The distinctive Red Town Hall is a Berlin landmark and a well-known film location. The international hit series “Babylon Berlin” was filmed here.
In this 1920s police drama, the Red Town Hall stands in for one of the most important settings for the action: the police headquarters, known as the “Rote Burg” (“Red Castle”). The main characters Bruno Walter, Gereon Rath, and Charlotte Ritter all work here. The “Rote Burg” really existed. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the monumental police headquarters on Alexanderplatz became a site of suppression and persecution. The Nazis’ secret police, the Gestapo, worked alongside the police in the building from 1933 to 1945. After the brick “Rote Burg” was heavily damaged in the Second World War it was used for a time as a prison. The “Rote Burg,” which stood not far from the Red Town Hall, was demolished in 1957. Since the Red Town Hall resembles the now-lost “Rote Burg,” the makers of “Babylon Berlin” chose it as a filming location. “Babylon Berlin” is based on a series of bestselling novels by Volker Kutscher.