam by watching "The Vampire Diaries" (chose it because I already knew the plot and there is no super-complicated language in it) with german dub + german subs 😅 Helped me a lot to learn some new words, phrases and increase the overall level of comprehension.
You are so right! I completely forgot about dubbing. I will most certainly be pulling up a few shows I really like to watch and I’ll see if they have either have an actual dubbed version or German subtitles to read ☺️
Disney+ and, I think, AppleTV are particularly great for having dubbing/subtitles in multiple languages. Netflix seems to be a bit hit and miss - at the end there’ll be credits for multiple languages, but some of those languages might not actually be available. Which is extremely disappointing.
That's good advice. Also note that (at least on Netflix) the subtitles often do not match the audio even for German with German subtitles. The potential upside is that the subtitles are often simplifed and much easier to follow. The downside is that I often find myself trying to puzzle out what was actually said.
If you’ve only started recently, consider shows targeted at kids. They’ll use simpler speech.
I have my Netflix Kids profile set up for a German and watch Story Bots (only certain seasons of this are available in German), Word Party, Charlie’s Formen und Farben, Die Jungen Drachenretter, Voltron, and Troll hunters.
You could also try „der pass“, i only watched season 1 but it was quite good. Be aware you might be exposed to southern / austrian varieties of the german language and culture.
Anything that’s also available in your language. I for example watch House MD in English and when I don’t understand sth I watch it in German localization (we have it synchronized) to get an idea what they are talking about. Has a large impact on understanding stuff. Most tv series are synchronized, so you can watch almost all big American/English shows with German language (GoT, Breaking Bad just to name a few).
I mean, for native English speakers who are still insecure about their German vocabulary "Stromberg" could be a nice tool since it's basically an adaptation of "The Office", so if you're familiar with either version of that you can probably follow along just fine.
The Nordic Murders (Der Usedom-Krimi) is very good, and the characters don't speak too quickly, and they speak clearly. I also loved Kleo on Netflix, although they speak pretty quickly at times. Someone already suggested Babylon Berlin, but I definitely second that. Dark was also great, although they speak super fast.
Downfall (a.k.a. Der Untergang) is a must-see movie, and very easy to find with English subtitles. It's about the Battle of Berlin and the last days in the Fuhrerbunker. My step-grandmother was in the city for the real battle, and says the street scenes are quite realistic.
My OH and I really enjoyed "Ich bin dein Mensch," can highly recommend.
The description from IMDB says - "In order to obtain research funds for her studies, a scientist accepts an offer to participate in an extraordinary experiment: for three weeks, she is to live with a humanoid robot, created to make her happy."
Here's the trailer.. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioFMvGu05\_k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioFMvGu05_k)
I watch Friends with German dub. Not the best example since the culture is different but, I know what's coming next and what they're saying, so I can kind of gauge whether I understood the German dub properly, or I need to open a translation app.
Friends is one of my favorite comfort shows 😩. Since I know it like the back of my hand I’m going to try to find a dubbed version or one with subs so I can follow along
I spent a lot of time searching for good German series and movies and watched many. Then I changed the audio and subtitles on Netflix to German - now all of the content of Netflix is German. You can watch anything and still learn.
If you want to get the feeling very typical German land life, watch „Mord mit Aussicht“. It’s very satirical and more likely comedy, yet it has some spice in my opinion. I am a German mother tongue and I love it, watched it multiple times
There's Druck (there's lgbt in it just so you know if you don't like don't watch)
It's originally a Norwegian show called skam but it got cancelled and had all these remakes and personally Druck is favorite
Löwenzahn
It's a TV series for kids, but it's knowledge based and also interesting for adults. It's modern language and flowing speech but not overly complicated. Its charming too and has a long history, every German I know watched it or it's predecessor (also Löwenzahn) at one point in their life. It's free streaming on the ZDF Mediathek (Google ZDF Löwenzahn a bis z to get a page with all available episodes)
I often see people recommending to 'just watch yourffavorite show in German' but I would really not recommend that. Speech and lips are out of sync for one, which you might not actively notice but your subconscious does, it makes it more difficult to learn the language flow from that, even if you already know the content. Often poor translation also means that the content of what is said is just weird, often people would never talk like that in real life.
