If you watch Netflix as much as we do, you already know about their series Dark. Some people say that the series is similar to Stranger Things since the city where everything happens in this series is a massive part of the mystery.
But Winden, the city where most of the series happens, is not real, and you can find some small pieces of it in and around Berlin.
We have been looking for those places for a while now and are here to show you our findings.
The story in Dark begins with a missing teenager and a series of unexplained events that overwhelm four families in Winden. Tall trees, subterranean caves that are not what they seem, a dark forest that could be the source of all the mystery and a small-town community where everybody knows each other for as long as they have been living there.
This is the setting of Dark, and we loved it so much that we need to know where it was filmed.
Where was Netflix’s series Dark filmed?
According to the series creators, Baran bo Odarn and Jantje Friese, Winden is not a real town, and everything filmed for the series was purposely put together so that this fictional town wouldn’t look like a northern German town or a Bavarian village.
Their idea was to turn this fictional town into a place that could be everywhere and anywhere simultaneously.
Because of this, they went to Berlin and explored the surrounding areas, looking for a village look that would fit well with everything about the series Dark.
When you leave Berlin and go straight into the forest around Grünewald, the area becomes completely different from what you see in places like Neukölln. There are long, straight trees that create a creepy, almost fairytale-like forest.
You can see all the locations we found in Dark there. If you don’t care about spoilers, read the rest of the text below.
The church where Michael meets Noah
In episode 5, when Noah meets Michael, a church is in the background since Michael is there to see where his father is buried. We learned about the location of this church from Dark through our friends at Canal Alemanizando, and you can find it at the Südwestkirchhof Stahnsdorf. This cemetery used to be connected to Wannsee via the railroad, and it’s now abandoned.
The cemetery is the second largest one in Germany, and it has a beautiful forest character that makes walking around pretty interesting.
There are many historic tombs in the, including the one from Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, who directed the movie Nosferatu. But we went there to see the cemetery chapel!
The cemetery chapel from Südwestkirchhof Stahnsdorf was built between 1908 and 1911, and it follows the plans of Gustav Werner. The church has a Norwegian style, all it’s of wood. Inside, the wooden decoration is presented together with Art Nouveau glass windows and an organ by Wilhelm Sauer that is all original.
The trip to Stahnsdorf is, somehow, not that simple, but the visit we did to the cemetery and the church was more than worth it. Even if we weren’t fans of the series Dark, it would be cool to explore the area.
Jonas Kahnwald House in Dark
One of the central locations of Dark is the house where Jonas lives. A lot of the actions throughout the series happen there, and this place has been our most wanted location from Dark since we started aimlessly looking for them around Berlin.
At the beginning of Dark, Jonas lives there with his mother, Hannah. And we know that his father committed suicide in the attic. But, later in the series, we learn that Ines raised Michael in the house, and then he inherits it and uses it as an art studio.
Also, this is where Martha dies.
We will not share where you can find Jonas’s hJonas’s Dark because this is home to a family, and we don’t want to bring people there just because they watched a few episodes of a Netflix series. Below, there are many locations for you to explore without any family disturbance in mind.
As a fan of the series, maybe you would like some of the tiles from the house used in the series. This is why all the pictures we have here look like this. We visited the place at the end of July 2020 after an anonymous tip online.
The high school where everything starts in the series Dark
Most of the action in Dark happens around or at a high school where most kids study. According to a video we watched with our friends at Canal Alemanizando, the school is easy to find, and it was effortless to do it.
The school is called Reinfelder-Schule, and you can find it in the Berlin-Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf neighborhood. You just take a train to S Messe Süd and walk a few blocks, and that is it. Simple. The school has a concrete block feel, painted in yellow, like in the series.
We visited the area on a Sunday afternoon and took too many pictures.
We went there on a Sunday to avoid taking photos of the kids, and it was more than worth it since the school was empty, and we had all the time in the world to enjoy being a part of the series Dark.
Nielsen’s Family HouseNielsen’sorth of Berlin
The Nielsens are one of the core families in Dark, and they were another location we were eager to find. It was only in the Summer of 2020 that we found our way into a neighborhood north of Berlin called Frohnau, where we cycled past it.
Since Nielsen is one of the leading families in Dark, a lot happens in the house. But they are not the only residents. The original ones were Egon Tiedemann with Doris and Claudia back in 1953. In 1986, we saw Ulrich and Mads living there together with their parents, Tronte and Jana, who moved to another location we managed to find later.
In 2019, when Dark starts, Mikkel, Magnus, Martha Katharina, and Ulrich live there, but during the series, we see how time tears them apart somehow.
The Bridge and the train tracks from the series Dark
The year is 2019, and a kid is missing in Winden. He is the person dealing marijuana to some of the kids in school, and nobody seems to know where he might be. One of the kids decided to put together a group and go looking for the stash of drugs from the missing kids. They follow some train tracks that lead deeper into the forest while they go looking for a cave.
They enter a cave looking for the stash of drugs, but there are strange sounds and some flickering flashlights that scare everybody in different directions. When they get together again, one of the kids is missing.
