Babylon Berlin, German Visual Spectacle, and Global Media Culture

The popular German streaming series Babylon Berlin-a neo-noir thriller set in the final years of the Weimar Republic-builds on the fascination with 1920s Berlin as a centre of political and economic upheaval, hedonistic nightlife, and vibrant artistic experimentation. Exploring Weimar's history and culture, its legacy, and its resonance in the early 21st century, this volume analyses Babylon Berlin and its unique contribution to contemporary visual culture.

Since its inception in 2017 the series has reached audiences throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas and has been met with both critical and popular acclaim. As a visual work rife with historical and contemporary citations Babylon Berlin offers its audience a panoramic view of politics, crime, culture, gender, and sexual relations in the German capital.

Focusing especially on the intermedial and transhistorical dimensions of the series, across four parts-Babylon Berlin, Global Media and Fan Culture; The Look and Sound of Babylon Berlin; Representing Weimar History; and Weimar Intertexts-the volume brings together an international group of scholars to critically examine various facets of the show, including its aesthetic form and citational style, its representation of the history and politics of late Weimar, and its exemplary status as a blockbuster production of neoliberal media culture.

Considering the series from the perspective of a variety of disciplines, Babylon Berlin, German Visual Spectacle, and Global Media Culture is essential reading for fans of the series and for scholars and students of cinema and media studies, visual culture, history, and German & European studies.

List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors

Introduction, Hester Baer (University of Maryland, College Park, USA) and Jill Suzanne Smith (Bowdoin College, USA)

Part One: Babylon Berlin, Global Media, and Fan Culture

1. Quality TV Drama with Transnational Appeal: Industry Discourses on Babylon Berlin and the Changing Television Landscape in Germany, Florian Krauß (University of Siegen, Germany)

2. Defective Detective Meets Sassy Secretary, Plot Ensues: Babylon Berlin, TV Tropes, and the Cultural Implications of Pop Narratology, Doria Killian (University of North Carolina, Asheville, USA)

Part Two: The Look and Sound of Babylon Berlin

3. Fashion for a Global Audience: 1920s Glamour and Grit, Mila Ganeva (Miami University, Ohio, USA)

4. Liquid Space and Digital Aesthetics in Babylon Berlin, Michael Sandberg (University of California, Berkeley) and Cara Tovey (University of California, Los Angeles, USA)

5. Recreating the Soundscape of Weimar: Sound Technologies, Trauma, and the Sonic Archive, Abby Anderton (Baruch College and CUNY Graduate Center, USA)

6. From Kahn to Kollwitz: Exploring the Significance of Art and Visual Culture in Babylon Berlin, Camilla Smith (University of Birmingham, UK)

Part Three: Representing Weimar History

7. "Modernity in Babylon: The Media as Proponents of Modern Life in Babylon Berlin," Jochen Hung (Utrecht University, Netherlands)

8. Journalists and the Media as Proponents of Modern Life, Javier Samper Vendrell (University of Pennsylvania, USA)

9. Reading Queerness in Babylon Berlin, Darcy Buerkle (Smith College, USA)

Part Four: Weimar Intertexts

10. Blood May Footage and the Archive Effect: The Political Ambivalence of Babylon Berlin as Appropriation Film, Sara F. Hall (University of Illinois, Chicago, USA)

11. Glitter and Post-Punk Doom: Babylon Berlin through the Lens of 1980s West Berlin, Julia Sneeringer (Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center, USA)

12. Siegfried, Screen Memories, and the Fall of the Weimar Republic, Carrie Collenberg-Gonzá lez (Portland State University, USA) and Curtis L. Maughan (Pomona College, USA)

Afterword: Hester Baer and Jill Suzanne Smith

Index