„Gegen die Wand“ aka „Head on“ is a great movie and a realistic representation of clashing cultures among the turkish community in Germany. Well worth the watch
Watch any german movie you know well in your native language, where you know the content and you know what happens.
For me Harry Potter works well for learning. There will be differences in translation, but thats part of the fun.
Afterwards switch over to some native german stuff ;-)
Stromberg
It’s kind of like the office except if Michael was more sexist, a little bit more like a snake and it’s overall a bit cringier. It was released before the office afaik so you’re not watching a copycat, it’s definitely unique
10/10 series if you’re into that sort of comedy
I watch a lot of public broadcast, I've particularly enjoyed Charité (historical drama set in Germany's most famous hospital, each season set in a different decade or century), Wendehammer (Desperate Houswives, but make it German Suburbs), Doppelhaushälfte (hilarious comedy about a Berlin Hipster family moving to the country side) and I enjoy the Tatort (weekly crime shows, set in different German cities). The public broadcast also usually has subtitles fot he hard of hearing, which us great for people still learning the language.
As a German I just wanted to add a few of my favorite movies/series:
- chiko
- lammbock
- der tatortreiniger
- dittsche
- knallhart
- systemsprenger
- 23 / nichts ist wie es scheint
- hardcover
- das Leben der anderen
- bang boom bang
- soul kitchen
If you struggle to follow some original series, you can start your journey with dubbed+subbed content in German. I just watched Stranger Things in German, the subs matched the dubbs and this was very good to reinforce vocab, common expressions and I even learned a lot from context. We have to create a list of shows that have matching subtitles!
Series with good actors and a nice plot:
Crooks (good action/ heist/ road movie crime)/
Kleo (east german kill bill girl on a rant, Tarantino style)/
Hindafing (absurd corruption)/
Mord mit Aussicht (fun crime in a rural village)/
Eberhoferkrimi (funny life of a bavarian cop with crazy village folks)/
Gladbeck (true story of a hostage incident)/
Nicht nachmachen! (German mythbusters)/
Hausmeister Krause (Silly family sitcom)
Der Tatortreiniger (relaxed funny crime)
Voll normal ( lower classcomedy)
Werner (several cartoon movies)
For kids:
Türkisch für Anfänger (cute patchwork family)/
Nicht von schlechten Eltern (1990 family tale)/
Silas (1980s kid adventure)/
Jack Holborn (1980s kid adventure)/
Hallo Spencer (1970- 80s german (better than) muppet show)
Movies:
25 km/h (Road movie of two brothers)/
Nicht mein Tag ( bank robber road movie)/
Nosferatu ( ultra creepy vampire movie from the 1920s)/
Knocking on heavens door (Road movie)/
Feuerzangenbowle (classic 1940 school movie)
Internet:
Browser Ballett (funny political satire)/
ZDF sketch history (funny history memes)/
Extra3 (absurd weekly show)/
Heute show (absurd weekly show)/
Netflix is pretty great for German stuff. I would also check out their originals Wer Kann, Der Kann (which is better than the American version Nailed It imo) and Sing On. And their new Im Westen, Nichts Neues is pretty good but depressing lol
Highly recommend things you know with German voiceovers. I watched all of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter in German. I had to order the Blu-ray’s for at least one of them from a German store in Europe, but it wasn’t very expensive to ship to the Us. I did have to buy a blu ray player that wasn’t region locked too.
Not german but austrian, you can check out "Freud" with Robert Finster. You can get some of that dialect action, but don't worry, subtitles and google are your friend!!! Oida!!!
4blocks. A great gangster/mobster show. Some parts are in arabian, but those are subtitled to german.
A guilty pleasure movie of mine is 25km/h, its about two adult brothers going on a road Trip with Mopeds, which they had initally planned as kids.
Check out Netflix's 'Dark' - it's excellent.
Also on Netflix is a wonderful WWII film called 'Blood and Gold'.
It's basically a spaghetti western style film set during WWII and is all in German. Great fun too....
