The 40 most popular german crime movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
2006 · 2h 27m · DE
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born in the stench of 18th century Paris, develops a superior olfactory sense, which he uses to create the world's finest perfumes. However, his work takes a dark turn as he tries to preserve scents in the search for the ultimate perfume.


Prison
2025 · 2h 20m · DE
The seemingly innocent Alexander Rothstein ends up in jail for drug trafficking. In fact, he bears the responsibility of providing for his newly pregnant girlfriend Julia and their future child. To make matters worse, he ends up sharing a cell with the dangerous Russian Viktor and the unstable Arab Khalil. To fulfill his duties as a father and escape the dangers of prison, Alex needs money - a lot of money. His desperation drives him into the arms of the Kurdish gangster boss Mazlum, also known as the Dutchman, and back to his friend from drug therapy, Cem. Together, they weave the threads of an organization that casts its nets even beyond the prison walls, but at the height of euphoria, Alex suddenly finds himself caught in it. He is left with only two options: Succumb to the conspiracy of intrigue and betrayal or become a monster himself.


Point Break
2015 · 1h 54m · DE
A young undercover FBI agent infiltrates a gang of thieves who share a common interest in extreme sports. A remake of the 1991 film, "Point Break".


Punisher: War Zone
2008 · 1h 42m · CA
Waging his one-man war on the world of organized crime, ruthless vigilante-hero Frank Castle sets his sights on overeager mob boss Billy Russoti. After Russoti is left horribly disfigured by Castle, he sets out for vengeance under his new alias: Jigsaw. With the "Punisher Task Force" hot on his trail and the FBI unable to take Jigsaw in, Frank must stand up to the formidable army that Jigsaw has recruited before more of his evil deeds go unpunished.


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2009 · 2h 32m · DK
Swedish thriller based on Stieg Larsson's novel about a male journalist and a young female hacker. In the opening of the movie, Mikael Blomkvist, a middle-aged publisher for the magazine Millennium, loses a libel case brought by corrupt Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström. Nevertheless, he is hired by Henrik Vanger in order to solve a cold case, the disappearance of Vanger's niece


M
1931 · 1h 50m · DE
In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.


The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
1920 · 1h 17m · DE
Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.


Freedom Writers
2007 · 2h 3m · DE
A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school.


The Girl Who Played with Fire
2009 · 2h 9m · DK
Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of Millennium magazine, has made his living exposing the crooked and corrupt practices of establishment Swedish figures. So when a young journalist approaches him with a meticulously researched thesis about sex trafficking in Sweden and those in high office who abuse underage girls, Blomkvist immediately throws himself into the investigation.
Manolescu's Memoirs
Manolescu's Memoirs
1920 · DE
No overview available


Filth
2013 · 1h 37m · BE
A bigoted junkie cop suffering from borderline personality disorder and drug addiction manipulates and hallucinates his way in a bid to secure promotion.


The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
2009 · 2h 27m · DK
After taking a bullet to the head, Salander is under close supervision in a hospital and is set to face trial for attempted murder on her eventual release. With the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his researchers at Millennium magazine, Salander must prove her innocence. In doing this she plays against powerful enemies and her own past.


Shattered
2022 · 1h 32m · DE
Chris, a wealthy divorcee, lives in a high-tech house of his own design in Montana. His life changes when he meets Sky, a mysterious young woman who draws him out of his shell and moves in after Chris is injured.


Black Cat, White Cat
1998 · 2h 7m · FR
A small-time hustler makes a deal with a notorious gangster to whom he owes money: marry his teenage son to the latter's daughter. However, the young lovers are not as agreeable.


Fabula
2025 · 2h 5m · NL
Small-town criminal Jos (55) has, to his great frustration, been completely sidelined. His daughter disrespects him, his wife doesn't trust him, and his friends laugh at him openly. As he scrambles to fix a drug deal that went catastrophically wrong, he desperately searches for an answer to the question: Who or what is punishing me!?


Heaven
2002 · 1h 36m · FR
A woman takes the law into her own hands after police ignore her pleas to arrest the man responsible for her husband's death, and finds herself not only under arrest for murder but falling in love with an officer.


The Calendar Killer
2024 · 1h 33m · DE
Klara is going to die today unless she kills her husband instead. The Calendar Killer has given her that impossible choice. When Jules starts his night shift at a telephone safety helpline for lonely women on their way home, Klara's call reaches him. He soon becomes her last hope for survival and races against time to save her.
Padre papà
Padre papà
1998 · DE
No overview available


Running Scared
2006 · 2h 2m · DE
A low-ranking thug is entrusted by his boss to dispose of a gun that killed corrupt cops, but things spiral out of control when the gun ends up in wrong hands.


