Munich – – September 10, 2026 -- Ten years after a truck attack killed victims at Berlin's Breitscheidplatz Christmas market, German broadcaster ARD will release a six-part fictional thriller series revisiting the events leading up to the tragedy. "Breitscheidplatz 19/12" streams on ARD Mediathek starting Friday, October 30, 2026, airs on Das Erste on Sunday, November 1 at 9:45 p.m., and continues on Friday, November 6 at 11:55 p.m.
The series had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and its German premiere at FilmFest Hamburg.
The show reconstructs the investigation gaps before the December 19, 2016 attack
Directed and written by David Nawrath with co-author David Marian, the drama draws on real events surrounding the surveillance of Anis Amri, the attacker who drove a truck into the market. Authorities had handed investigators extensive files for a parliamentary inquiry, though many documents were heavily redacted or contained blank pages, leaving open questions about whether the attack could have been prevented.
A fictional plot follows an informant inside Germany's Islamist milieu
Set in Germany starting in 2015, the story follows North Rhine-Westphalia counterterrorism officer Laudin, played by Albrecht Schuch, who tracks a medical student drawn to Islamic State recruiters. Laudin recruits ex-criminal Murat Cem, played by Tamer Trasoglu, as an informant who infiltrates the scene and encounters Anis Amri, played by Berlin newcomer Wael Alkhatib. Police trainee Isra, played by Bayan Layla, pursues Cem's leads, while BKA expert Heyse, played by Hanno Koffler, dismisses Amri as a minor threat. As France faces a wave of terror attacks, Amri slips through overlapping jurisdictions and, on December 19, carries out the attack unimpeded.
ARD leadership frames the series as an unresolved national reckoning
ARD Degeto Film managing director Christoph Pellander said the goal was not to retell the attack itself but to examine the warning signs, decisions and possible failures that preceded it, asking how the tragedy might have been stopped. ARD program director Christine Strobl said the Breitscheidplatz attack has become part of Germany's collective memory, and that fictional storytelling can make history more tangible a decade later.
Filming took place across Berlin and Vienna
The cast also includes Jeanne Goursaud, Bernd Hölscher, Sina Martens, Nuriye Jendroßek and Ibtasamm Shah. Cinematography was handled by Tim Kuhn. "Breitscheidplatz 19/12" is produced by NEUESUPER in co-production with ARD Degeto Film, rbb, NDR and HR. Producers for NEUESUPER are Simon Amberger, Rafael Parente and Korbinian Dufter.