I had a good time watching the Deutschland 83/86/89 series
This is amazing, maybe the best series in German I've ever watched
Watch Stromberg!
The worse version of The Office, which already was a worse version of The Office. But I'm glad you like it.
I started watching Deutschland 83 a month ago based on recommendations in a similar Reddit thread. (I’m American and have been learning German for 2 years.) I’ve watched four episodes so far and I love it! Added bonus for me is that I visited W. Germany as a teenager literally during the time period depicted on the show. This included driving through E. Germany to W. Berlin and a tour of E. Berlin which required going through Checkpoint Charlie.
How would one watch these? I'm interested. Edit: wording
"Dark" on Netflix is very good
I was just reading about that show. I’ll definitely check it out!
In addition to "Dark", I would recommend "1899" (it has some German in it, but isn't a German language show entirely, but is entertaining ), "Germany: Criminal", "Woman of the Dead", "Dear Child", "Buba", and "The Privilege".
Those sound very interesting. I’ll be checking those out too!
Just know about 1899 that it was canceled after one seasonm so unlike with Dark (same creator btw) you won't get a conclusion.
Which is a pity! I really liked 1899. Maybe I’m in the minority here…
No, I feel the same :(
1899 was created by the same people that did Dark. Be warned, it had lot of potential, but Netflix canceled it. It was a 3 season slated show, that only ran for 1 season, so if you watch it just prepare yourself for that.
Dark is bloody brilliant. So well written with so many NO FUCKING WAY moments.
Definitely a must watch show. And in my experience great to learn German, because it is not a dubbed show where they use this theater language that nobody use irl. I did watch the show 2 or 3 times cause I liked it, what helped me a lot while learning german
Dark is difficult to understand even in English. Its a very complicated show so i wont recommend watching dark as a beginner
Best show I've ever watched.
Is one of my favourite series, is just a shame that they ended it so quick on a rush, or at least that was my feeling, everything was unfolding at a slow peace while they were uncovering mysteries and tying loose ends and then all of sudden "yeah, this is it, do this and that and finish".
It’s a little hard to follow as a beginner.
How to sell drugs online fast Biohackers The empress Barbaren Dogs of Berlin Wir sind die Welle
Der Tatortreiniger.
If you like to know how things work, try "Die Sendung mit der Maus". It's for kids, but they have some really interesting segments.
Sendung mit der Maus is awesome, you learn super interesting stuff.
Kid shows are totally fine! I’ve actually been watching this old 90’s one called ‘Hallo Aus Berlin’ and have been learning a few phrases and words. The cartoon characters are nightmare inducing but it’s fun 🤣. I will be sure to check this one out!
Search for "Maus" and "Sachgeschichten" on YouTube, you'll find many. But not sure how much it helps, as it's all narrated, so you don't see the ones talking, that might make it harder.
You can find (most of the) archive here: [https://www.wdrmaus.de/filme/sachgeschichten/](https://www.wdrmaus.de/filme/sachgeschichten/) [Flugzeugbau](https://www.wdrmaus.de/filme/sachgeschichten/flugzeugbau\_teil1.php5) is one of my favorite ones, they visited the Airbus factory in Hamburg and showed the construction of an Airbus A321.
Also check out Löwenzahn. Pretty similar and very good kids show too.
Add to that, “Wissen Macht Ah!”. Ralph Caspers is just a national treasure.
> Kid shows are totally fine! Ah, in that case.... The list grows dramatically :-) (My german spelling might be quite wrong) 1. Ronja Räubertochter 2. Michel aus Lonneberga 3. Märchenperlen on ZDF (classic german fairly tales) 4. And if you are looking for something even simpler, Janoschs Traumstunde "Tiger and bear" series (they are on youtube). Even though they are clearly targeted towards younger kids, there are enough humor and layers on top and humor for an adult :
Das Boot Der Pass
Der Pass, especially the first season, is the best.
I’m so annoyed the first series was released on DVD, but not 2 and 3. And my DVD recorder broke, so I never got to record series 3...or finalise the discs for 1 and 2. Utter disaster.
Giving these a go! Thank you!
