YMMV / Babylon Berlin

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Whether Dr. Schmidt is actually Gereon's brother Anno, or he was just playing the role as a therapeutic technique is a matter of some debate among fans, especially since the supposed earth-shattering reveal appears to have limited consequences in Season 3. Gereon addresses Dr. Schmidt as "Anno" in one scene; Dr. Schmidt angrily retorts that "Anno is dead," but whether that means he isn't actually Anno or it's a case of That Man Is Dead only adds to the debate even further.
• Awesome Music: The jazzy, mysterious and mesmerizing "Zu Asche, zu Staub" ("To ashes, to dust"). There's a reason it's reused in the closing credits for each episode.
• Complete Monster:
  • Seasons 1 & 2: Trochin is a Soviet ambassador who is tasked with finding the train carrying gold and hunting down the Trotskyists. To this end, Trochin has his men massacre a printing shop, killing 15 people, while tracking down the sole survivor and torturing him until he gives up information about the train, at which point Trochin then kills him. When the train he locates is rigged with nerve gas, he leaves his men to die, while trying to save himself. Trochin has also collaborated with the Black Reichwehr to overthrow the current government of Germany, only to sell them out to avoid jail time for the atrocities he committed.
  • Season 3: Dr. Leopold Ullrich is a police analyst who turns on the force to achieve fame and glory for himself. After finding the identities of the individuals who murdered the first actress in a film lot, Ullrich blackmails them into committing more murders, before framing Walter Weintraub, just so Ullrich can "catch" him and be viewed as a hero. When Gereon Rath and Charlotte "Lotte" Ritter learn of Ullrich's crimes, he injects them with insulin, while also killing his own assistant once he catches on as well. He would then kidnap the police commissioner, Ernst "Buddah" Gennat, attempting to hang him while framing Gereon for Gennat's death.
• Iron Woobie: Charlotte. She lives with her family in a run-down, cramped flat, working both at the police station by day and as a prostitute by night to keep the bills paid so her little sister can go to school. For her efforts she is routinely slut-shamed and harassed by her Lower-Class Lout brother-in-law, and resented by her older sister for being the main breadwinner (and this is without going into what she suffers during the course of the show). Yet in spite of her circumstances, she spends much of her time onscreen with a confident smile on her face, or showing her determined resourcefulness in becoming a police detective. It's only well into Seasons 2, 3 and 4 that the iron begins to show cracks, and she still doesn't let that stop her from doing what needs to be done.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Richard Pachtman aka Fritz crosses this by manipulating Greta by first seducing her and later faking his death to make her think Benda was responsible to carry out the assassination, resulting the former to shove Greta to the subway pavement at a rally and Greta being jailed and eventually executed for Benda's killing.
  • Wendt crosses this by leaving Stresemann to die from his stroke after having Greta's baby taken hostage to ensure her silence and having her executed as The Scapegoat.
  • Charlotte's brother-in-law Erich crosses this by blaming Charlotte for his wife's blindness despite her efforts and threatening to sue her upon disowning her. If he hasn't crossed this earlier with his constant Slut-Shaming for her prostitution job.
• Narm: A few incidents cross into the territory.
  • In Season 3, some of Charlotte's antics while attempting to stop Greta's execution, despite the gravity of the situation, can come across more as a child throwing a temper tantrum (particularly reminiscent of the Angry German Kid).
  • Also in Season 3, Gereon looking down into the sewer grate and seeing what's ostensibly supposed to be the Leviathan (a Biblical omen of doom). Not only does it jar with the atmosphere of the show as a whole, viewers are also probably more likely to think of a Sewer Gator.
• Signature Scene: Svetlana (crossdressing as "Nikoros") performing "Zu Asche, zu Staub" surrounded by Josephine Baker imitators, in Season 1. The scene remained iconic enough for Severija Janušauskaitė to create a band, Moka Efti (named after the series' cabaret) and perform the song in concerts.
• Stoic Woobie: Gereon, see The Woobie below for more information.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: It can quite difficult to care due to the Foregone Conclusion that the Weimar Republic, its economy and its justice system will crumble and Those Wacky Nazis would eventually take power despite Gereon's and Charlotte's best efforts to do their jobs to solve the cases and maintain their country's systems, which in the process gradually ruined their personal lives that viewers are forced to witness their suffering. With the stock market crashing and both main characters being forsaken by their families along with ultimately failing to save Charlotte's friend and left with ultimately nothing to lose by this point, it's pretty clear by the third season's finale their lives are practically over and there would likely be no future for neither of them nor their sense of justice in the soon-to-be Nazi-dominated Germany.
• The Woobie:
  • Greta. She's introduced to the audience as a penniless nobody, having been abandoned by the man she came to Berlin with and forced to stand out on the street with a sign to look for work. She is retiring and shy in most of her scenes, practically fleeing from the drunks flirting with her at Moka Efti and subject to classist insults by some of the other girls when out with Janicke. Even when things seem to be looking up for her and Charlotte gets her a job as Benda's maid, this ultimately results in her being seduced and tricked into aiding his assassination, then executed for it as The Scapegoat after being forced into silence to protect her child. Poor girl can't catch a break.
  • The Defective Detective Gereon, who starts the show as a PTSD-ridden war vet plagued by survivor's guilt, forced to take laudanum on a regular basis to function and struggling to see justice done in a city rife with corruption and crime. We later find out that he spent his entire childhood being told that his brother Anno (who was declared MIA in WWI) was superior to him, to the point where his father was disappointed he was the one to come back from the war. It's noteworthy that the only time the audience really sees him smile is when Helga shows up, which makes it all the worse when she abandons him and aborts the baby they were going to have together.

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