Deutschland 89 is the final part of the espionage trilogy following Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay), a former East German border patrol guard recruited to work as a spy in West Berlin by his aunt Lenora.
After spending much of Deutschland 86 in exile, the final series sees Martin back in East Berlin, raising his son Max as a single father and living a comparatively low-key life. He now makes a living working for an electronics company, but he's still occasionally called in by the HVA (the East German foreign intelligence service) to perform smaller jobs for them.
When Martin receives a threat that Max will be sent to live with his mother, Annett, in Moscow if Martin doesn't take on an important job, he is left with no choice but to comply. However, with a revolution in the air and the Berlin Wall about to fall, Martin's future is looking very uncertain.
Here's what Jonas Nay had to say about the final instalment of the acclaimed trilogy.
Jonas Nay on what Martin has been doing since we last saw him in Deutschland 86
"We find him where we left him — at home, with his son Max, but he is now a single parent because Annett is working for the KGB in Moscow. It's three years later, so he has had time to find a connection to the son that he hadn't met before, and they have a close relationship now.
"He's working for Robotron, which was a company in the GDR that sold micro-technologies like computers, and he's working as a salesman. He just has to leak some data once or twice for the Stasi, but that's it. But because of the coming revolution, the Stasi soon get him back into the game to deliver some secrets, and he's struggling to get out of it..."
Jonas Nay on what lies ahead in Deutschland 89
"Most of the time Martin is in the GDR — he's not getting pushed back into the West as he was in Deutschland 83. This series is more about his microcosm there, and how their world is shattered by the fall of the Berlin Wall. It's not so much about how the Berlin Wall came down, but about the vacuum that existed after that — all the possibilities that were on the table, and all these characters that we got to know who are involved in the secret services are now trying to find their place in this vacuum. After everything that Martin's experienced, the big question is: is there even a way out for him?"
Jonas Nay on what the series taught him
"It's been a journey on many levels, but also on an educational level. This production made me really interested in this period because in this fictional string of characters that we tell, there are always real historical events included — when I'm reading the scripts, I'm like, 'is this made-up or not?' I really had to stop myself from getting completely lost in research because it's so interesting — I never would have dug so deep without this series.
"I hope the series also has the ability to get viewers invested in what was really happening, because it's not far in the past. I would say I was on set with half East Berlin and half West Berlin workers, and they all had stories about the GDR and the West Berlin side. I'm pretty sure I could've shot a different movie if I had asked any one of them about their experiences in the GDR. I learned a lot."
Jonas Nay on how the Deutschland trilogy changed his life
"It's had a great impact for me. My portfolio has widened a lot — beforehand I'd shot some German cinema movies and TV feature films but I found that I was typecast as a sad, melancholic young guy, and I had to develop more facets, so Martin has been a big door-opener! With the success of the show, the parts that I'm offered have been more international, so it has been a door-opener on so many levels. And it's a production that I love to put out there as my showreel — I'm really proud of it."
How to watch Deutschland 89 in the US
Deutschland 89 is available now to stream in full on Hulu.
How to watch Deutschland 89 in the UK
Deutschland 89 begins Friday March 5 at 9pm on More4, with the full series available to stream on All4 after the broadcast of episode one.