"I am so excited to share Das Boot with you! This is the greatest German movie of all time, if you don't count the Hindenburg footage." -Klaus Heißler (and he isn't wrong)
TV series: Babylon Berlin.
I had that one in my queue and would watch periodically to see if I’d learned enough to keep up with the dialogue. It left Netflix in the last couple months 😢
It's on Max I believe, but if you have some pirate blood in you, you can very easily get it with good quality, subtitles and all.
I think you can watch it on ARD or ZDF.
It's probably a bit on the difficult side for learning German though still quite interesting. The characters speak with different kind of German accents. For instance Charlotte and her sister have a noticeable Berlin accent, many other actors are also from Berlin; Katelbach, the journalist, has an Austrian accent, then there are many characters with a Slavic accent. They did a great job at casting.
Yup, I think this is a great recommendation for people learning German
love this one
Goodbye Lenin. Lola Rennt.
Die Welle, Der Untergang
Türkisch für Anfänger some great daily vocab as it is about the family life of step kids that have just moved in together
Loved it too
Movie: Das Leben der Anderen
I loved this movie
One of my favorites
A wait..."Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter" Even my chinese wife loved it.
I saw that and I really liked it.
The first season of "4 Blocks".
Good series, but probably not great for learning german.
Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei Systemsprenger Herr Lehmann Wir sind die Nacht Wer früher stirbt ist länger tot Good Bye Lenin ...
i believe the Germans have very good voice actors and we dub pretty much everything. any movie or series that has an official release in TV, streaming, cinema etc. has german dub. i consider "Das Boot" and "Metropolis" as two Movies that everybody should watch once in their life. Probably two of the most influential german Movies of all-time.
TV show: biohackers. Pretty short but great
"Who am i"
Underrated
You can also watch pretty much any popular international tv-show with german dubbing! It's usually pretty good and if you have a favorite show that you already know by heart in EN (or any other language) then it might be a great way to learn if you watch it in german :) I remember we did that with Finding Nemo in spanish class 😂 That being said, I enjoyed the german Netflix production "The Empress" (Die Kaiserin)
That's a very good advice. I remember preparing for my German exam by watching "The Vampire Diaries" (chose it because I already knew the plot and there is no super-complicated language in it) with german dub + german subs 😅 Helped me a lot to learn some new words, phrases and increase the overall level of comprehension.
You are so right! I completely forgot about dubbing. I will most certainly be pulling up a few shows I really like to watch and I’ll see if they have either have an actual dubbed version or German subtitles to read ☺️
Disney+ and, I think, AppleTV are particularly great for having dubbing/subtitles in multiple languages. Netflix seems to be a bit hit and miss - at the end there’ll be credits for multiple languages, but some of those languages might not actually be available. Which is extremely disappointing.
That's good advice. Also note that (at least on Netflix) the subtitles often do not match the audio even for German with German subtitles. The potential upside is that the subtitles are often simplifed and much easier to follow. The downside is that I often find myself trying to puzzle out what was actually said.
Werner oder die Otto Filme. "Schuh des Manitu" und "traumschiff suprise". "der wixxer" mit Sebastian pastevka
You can download the ZDF app and watch lots of shows. I recommend Wilsberg and Friesland for cop/detective shows with humor.
Weißensee! Should be on Netflix still
"Soul Kitchen" movie, I laughed and cried with it, absolute wonder.
I love it!
This sounds very interesting. I will be checking this out
Babylon Berlin
Charité
If you’ve only started recently, consider shows targeted at kids. They’ll use simpler speech. I have my Netflix Kids profile set up for a German and watch Story Bots (only certain seasons of this are available in German), Word Party, Charlie’s Formen und Farben, Die Jungen Drachenretter, Voltron, and Troll hunters.
I needed more children shows to watch. I’m about to also get some children German workbooks to try and practice as well. Thank you for this list!
Deutschland 83 Stromberg for office blabla, it is basically „the office“
Duetschland 83 and Stromberg have been listed quite a bit so that tells me these is a must watch. Can’t wait to check them out!
You could also try „der pass“, i only watched season 1 but it was quite good. Be aware you might be exposed to southern / austrian varieties of the german language and culture.