All of this happens in the same place in the middle of the Düppeler forest. The train tracks are part of an abandoned railroad that used to lead to one of the most significant cemeteries in Germany: Südwestkirchhof Stahnsdorf.
Known as the Friedhofsbahn, it connected Wannsee to Stahnsdorf until 1952, when the last train rolled into Stahnsdorf.
The bridge overlooks the abandoned train tracks, and there is a hiking route called Königsweg. In the 1870s, it was one of the military paths between Berlin and Potsdam.
We visited the area more than once. Watching the series and It’s being there a few days later is pretty impressive.
The bridge where the kids realize that one of them is missing overlooks the abandoned train tracks, and you can see how Dark had to do some movie magic to make it look like it does on screen.
THE MENTAL ASYLUM WHERE ULRICH WAS LOCKED IN 1953
A lot happens to the police officer known as Ulrich Nielsen in Dark. But, here, we are not going to talk much about him. We are here to mention another of the many Dark Locations we found around Berlin.
If you’re a fan of the series, you know about the mental asylum where Ulrich was locked up in 1953.
In the series, Ulrich Nielsen grows from a rebellious teen to an energetic police officer. When his son disappears in the series’ first episode, we see him grow into a different character until he travels back in time and is locked in a mental asylum. In the real world, this building isn’t similar to a mental asylum in any way.
This Dark location can be found in a district called Potsdam-Süd, in an anvil-shaped peninsula known as Hermannswerder.
Nowadays, most of the area is owned by the Evangelical Hoffbauer Foundation. The building used in Dark is a gorgeous-looking brick building where Biotecon Diagnostics is located, as you can see on the map at the end of this article.
After a long bike ride from Berlin to Potsdam, I was there on a summer evening.
Exploring the Winden Cave
In Dark, it seems that a large complex of caves lies under the forest surrounding the city of Winden. This cave system is more extensive than most residents, but we don’t think anyone knows how large it is.
Inside the cave, you will find some hidden drugs, three large doors that you can use to travel back in time, and even some radioactive waste. But the most exciting thing you can find is a passage that can be used to travel through time. That is the entire premise of the series.
Regarding the shots inside the Winden Cave, it seems like they were done in the Unicorn Cave in the Harz region here in Germany. This makes sense since there are no rock formations like those around Berlin and Brandenburg.
The outside area, where you can see the entry to the cave system, is fake, and the cave is not natural. What you can see in the series is a mixture of CGI and a set built in a forest between Tremsdorf and Saarmund in Brandenburg, south of Berlin.
On a cold December day, I took a train to Berlin-Wannsee, a bus in the direction of the Nuthe-Nieplitz-Niederung nature reserve, and after a long walk in the woods, I found the Winden Cave.
Or the location where the cave was supposed to be since nothing existed.
The forest around the place is beautiful, and after a few minutes of walking surrounded by trees, I saw some familiar shapes in the distance. A ravine looked like something I had seen before, and once I grabbed a reference picture from the series, I knew this was the right place.
Waldhotel Winden from Dark
The Waldhotel Winden from Dark appears at the beginning of the series as a hotel in Winden, the city where most of the action happens. In the present, which would be 2019, Regina Tiedemann operates it. When the series evolves and returns to 1953, you can see that the house belonged to the Doppler Family. This is where Helge lives with his strict mother.
One of my favorite scenes from the first season of Dark happens in the Waldhotel Winden. Regina Tiedemann is surprised by the arrival of a hooded stranger who asks for a room. A few days later, the stranger leaves the room and says he will return soon. When Regina enters the room, she is surprised that the walls are covered in photographs, clippings, and notes about the people who disappeared in Winden and time travel.
The exterior shots from the hotel were done at the Schloss Lanke in Brandenburg. In January 2020, I visited the place with the fantastic guys from Alemanizando.
Where Tronte and Jana Nielsen live in 2019
After re-watching a few dark episodes before the third season was released, I wondered where Tronte and Jana Nielsen live in 2019.
In the series, whenever the couple appears in the past, they still live where Ulrich Nielsen lived with his family in 2019. But, whenever the show goes into the present, the year 2019, they live in a gray block of buildings.
These buildings looked familiar to me. I have been cycling around Berlin for a long time, and occasionally, I recognize places and locations I might have seen before.
To find this one, I went on Google Maps and started researching locations near the Babelsberg Studios, where a playground with sand and buildings organized in a geometrical shape. After some minutes of exploring, I found a spot that matched my goals.
On a sunny day in June 2020, I took my bike and confirmed that my geo-guessing was right. This is the house where Tronte and Jana Nielsen live.
But I don’t feel like sharing the location because those are houses, and people live there. It would not be nice to see tourists visiting the place with cameras since this is such a beautiful part of Berlin.
Some Dark Locations from the Future in 2020
In Dark Season 2, the power plant meltdown sets off a nuclear winter of sorts and what I believe to be the Apocalypse that the series talks about so much. There are few survivors left, banded together with leftover tanks and some guns, and all this left me with too many questions.
