Are you looking for a way to binge-watch streaming content without guilt? With the relatively recent addition of an abundance of foreign language shows, streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime are giving you the material to make watching TV a learning experience. German TV shows are your entryway to making learning German a more common part of your day-to-day life.
When studying a new language, consuming media in that language is a great way to get a feel for its cadence and how it’s supposed to be pronounced. You can also pick up some words and phrases while you read, watch or listen.
Here are five of the best German-language TV shows you can stream right now to help you learn German. We recommend starting with the English subtitles on, but eventually working toward the goal of switching them off.
Best German TV Shows To Learn The Language
Dark
Where To Watch: Netflix
Number Of Seasons: 3 (ended)
Show Premise: Dark, the first German-language Netflix original series, tells the story of two kids who go missing in a small German town. As the families search for their missing children, they’re thrust into an intergenerational mystery involving the town’s sinister past (and time travel!).
Learning Tips: In the United States, Netflix defaults to a version of the show dubbed in English. We would highly recommend going into the audio settings and changing it to the original German (with English subtitles, if you’d like). Do you really want to watch a show in which the voices don’t line up with the movement of the actors’ mouths?
You Are Wanted
Where To Watch: Amazon Prime
Number Of Seasons: 2 (ended)
Show Premise: Set in Berlin, You Are Wanted delves into the world of cybersecurity with the story of a hotel manager whose personal data is hacked and used to frame him for terrorism.
Learning Tips: This German TV show comes with the option of watching the original version or a dubbed version. Watch it in German. Feel free to use English subtitles to help guide you, but see how much you can comprehend without them.
Babylon Berlin
Where To Watch: Netflix
Number Of Seasons: 3 (ongoing)
Show Premise: This period drama takes place in 1929 Berlin. Police detective Gereon Rath comes to the city to investigate a pornography ring and ends up uncovering a larger political conspiracy.
Learning Tips: You can watch this show on Netflix in German with English subtitles. Again, a dubbed version is available, but just ignore it. The series can teach you quite a bit about German history during the Weimar Republic, and the books it’s based on have been praised for their historical accuracy.
Deutschland 83/86/89
Where To Watch: Sundance Now, Hulu
Number Of Seasons: 3 (ongoing)
Show Premise: Deutschland 83/86/89 is a coming-of-age story about a young East German soldier who is sent to West Germany as an undercover spy in the 1980s. The series premiered on Sundance TV, making it the first German TV show show to air on a U.S. network. Each season jumps forward three years into the future, so respectively they’re called Deutschland 83, Deutschland 86 and Deutschland 89.
Learning Tips: The show is available on Hulu and Amazon Prime in German with English subtitles. Though entirely fictional, Deutschland 83 can also provide a glimpse into the historical context of life in 1980s Berlin.
4 Blocks
Where To Watch: Amazon Prime, HBO Max
Number Of Seasons: 3 (ended)
Show Premise: This German TV show, acquired by Amazon last year, tells the story of an Arab drug cartel boss in Berlin who tries to get out of the organized crime business for the sake of his wife and kids. Naturally, his exit doesn’t go as smoothly as planned.
Learning Tips: You can watch 4 Blocks on Amazon Prime in German with English subtitles. For a language bonus, there is also a bit of Arabic sprinkled throughout the series.