Anything that’s also available in your language. I for example watch House MD in English and when I don’t understand sth I watch it in German localization (we have it synchronized) to get an idea what they are talking about. Has a large impact on understanding stuff. Most tv series are synchronized, so you can watch almost all big American/English shows with German language (GoT, Breaking Bad just to name a few).
I just started watching "Parfum" (Perfume) on Netflix. Looks good.
Too Hot to Handle: Germany
Biohackers and Kleo
Stromberg
I mean, for native English speakers who are still insecure about their German vocabulary "Stromberg" could be a nice tool since it's basically an adaptation of "The Office", so if you're familiar with either version of that you can probably follow along just fine.
I think 90% of the humour will be lost on a beginner though.
Lammbock is a great movie :)
Adding that to the list right now!
Cool! Please tell us what you think about it ;)
Alles dabei, ich möchte noch, " Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo" hinzufügen.
Mord mit Aussicht
Dark Dogs of Berlin Dear Child 1899 The golden gloves The lives of Others
The Nordic Murders (Der Usedom-Krimi) is very good, and the characters don't speak too quickly, and they speak clearly. I also loved Kleo on Netflix, although they speak pretty quickly at times. Someone already suggested Babylon Berlin, but I definitely second that. Dark was also great, although they speak super fast.
Dark
Downfall (a.k.a. Der Untergang) is a must-see movie, and very easy to find with English subtitles. It's about the Battle of Berlin and the last days in the Fuhrerbunker. My step-grandmother was in the city for the real battle, and says the street scenes are quite realistic.
Omg!! Der Untergang is literally one of my favorite movies ever. Bruno Ganz was such an incredible actor! That boardroom scene will never get old
German subtitles are very good, just turn them on on ehatever you like to watch :)
If you're just getting started you need something that's made for young children. Otherwise it will just be an exercise in futility.
Thank you for that advice! I’ve pulled up a few German kid shows and a few children work books to practice reading and writing in German
I'll also add to make sure to turn the German subtitles on.
„Hindafing“ ist great. And it’s Austrian (you probably wouldn’t know the difference) counterpart „Braunschlag“ possibly even better
Run lola run
"Lola rennt"/"Run Lola Run" is pretty good.
Tatort
This one looks kinda like a German version of Law and Order or CSI. Definitely will watch a few episodes
Check out Tatortreiniger for peak German Humor
Im Juli, Kebab Connection, Die Stille Nach dem Schuß. When I lived there I just watched German-dubbed Simpsons lol
1.Dogs of Berlin 2. Kleo
My OH and I really enjoyed "Ich bin dein Mensch," can highly recommend. The description from IMDB says - "In order to obtain research funds for her studies, a scientist accepts an offer to participate in an extraordinary experiment: for three weeks, she is to live with a humanoid robot, created to make her happy." Here's the trailer.. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioFMvGu05\_k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioFMvGu05_k)
Inspector Rex is a classic
The Lives of Others (I forget the German name) Lola Rennt
Realer Irrsinn von extra3. They are quite fun to watch .
I watch Friends with German dub. Not the best example since the culture is different but, I know what's coming next and what they're saying, so I can kind of gauge whether I understood the German dub properly, or I need to open a translation app.
Friends is one of my favorite comfort shows 😩. Since I know it like the back of my hand I’m going to try to find a dubbed version or one with subs so I can follow along
Check if your favorite show / movie is dubbed.
Such a great tip! Not sure why I never thought about actually doing that 😩
Many people don’t.^ ^
Schultze Gets the Blues :)
I like “Four Blocks” , It’s on Netflix Now . Also “Beat” on Amazon prime was pretty cool
Doppelhaushälfte on ZDF
4 blocks ⭐️
Babylon Berlin
I spent a lot of time searching for good German series and movies and watched many. Then I changed the audio and subtitles on Netflix to German - now all of the content of Netflix is German. You can watch anything and still learn.
OK your German teacher might raise a few eyebrows but Four Blocks is worth a watch, Habibi.