When I first watched season two, some of Jonas’s scenes walking around in the apocalyptic future seemed familiar. Some of the locations used were similar to places I have seen while doing urban exploration around Berlin, and after checking out some of my pictures, I can clearly state that I have been to a few of these locations.
The first one that grabbed my attention appeared when Jonas walked around some stairs, checking for people or something else. From there, he walks into this dilapidated gymnasium, where he picks up a piece of something that looks electronic.
This location is the old gymnasium in Krampnitz, a former Soviet Military base between Potsdam and Spandau that I visited several times.
The second scene that seemed familiar to me happened when Jonas played Elvis Presley to distract some survivors in a tank. He aims to steal gas from them and leaves the music playing from a window in a vast building. That place is known as Chemiewerk Rüdersdorf, and it has been a location for series and movies for a while now. Even Rammstein used the area when they were filming Deutschland.
Both Dark locations can be found on the map below, but I have to let you know that the gymnasium in Krampnitz is no longer there. I was there in May 2020, and it was demolished. You have to believe in the pictures I have here.
Winden Town Hall
As in any other city, Winden has a town hall. In German, it’s called Rathaus, and you can see it clearly over the main door whenever the location appears on the screen in the Dark.
This building appears clearly in the third season of Dark since part of the story relates to how the coal industry wanted to block the proposed nuclear power plant’s construction iplant’s950s. It’s there that we see the mayor being threatened at gunpoint before signing the permission for the power plant.
But, in real life, the Winden town hall is a Dreilinden-Gymnasium school. It can be found really close to the abandoned bridge that appears prominently in the first episodes of Dark.
This school was opened to teachers and students in 1939, and the Soviet and Allied Forces used it after the end of the Second World War. Today, this school is known as an example of a welcoming culture in Germany.
Winden Public Library
When Claudia Tiedemann from 1987 travels to the future of 2020, she struggles to understand what just happened. One of the places that she visits to research the future and the past is the Winden Public Library.
Known in German as Stadtbücherei Winden, this is a subtle Dark location we knew we wanted to visit. Still, it took us a while to realize that this is the library of the University of Applied Sciences for Finances in Königs Wusterhausen, a city next to Berlin.
Visiting this location is simple since the University Library is far from the S-Bahn station in Königs Wusterhausen. It was the starting point of a bike ride that took us from the library to the Winden roads and ended at 1921 Street. If you want to visit these locations, look at the map at the end of this article since they are far apart.
All Roads Lead to Winden
In almost every episode, there is a scene where somebody is driving around empty streets in the middle of a forest. Sometimes, you can see curves over the horizon; sometimes, rain and asphalt. It seems like this road connects Winden to the Nuclear Power Plant, and we found this Dark location.
This is where the bus stop scenes are shot. This is where the forest road that many pass by bike. This is the location from the road shot in every episode, and it can be found south of Berlin.
It’s located next to a town called Schöneiche.
The place where they shot these scenes is called Fahrtechnikakademie Kallinchen. It is a safety driving training center in Brandenburg. We visited this place by bike in July 2020, and it was easy to enter and leave, but we are not sure if we got lucky or if somebody else saw us there.
Before you go there, message them and see how they feel about your presence.
It was quite unusual for us to cycle in a familiar place we only saw on TV. It was a warm summer day, and everything looked similar to what we picture in our own head but, at the same time, completely different. The bus stop wasn’t there, but we could clearly see where it used to stand. There were driving cones on the ground, and the usual Winden rain wasn’t anywhere to be seen, but it was a location from Dark.
Also, the coolest location here is the forest road. We found it by accident while we took a bike ride around the entire training center.
One small road leads into the middle of the forest, and once we started cycling there, we realized where we were. It was one of the best feelings!
1921 in Winden
In Dark, 1921 is an exciting year since the people behind Sic Mundus built the church over their secret lab. In that year, we see Jonas traveling back in time from 2053 and landing somewhere different in what seems to be a wheat field.
From there on, he is found by some farmers and taken to a place where he meets teenager Noah and child Agnes.
But we are not here to discuss the series like that; we’re here to discuss the fantastic location Jonas walks into. We believe that this is the 1921 version of Winden, and we found that it was shot in a town south of Berlin called Rehagen.
This historical-looking street leads to the Schlafwagenhotel Bahnhof Rehagen, a restaurant and hotel focused on cultural events and culinary delights. We didn’t have much time to explore during our visit, but we know we will be back to see what they offer.
As a bonus, I will leave you with something interesting that my sister shared a few weeks ago. In the fourth episode of season two, Jonas meets Adam for the first time in what looks like an old-style study room or a library. You can see a massive painting on the walls of this beautiful place.
The painting is called The Fall of the Damned and is a monumental religious artwork painted by Peter Paul Rubens in 1620. The picture shows archangel Michael hurling a complex mass of bodies into the abyss.
The original artwork can be found at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, where my sister saw it and shared it with me.
These were some locations from Netflix’s series Dark around Berlin. We are still looking for others. If you have any tips for us, leave a comment below. For more film locations in and around Berlin, click here.
Some Locations where Netflix’s series Dark filmed around Berlin
I have an article for you if you want some Berlin Netflix filming locations.
