Babylon Berlin

It’s the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 in Berlin: speculators hang or shoot themselves, frantic small-time shareholders and savers try to storm the stock exchange and the banks to empty out their accounts. In the middle of it all is GEREON RATH, standing in utter disbelief in the deserted hall of the exchange.

RATH returns home in the middle of the night, exhausted and tired. HELGA, who has waited for him, wants him to talk to her, but he does not react. In desperation, HELGA packs her bags – she cannot go on living with Gereon [RATH] like this. She leaves the house with her son MORITZ. RATH stays behind, crying silently.

SEBALD, BENDA’s former assistant, visits an orphanage to take a look at the birth certificate of GRETA’s child. It turns out, the boy is alive, and a foster family has already been found. The family is supposed to pick him up soon. SEBALD intervenes and makes sure that GRETA’s child will remain under state supervision and will not be allowed to leave the orphanage without official permission.

On a trip organized by the Catholic Youth, MORITZ gets to know a group of boys from the FDAHJ, the ‘FREE GERMAN WORKERS YOUTH’, also known as Hitler Youth. They fascinate him. The boys let MORITZ shoot with bow and arrow. He’s a good shot.

GRÄF enters the ‘Archiv für Geheime Staatssachen’ [Archive for the Secret Affairs of the State] and begins to photograph the BENDA file. Registrar UHL catches him in the act and recognizes GRÄF as a former prostitute – a fact, which he immediately exploits.

KATELBACH can finally present enough evidence on the Lufthansa story for it to be published in ‘Tempo’ along with pictures of construction plans. The BETTY WINTER story, however, again claims the title page: ROT is still under suspicion of murder and, yet, he is being released.

VERA tells CHARLOTTE more about the ‘alibi’ she was supposed to provide WALTER with: when WALTER was released from prison, she was supposed to be “nice” to him. But WALTER did not want anything from Vera and, instead, locked her into the boot of his car.

WENDT is out horse-back riding, when he is suddenly accosted by FRITZ. FRITZ tells WENDT about how he had be interrogated by RATH and mentions, that the whole affair could come to light, if WENDT’s name came up. FRITZ is trying to blackmail WENDT. Instead of giving him any money, WENDT shoots FRITZ in cold blood.

MORITZ and his new Hitler Youth friends engage in target practice in the woods. When he cannot bring himself to shoot a small fawn, the other boys mock him and call him ‘Bambi’. MORITZ does not take the abuse and starts a fight with ARNDT. MORITZ is burning with rage and almost kills ARNDT. OTTO, an SA-thug eventually breaks up the fight and the two boys are made to shake hands.

DR. SCHMIDT is at the police headquarters to test the so called ‘criminal telepathy’. JULIANA, the medium, tells the police officers of a knife, which still lies on the roof of the studio building and of an apparent doppelganger of the PHANTOM. JULIANA then becomes panic-stricken, claiming that the doppelganger is right “here”, in their midst. Could there really be a murderer amongst them?

charlotte surprises Rath by suddenly appearing at his door. While Wolter follows them unseen, they set out to see Benda. Along the way, Charlotte reveals to Rath that the wagon numbers have been exchanged and that Nyssen and Wolter want to secure the gold of the Sorokins. At kilometre 127 , the train shall be raided.

It’s the day of GRETA’S execution. LITTEN remembers a law, according to which official business – including executions – must cease on days of national mourning. And on this day, the nation mourns for STRESEMANN. LITTEN and CHARLOTTE rush to the women’s prison with a signed document that backs them up, only to be confronted with WENDT, who personally oversees GRETA’s execution. They have failed.