Timely Stuff: Netflix’s Charité Is Nuanced Historical Storytelling At Its Best

By: Hayley Schueneman

In Timely Stuff, Hayley reviews period dramas currently available for streaming and decides whether they’re worth your time or not. You can read previous installments here, here, and here.

I stumbled upon a new period drama last week on Netflix, called Charité. It’s a German series, and offers fictionalized versions of real events that happened throughout history at the Charité teaching hospital in Berlin. (I found this out from constant Googling of the characters, which I kept forgetting that I couldn’t do because I had to read the subtitles, so yes, I did a lot of rewinding.) There are three seasons total, two of which are available on Netflix until June 13.

While the first season is enjoyable, the second season is absolutely incredible.

The first season takes place in Berlin in 1888. It follows the lives of the incredibly strict deaconesses and nurses who are running the Charité, while all of the doctors are in a R&D race to find cures for things like diphtheria and tuberculosis and get annoyed any time they are asked to do their literal jobs, like perform emergency C-sections or tracheostomies. There is a split between the Christian values of the Matron (i.e. sometimes people deserve to die because ya know, God’s will) and the scientific progress of the doctors (i.e. no lol it’s germ theory). I don’t know a ton about the rise of bacteriology, and I found this an interesting entry point. 

These doctors — Robert Koch and Emil Behring, to name a few —are like 19th century rockstars. Everyone wants to meet them, and the Kaiser himself is a huge Koch fanboy. Our protagonist, though, is Ida, a young woman who is forced to work off her medical debt at the hospital after an emergency appendectomy by becoming an assistant nurse. Ida is smart, diligent, and passionate about medicine, and wants to become a doctor, but she can’t, because the German Empire does not allow women to study medicine. Ida is involved in a love triangle with a medical student and a doctor throughout the course of the show. We also get a very Mozart/Salieri plotline from Koch and Behring. 

Each season stands on its own, so it’s not like you need to watch S1 in order to understand S2. S1 feels a little soapier to me, but still enjoyable. And honestly, if you’re short on time, you should just watch S2. And actually if this piques your interest even a little, go watch S2 (Charité at War) now and come back and read this, because I will give spoilers. 

Charité at War jumps forward to Berlin in 1943. It is an incredibly compelling and at times, difficult to watch show, but not because of any blood or injury — although, we do get your standard-issue wartime things like amputations, gangrene, gas poisoning, shrapnel removal, suicide attempts, etc. But strikingly, no combat save a few gunshot wounds in the finale (Lots of bloody clothing, throughout, and an intense birth scene). No, what is more difficult in my opinion is that this show pulls no punches in showcasing Nazis and Nazi sympathizers as nuanced people instead of caricatures of evil. And it is hauntingly effective.

When I first started watching this show, I felt uneasy. Wait…am I really about to watch a show about a bunch of Nazi doctors? This show, though, lulls you into a false sense of ease in its first episode, introducing you to individual characters and storylines without hammering home any broader context. Yet. 

Our protagonist for this season is Anni Waldhausen, an expectant mother and medical student who is finishing her thesis on self-inflicted gunshot wounds under the direction of psychiatrist Max de Crinis. Anni’s husband Artur is a pediatrician, working closely and vying to replace Georg Bessau as the head of pediatrics at the hospital. We also meet Anni’s brother, Otto, who has been at the front as a doctor but has returned to Charité to complete his medical training. Otto forms a bond with Martin, a nurse, as they both work for celebrated surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch. Sauerbruch, who pioneered various surgical methods in order to better utilize prosthetics, gives frequent demonstrations of his surgeries and is aided by his wife, Margot, also a doctor. 