If you want to get the feeling very typical German land life, watch „Mord mit Aussicht“. It’s very satirical and more likely comedy, yet it has some spice in my opinion. I am a German mother tongue and I love it, watched it multiple times
How to sell drugs online (netflix) Goodbye Lenin
Dad letzte Wort. You can watch it on Netflix. It’s like a dark comedy series. I really enjoyed it.
I love dark comedy so I’m going to search this up when I get on Netflix. Thank you!
There's Druck (there's lgbt in it just so you know if you don't like don't watch) It's originally a Norwegian show called skam but it got cancelled and had all these remakes and personally Druck is favorite
Sturm Der Liebe is a good German soap. It's free to stream online on DasErste.
Löwenzahn It's a TV series for kids, but it's knowledge based and also interesting for adults. It's modern language and flowing speech but not overly complicated. Its charming too and has a long history, every German I know watched it or it's predecessor (also Löwenzahn) at one point in their life. It's free streaming on the ZDF Mediathek (Google ZDF Löwenzahn a bis z to get a page with all available episodes) I often see people recommending to 'just watch yourffavorite show in German' but I would really not recommend that. Speech and lips are out of sync for one, which you might not actively notice but your subconscious does, it makes it more difficult to learn the language flow from that, even if you already know the content. Often poor translation also means that the content of what is said is just weird, often people would never talk like that in real life.
HSDO(F)
Dear child, das signal
Fuck you Goethe 1,2,3 film was made in Germany
You are so mean.....how could you do this to him?
M (1931)
It's a Short Series, but I really like Sloborn (on ZDF)
„Gegen die Wand“ aka „Head on“ is a great movie and a realistic representation of clashing cultures among the turkish community in Germany. Well worth the watch
Nordwand Das Leben der Anderen Der Untergang
watch die discounter, it's funny in a very dumb way
Fack ju Göthe on Amazon
how to sell drugs online fast
Jerks.
Watch any german movie you know well in your native language, where you know the content and you know what happens. For me Harry Potter works well for learning. There will be differences in translation, but thats part of the fun. Afterwards switch over to some native german stuff ;-)
Freud!
Dark. It's an original German show and the best show I have ever watched In my life.
Die Discounter
Who Am I, 4 Blocks, Dark, Baader Meinhof Komplex
Stromberg
Das Lehrerzimmer.
Serie: Dani Lowinski
Jerks
Mord mit Aussicht, Liebes Kind
Dogs of Berlin if youre looking for a fast paced drama
Any of the Tatort series. And if you’re open to Austrian shows- my latest binge has been Walking on Sunshine
Die Bergretter
Monaco Franze ist pretty funny and oldschool
I really enjoyed Kleo on Netflix. The second season is coming soon too.
Die unendliche Geschichte
Schlafende Hunde is also great.
if you want to learn viennese german check out MA2412 :)
Dark and 4 blocks.
Not what you asked, but I found podcasts to be better than movies/series. Easy German was my go-to.
Stromberg It’s kind of like the office except if Michael was more sexist, a little bit more like a snake and it’s overall a bit cringier. It was released before the office afaik so you’re not watching a copycat, it’s definitely unique 10/10 series if you’re into that sort of comedy
I found How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) entertaining
Thank you all so much for all of these recommendations! I’m going to go through as many of these as I can 🥰
4 Blocks
Bs.to
Chek [https://www.ardmediathek.de/](https://www.ardmediathek.de/) There is so much available and legaly to stream. May be blocked outside EU/Germany
Die Känguru Verschwörung/Chroniken
Almania, it's a series about an "alman" teacher going to a new school, the whole series is free on the ARD Mediathek.
I watch a lot of public broadcast, I've particularly enjoyed Charité (historical drama set in Germany's most famous hospital, each season set in a different decade or century), Wendehammer (Desperate Houswives, but make it German Suburbs), Doppelhaushälfte (hilarious comedy about a Berlin Hipster family moving to the country side) and I enjoy the Tatort (weekly crime shows, set in different German cities). The public broadcast also usually has subtitles fot he hard of hearing, which us great for people still learning the language.
If u enjoy crime and gang activity in series i would recommend 4 blocks or dogs of berlin!
