The opening Theme Song "Edelweiss" was popularized internationally in the The Sound of Music. Captain von Trapp sings it to mourn Austria's Anschluss with Nazi Germany. In this case, now the United States has been conquered by the Axis Powers. Still, this version is far creepier than the Von Trapp version.
In Episode 2, Joe sits down to watch TV. Among several familiar-looking TV shows is one called "American Reich", which has an opening of a police badge on a blue background and a Suspiciously Similar Substitute of the Dragnet theme. The policemen's voices are likewise "just the facts, ma'am" deadpan. The subtitles even directly refer to the music as the Dragnet theme.
At the diner in the Neutral Zone, the origami unicorn is a homage to Blade Runner.
The episode title, "Land O'Smiles", in which a brand of marijuana cigarettes called "Land-O-Smiles" appears, is the name of a brand of reefers that are described in another Philip K. Dick book or story.
In the Season 2 episode "Detonation", Tagomi departs from the alternate timeline and returns to his own; first saying farewell to alternate Juliana, after which she turns away and when she looks back again, he has disappeared. The scene is set up and plays just like Starbuck's final scene in the finale episode of Battlestar Galactica (2003).
The Nazi strategic command room in Berlin resembles the War Room from Dr. Strangelove.
The end credits of the season 2 finale have "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" from Cabaret playing in the background. Subsequently, in season 3, it is sung at the ceremony dedicating a high school being named in honor of Thomas Smith.
During season 3, when learning for the first time about "travelers" and parallel realities, Smith remarks of it sounding like "something out of Fredric Brown" (perhaps referring specifically to What Mad Universe).
The exterior buildings of the Lackawanna Mines in the Poconos (Pennsylvania) resemble the abandoned buildings of the "Strughold Mines" (in West Virginia) in an episode of The X-Files. Frank Spotnitz, showrunner of Man in the High Castle, had worked on that series.
The destruction of the Statue of Liberty in Jahr Null seems to deliberately echo the destruction of the Houses of Parliament in V for Vendetta. Both scenes show a prominent landmark being destroyed, with the explosion synchronized to a famous classical score (Beethoven's Ode to Joy and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture respectively). In both instances, the crescendo is reached with a discordant gong, followed by fireworks while jubilant crowds watch the show. However, where one marks the end of a fascist dictatorship, the other is the moment of triumph for the fascists.
In season 4, Hawthorne Abendsen is forced to participate in Reich propaganda to continue ensuring his wife's safety. One of the shows he participates in is a transparent send-up to The Twilight Zone, with Hawthorne as a serious, omniscient narrator regaling the tales of ordinary people placed in Kafka-esque nightmares, albeit filtered through a National Socialist dogma.
He is also secretly passing messages to the resistance through the broadcasts. This and Smith's willingness to do anything to keep his family safe, with no regards to the consequences, are references to Mother Night.
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