“How do people come to vote for the AfD?”

By Markus Tschiedert

This time, in Berlin in 1931, in the midst of an economic crisis and political unrest, a US gangster has to be shadowed. Not the first historical role for Friedel.

His roles in “Dasweiße Band” and “Elser” also brought the Magdeburg native international recognition. We met him for an interview at the Hotel Zoo am Kudamm.

BZ: Many German stars appear in “Babylon Berlin”. Do you consider it an accolade to be part of it?

Christian Friedel: I am very proud to be part of this series. I have to say that I’m a big Tom Tykwer fan and I’ve always wanted to be in one of his films. At first I didn’t give a damn what I was playing, it was always about working with him – now with all three directors.

You play the police photographer Reinhold Gräf…

…but I also auditioned for the role of Samuel Katelbach. We noticed relatively quickly that my nature is more like the count.

What do you mean by natural?

Gräf is a connecting and emphatic person, and if I hadn’t become an actor, I might have been a mediator. I do like solving problems and being a link in a chain of friends. That is what counts for Gräf.

Does that suit the acting profession, when everyone is more or less a lone fighter?

I’ve never been one to work with elbows. I like ensemble work because I always open up better when everyone is working on something together. I think that’s really great about this project. After all, Berlin played the secret leading role here at a time that was changing rapidly.

This time it’s about Berlin in the early 1930s. Do you see any parallels between then and now?

Absolutely! This is often very frightening: people are living a dream, ignoring currents that are coming, and the system, which is becoming weaker and weaker, in turn lays the breeding ground for other currents. I think you can see that today too.

What are you up to?

How come people vote for the AfD, listen to politicians who contradict each other? It’s really amazing how people ignore things and only realize it when it’s too late. You can see that now in the fourth season of the series, where suddenly the entire jurisdiction changes because the political system has changed, in which one is no longer allowed to say everything.

How do you see the future?

I hope that we have learned from the mistakes of the past. But as we can see, there will always be people who are more concerned with maintaining their own power than doing something good with it. We see that worldwide. We are still doing relatively well, but you can still see a great deal of social dissatisfaction and a lack of trust in politics.

Many people stay at home and no longer go to the cinema. Does it not matter to you whether you work for cinema or television?

No, I’ve done two movies now, which I can’t talk about yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing them there. There was a team screening of “Babylon Berlin” recently, and the directors don’t call it a long film for nothing, because you can tell that it’s also made for the cinema. Maybe we all need to rethink.

In which direction?

I’ve now also started with “The Rings of Power” and think it’s crazy what kind of effort is being put into it. I would also like to see that in the cinema. So why not a series in the cinema? Nobody can replace this shared experience at home. You can’t just look for the culprit among the streaming providers, you have to look for a solution together.

“Babylon Berlin” is also an international hit. To what extent has that already affected your career?

It has never happened to me that people recognize me abroad. But there is also a veritable flood of series, and I’m part of a huge ensemble. I notice that more on social networks. When I sang the song “You are everything” in the last season, it was covered in different languages. I really enjoyed that.

Do you actually live in the capital for a longer period of time when shooting for “Babylon Berlin”?

We shot Season 4 from March to September 2021 and I have a lot of respect for the people who put the cast together on schedule. Sometimes I have real blocks where I’m on the set for one to two weeks, then I have a month off or only have to come for a day. Luckily Dresden is just around the corner.

Do you like being in Berlin?

I love Berlin and have also considered moving here completely. But since I got my band, that would be nonsense. Because most of the time when I’m not filming or acting, I spend with my band. And you can still get affordable housing in Dresden, which is less and less the case in Berlin.

That’s what Season 4 is about

In its fifth year, the cult series “Babylon Berlin” is entering its fourth round. This time, Tom Tykwer (57) and co-directors took the novel “Goldstein” by Volker Kutscher (59) as a basis.

The first episode begins on New Year’s Eve 1930/31 (starts October 8th on Sky One, from 2023 on the first). Hard times are ahead. There is an economic crisis, SA troops are marching through the streets. Right in the middle acts commissioner Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch) with assistant Charlotte Ritter (Liv Lisa Fries) and police photographer Reinhold Gräf (Christian Friedel). When they shadow the US gangster Goldstein (Mark Ivanivir), a gang war breaks out in the Berlin underworld. Public life is increasingly dominated by National Socialists, the Weimar Republic is on the verge of collapse and Rath’s life is in danger.

A total of ten new episodes are waiting for the audience.