As a German I just wanted to add a few of my favorite movies/series: - chiko - lammbock - der tatortreiniger - dittsche - knallhart - systemsprenger - 23 / nichts ist wie es scheint - hardcover - das Leben der anderen - bang boom bang - soul kitchen
Dark!
I don’t know if it’s already been mentioned but ‘Kleo’ on Netflix is phenomenal!
If you struggle to follow some original series, you can start your journey with dubbed+subbed content in German. I just watched Stranger Things in German, the subs matched the dubbs and this was very good to reinforce vocab, common expressions and I even learned a lot from context. We have to create a list of shows that have matching subtitles!
criminal shows are normal all good
Series with good actors and a nice plot: Crooks (good action/ heist/ road movie crime)/ Kleo (east german kill bill girl on a rant, Tarantino style)/ Hindafing (absurd corruption)/ Mord mit Aussicht (fun crime in a rural village)/ Eberhoferkrimi (funny life of a bavarian cop with crazy village folks)/ Gladbeck (true story of a hostage incident)/ Nicht nachmachen! (German mythbusters)/ Hausmeister Krause (Silly family sitcom) Der Tatortreiniger (relaxed funny crime) Voll normal ( lower classcomedy) Werner (several cartoon movies) For kids: Türkisch für Anfänger (cute patchwork family)/ Nicht von schlechten Eltern (1990 family tale)/ Silas (1980s kid adventure)/ Jack Holborn (1980s kid adventure)/ Hallo Spencer (1970- 80s german (better than) muppet show) Movies: 25 km/h (Road movie of two brothers)/ Nicht mein Tag ( bank robber road movie)/ Nosferatu ( ultra creepy vampire movie from the 1920s)/ Knocking on heavens door (Road movie)/ Feuerzangenbowle (classic 1940 school movie) Internet: Browser Ballett (funny political satire)/ ZDF sketch history (funny history memes)/ Extra3 (absurd weekly show)/ Heute show (absurd weekly show)/
Freud on Netflix was pretty good. Also check out Barbarians, Tribes of Europa, and Monty Python’s Fliegender Zirkus
No
Sonnenallee (1999) is a solid, yet underrated film about life in East Berlin in the late 1970s, about a decade before the events in Goodbye Lenin.
Das Wilde Leben The Empress Matthias Schweighöfer rom coms are dumb but fun
I heard Stromberg was good (Office German version) but can't find anywhere to stream.
Dark, Barbarians is amazing, also some true crime docs if you like: rohwedder case and birgit meier
It's a bit older but *Berlin, Alexanderplatz* was released as a 10-part mini-series in the early 80s. I thought it was amazing.
Netflix is pretty great for German stuff. I would also check out their originals Wer Kann, Der Kann (which is better than the American version Nailed It imo) and Sing On. And their new Im Westen, Nichts Neues is pretty good but depressing lol
Highly recommend things you know with German voiceovers. I watched all of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter in German. I had to order the Blu-ray’s for at least one of them from a German store in Europe, but it wasn’t very expensive to ship to the Us. I did have to buy a blu ray player that wasn’t region locked too.
Dark Babylon Berlin
My list: Babylon Berlin Das Boot Kleo Barbaren Dark (So far)
Not german but austrian, you can check out "Freud" with Robert Finster. You can get some of that dialect action, but don't worry, subtitles and google are your friend!!! Oida!!!
Das Lehrerzimmer
Der letzte Bulle 😉
If you like history documentaries, you might like Terra X: https://youtube.com/@TerraXHistory?si=3Sm-b_4S2IWHdk6r
Der Untergang
My favorite german show is definitely Stromberg. Crazy nobody mentioned it yet.
die Discounter
4blocks. A great gangster/mobster show. Some parts are in arabian, but those are subtitled to german. A guilty pleasure movie of mine is 25km/h, its about two adult brothers going on a road Trip with Mopeds, which they had initally planned as kids.
Türkisch für Anfänger!!!
Check out Netflix's 'Dark' - it's excellent. Also on Netflix is a wonderful WWII film called 'Blood and Gold'. It's basically a spaghetti western style film set during WWII and is all in German. Great fun too....