Netflix unveiled a raft of new German-language original series and films on Tuesday and showed first footage of previously unveiled programming from the Germany/Austria/Switzerland region, THR reports.
“The projects are part of Netflix’s push into local content with a doubling of investments to 500 million euros ($570 million) between 2021 and 2023,” he company said.
The report further says that during the company’s second virtual “Netflix Content Remote Show,” executives from the streamer’s team in the German-language countries of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, presented highlights of upcoming programming and featured some content creators and actors. German actress Hadnet Tesfai, who was born in Eritrea, hosted the event, which showcased a total of nine series, five films and five non-fiction titles.
Several high-profile shows on the slate will focus on murder. Steffi Ackermann, director of local-language series for the German-language region, unveiled several new German-language shows for the streamer, among them Achtsam Morden (Kiling Mindfully), based on the novel of the same name by Karsten Dusse, which topped German bestseller lists for months. It tells the story of a successful lawyer who, to save his marriage, finds a new work-life balance with the help of a mindfulness seminar and accidentally becomes a murderer in the process.
Other newly unveiled series include Kleo, about a woman from the German Democratic Republic who used to work as a Stasi killer and goes on a vendetta in the newly reunified Berlin, and thriller series Liebes Kind (Dear Child, working title), based on the novel by Romy Hausmann that explores “the power of obsession” and “human abysses in their darkest depths.”
Among the other shows on Netflix’s German-language slate featured on Tuesday were the previously unveiled Totenfrau, a revenge thriller centered on a female undertaker (portrayed by Dogs of Berlin‘s Anna Maria Mühe) that is based on a series of novels by Bernhard Aichner and directed by Nicolai Rohde as a co-production with Austrian public broadcaster ORF (with which it also co-produced Freud) and King of Stonks (previous working title: Cable Cash) from the creators of How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast), which is described as “inspired by real events in the financial world” and explores megalomania and narcissism.
Among the series creators featured during Tuesday’s virtual event were the likes of Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, co-creators of German original hit drama Dark who touted their upcoming period horror/mystery series 1899, about a group of European migrants who leave London on a steamship to start new lives in New York City, but encounter another migrant ship adrift on the open sea, turning their journey into a nightmare, and the team behind How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast).
Ackermann also showed first footage from the likes of period drama The Empress, the dark saga of Sissi of Austria.
