News

Until last week, any Spotify user could access a playlist titled “Musikkorps Der Leibstandarte — SS Adolf Hitler Radio” — so named for the Nazi fuhrer’s personal corps of bodyguards. The streaming service itself generated the track list, and multiple Rolling Stone staffers each received a different mix upon loading it. Depending on Spotify’s algorithm, the streaming service chose different — often benign — national anthems from throughout history, but two playlists featured music by Das Luftwaffenmusikkorps 3 (named after the Nazi air force).

One day after Rolling Stone’s inquiry to Spotify...

Berlin — Described as continental Europe’s most expensive show ever, epic crime drama “Babylon Berlin” will bow on Sky’s streaming service on Jan. 24, now set in 1929, with a new murder mystery, based on “The Silent Death”, the second novel in Volker Kutscher’s trilogy, though the same intent: To trace with large artistic ambition yet historical accuracy the origins of Nazism.

A world premiere on Dec. 16 hinted, with its creators’ and cast comments, at what’s new, and the series’ growing relevance to the present day.

Produced again by Berlin-based X Filme Creative Pool, pan-European pay TV giant Sky, German public network Ard Degeto and Munich-based production-sales house Beta Film, Season 3 follows police Inspector Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch) and flapper clerk Charlotte Ritter (Liv Lisa Fries) as they investigate a murder on a film set. The series diverges from its source material as co writer-show runners Tim Tykwer, Achim von Borries...