What Charité at War does so brilliantly is showcase these people not as oversimplified caricatures of Nazis, red-faced, spitting, pure evil, but rather as what they are: doctors, parents, colleagues, friends, decorated war heroes, chairs of departments, and more. It makes the evil, in my opinion, all the more insidious. You form connections to one character, then they teach a lecture on eugenics. You hate the pompous attitude of another character, then they go out of their way to protect political dissidents. The six-episode season is a mindfuck, mostly because it feels more real than anything over-the-top would be. And what I found so striking is the acts of resilience and shrewd creativity of the characters who were doing whatever they could to oppose Nazi rules in a way that wouldn’t put them in danger. This is compelling and fraught TV.

The show begins in a very standard hospital drama fare way, and besides the costumes, it feels like it could be at any point in history. But by the second episode, Mrs. Goebbels is admitted to the hospital after a miscarriage, drunk and distraught. She shares a room with Anni because she is on suicide watch, and with mascara running down her face and a tumbler of whiskey in her hand, she rambles off how far away from victory the party is and how everything is a mess. We witness her getting notified of an air raid at least a half hour before the alarm rings to alert the city, and escorted to her private bunker. Anni witnesses everything, but she is distracted — her baby has a swelling at the fontanel that she is worried may be an indicator of hydrocephalus. Artur isn’t worried, he thinks it’s probably a result of a traumatic delivery. 

Otto, Anni’s brother, is a mess. He flirts with the nurses during the day, and gets drunk and tells everyone how fucked up being at the front was at night. He spirals, realizing in real time that everything they’ve been fed by the propaganda machine is utter bullshit. He reads Anni’s medical textbooks and gives her shit about eugenics. And while Otto may flirt with all the nurses, there is only one that he actually cares about: Martin. When Otto makes a move, Martin freaks out — apparently he has already been arrested once under Paragraph 175, the Nazi campaign against homosexuality. If he is caught again, he will be sent to a concentration camp. (SPOILER: Despite everything you just read, I am going to tell you right now that this is one queer love story that actually has a happy ending.)

Dr. Sauerbruch is introduced as pompous and egotistical, and then quietly becomes the true hero of the show, along with his wife Margot. When a political prisoner is captured, Sauerbruch has him transferred to his care, and allows him to recuperate and hideout while telling the authorities that he has a stroke and cannot be interrogated. When Margot discovers a spy within the hospital, she finds ways to covertly help them gain access to what they need. The Sauerbruchs are foils to the Waldhausens, and the ways in which both couples bend and shape over the three years that the show takes place is very compelling. 

There is a particularly strong scene that cuts back and forth between groups of people sitting around the radio waiting to hear if the assassination attempt on Hitler has been successful — one group waiting with champagne, the other waiting in tears.

Overall, I think this show is able to succeed because Germany has actually reckoned with the terrors of its past and can meet difficult subject matter head-on, something that I don’t think the United States will ever be able to do. Good storytelling requires vulnerability, and culturally we are not in the same place. 

Tl;dr: This show starts in a neutral place, then raises the Nazi alarm, then shows the cracks in the veneer, and how everyone responds to ultimate defeat. I binged all six 50-minute episodes in one night, and since it leaves Netflix on June 13 you should probably do the same. 

Charité (2017-present)

2 seasons, six 50-minute episodes each. Available on Netflix until June 13.

Pros: Strong character development, compelling plot lines, an interesting take on historical events that isn't too fantastical or

Cons: It's Nazi Germany, so it's bleak and traumatic as fuck. The most difficult things to process are the eugenics lectures and criminalization of homosexuality.

Content Warnings: A moderate amount of blood, injuries, and surgeries shown. Shrapnel being removed from wounds, burns being treated, gangrene and gas poisoning injuries, gunshot wounds. Brief scene of brain surgery on a baby. Miscarriage, stillbirths, and labor trauma all shown/addressed. Suicide attempts by overdose. Suicide by cyanide pills also shown briefly. (I will say, it is easy to know when most of the wounds are coming and fairly easy to avert your eyes during those scenes. The show does take place in a hospital, but you are not bombarded with these scenes.)

Do I recommend it? Absofuckinglutely. Then tell me what you think!

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