— The following includes a recap of the events of seasons 1-3. A great refresher if you've watched it all, but if you haven't and you'd prefer to avoid spoilers, head over to SBS On Demand where and start from the beginning —
It’s been a long war for U-Boat captain Klaus Hoffmann (Rick Okon), and it’s not going to get any easier.
Way back at the start of season one of Das Boot, he was the fresh-faced new captain of U-612, struggling with the burden of command and a crew that didn’t respect him; now at the start of season four, he’s a famous war hero who’s just had a propaganda film made about his exploits. He’s also secretly plotting to take down the whole Nazi regime.
Rick Okon as Klaus Hoffmann, Sascha Gersak as Rahn, Jakub Horak as Bischof in season 4. Credit: Sky Studios / Bavaria Fiction / Stanislav Honzík
It’s a big leap, especially if Wolfgang Petersen’s classic film is still what comes to mind when you think of Das Boot. Based on the same novel as the film, the series left the events covered by Petersen behind a long time ago; after the first ten minutes of episode one, it’s been charting its own course through the turbulent seas of World War II.
Across the four seasons, some things have remained the same. Serving on a U-Boat is cramped, dirty work, surrounded by clanking machinery and sweaty crew members. Tension remains high under the waves, whether it’s the result of bitter rivalries, outright mutiny, or the endless threat of Allied warships sailing overhead. Das Boot is not a series that glorifies war; even the triumphs here are often little more than a distant sound telling the crew that their torpedoes have hit their target.
Where the film focused entirely on a serving U-Boat crew, the series gives equal time to the opposition to the Nazi regime on dry land. At sea the crews often find their loyalties being put to the test; season four opens with rumblings amongst one crew that there’s a Nazi agent on board, spying on them to ensure their loyalty. On land, there’s just as much spying going on, and the hostilities are even more deadly.
The first season was divided between Hoffman’s battles at sea and the struggles faced by Simone Strasser (Vicky Krieps), a translator and sister of a U-Boat radio operator who found her sympathies leaning towards the resistance even as local Gestapo chief Hagen Forster (Tom Wlaschiha) took a personal interest in her.
Tom Wlaschiha plays Gestapo chief, Hagen Forster. Source: SBS
A mid-season mutiny on board the U-612 solved Hoffman’s problems, though not in the way you might have expected; season two saw him turn up in wartime New York, trying to make a deal to get back to Germany, while back in France the resistance found Forster to be a far more tenacious enemy than they expected.
In season two the U-612 is commanded by mutineer Ulrich Wrangel (Stefan Konarske). He’s driven by a desperate need to end it all, but he can’t simply kill himself, having lost his balls (literally) to the Americans. He has a new mission, to prevent a fellow U-Boat captain from defecting, but he’s not exactly someone who inspires loyalty in his crew… no matter how drunk he gets his self-loathing engineer Robert Ehrenberg (Franz Dinda).
This theme – that as the war goes against them, the Nazi regime is increasingly under threat from within from people who are either appalled or just fed up – runs throughout the series, and there’s no better example than Hoffman himself. In season three he turns up in Portugal, still trying to get back to Germany but with a new mission: to bring an end to the war.
Unfortunately Forster is also in Lisbon, working undercover to ensure a trade mission vital to the war effort goes ahead – one that has links to Hoffman’s father Wilhelm (Ernst Stötzner) and sister Hannie (Luise Wolfram). And at sea the new U-949 is being made shipshape under the guidance of now Chief Engineer Ehrenberg. But while the sub might be ready for duty, manpower shortages mean the crew is largely inexperienced kids, and their commanding officer, Franz Buchner (Konstantin Gries), isn’t much better.
Robert Ehrenberg (Franz Dinda) in season 3 of ‘Das Boot’. Credit: Bavaria Fiction
Worse, they’re being hunted by Commander Swinburne (Ray Stevenson), captain of HMS Perseverance. He’s a man who’s been shattered by the death of his son and the only thing holding him together is his need for revenge. When the season opens with him basically murdering the surrendering crew of a U-Boat, you know things don’t look good for the bad guys.
It all adds up to a long road back home for Hoffman, but season four starts with him back on the streets of Germany – dodging a Gestapo agent tailing him while trying to further his mission of taking down the Third Reich from within. In the first season he faced a mutiny; now he’s trying to lead one against the entire regime.
With the army also plotting against Hitler and the Gestapo well aware of the navy’s disloyalty, the clock is ticking. If Hoffman can’t put the pieces together in time, Germany will simply tear itself apart. And as his sister soon discovers, there are those in Germany all too willing to take advantage of the breakdown of order for their own sinister ends.
Meanwhile, under the surface of the Mediterranean Buchner and his U-Boat crew are more concerned with basic survival, what with spies reporting back to the Gestapo inside the sub, British destroyers patrolling the waters outside, and mechanical failures everywhere they look. Before long their paths will cross with Hoffman’s as he heads back out to sea, where death has always been his constant companion.
They’ll be joining him on what might be the most important mission of the war. But as the tide turns against the German forces across Europe, does the ocean still have a few surprises waiting for him?
Stream free On Demand
Das Boot
series • drama • German
MA15+
series • drama • German
MA15+
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