Slaughter Day
1972 · 1h 26m · AT
Michael considers himself a genius criminal and plans the big coup. He forms three new gangs who know nothing about each other and each only know part of his plan. In the background Michael pulls the strings and mercilessly plays the actors on his stage against each other. This strategy also poses unsolvable problems for the police until something goes wrong and the house of cards collapses.


Perpetrator Wanted
1931 · 1h 25m · DE
A dedicated editor, who is engaged to the daughter of a wealthy senator thrills her father with a lecture about convictions based on circumstantial evidence. When a corpse with a disfigured face is found in the house of the senator, evidence points to the editor. An entertaining thriller with a fairly intricate plot and some critical comments on the practice of the law. Based on the novel "Der geschlossene Ring" by Frank Arnau.


Pride and Glory
2008 · 2h 10m · US
A saga centered on the Tierneys, a multi-generational family of New York City Police officers. The family's moral codes are tested when Ray Tierney investigates a case that reveals an incendiary police corruption scandal involving his own brother-in-law. For Ray, the truth is revelatory, a Pandora's Box that threatens to upend not only the Tierney legacy but the entire NYPD.
Mörderherz
Mörderherz
2002 · DE
No overview available
Das Spinnennetz
Das Spinnennetz
1956 · DE
No overview available


The Other
1930 · 1h 35m · DE
A psychological drama based on the popular Jekyll and Hyde theme involving a strict legal official. Based on the 1893 play "Der Andere" by Paul Lindau.


The Baader Meinhof Complex
2008 · 2h 29m · CZ
When German police viciously quell a protest against the shah of Iran, popular journalist Ulrike Meinhof rebels against her dishonest marriage, walks away from her children and joins radical anarchist Andreas Baader. Together with Baader's girlfriend, Gudrun Ensslin, they form the violent Red Faction Army, and together perpetrate a slew of terrorist attacks as a way of disrupting the fabric of what they see as an increasingly fascist state.


The Golden Glove
2019 · 1h 50m · DE
A serial killer strikes fear in the hearts of residents of Hamburg during the early 1970s.
Assassination
Assassination
1927 · 1h 10m · DE
"Assassination" - A far-right political organization called "Fellowship Loyalty" seeks contact with an easily seducable man whom she finds in Joachim Burthe. The leader of this deeply democratizing group, the equally characterless and unscrupulous Gregor of Askanius, whispers to the fanatical student seeking guidance that it is finally time to put the death sentence on the corrupt system and its representatives.


The Trixxer
2004 · 1h 25m · DE
A mysterious serial killer is shocking the underworld. Scotland Yard is investigating the case. Clues lead the detectives to Blackwhite Castle.


Ballad of a Small Player
2025 · 1h 41m · DE
Amid the glittering casinos of Macau, a gambler running from his past—and his debts—becomes fascinated by an enigmatic woman at the baccarat table.


Knockin' on Heaven's Door
1997 · 1h 29m · DE
Two young men, Martin and Rudi, both suffering from terminal cancer, get to know each other in a hospital room. They drown their desperation in tequila and decide to take one last trip to the sea. Drunk and still in pajamas they steal the first fancy car they find, a 60's Mercedes convertible. The car happens to belong to a bunch of gangsters, which immediately start to chase it, since it contains more than the pistol Martin finds in the glove box.


Brandstifter
1969 · 1h 5m · DE
Anka, a student active in the extra-parliamentary opposition, has had enough of inconsequential discussions. As she no longer believes that she can change the world with words alone, she plans a militant action: as a protest against the Vietnam War, she plants a bomb in a Cologne department store to force the public into a debate.


Fog
1963 · 1h 37m
At the beginning of the 1960s, a German turns up on behalf of the NATO in the British village of Rocksmouth. NATO wants to establish a naval base in Rocksmouth, but first, the German envoy has to salvage an old ship wreck. In 1942, the "Princess of India" was supposed to bring children to safety in Canada but was sunk by a German submarine at departure. 58 people were killed, most of them children.


The Double
1934 · 1h 28m · DE
Jenny confronts her cousin Harry: Did he embezzle her fortune? No. But he escapes with married lover Germaine only to return quickly because her husband pursues them. Jenny is convinced Harry is his own double and arrests him at gunpoint.
Ungesühnt
Ungesühnt
2010 · 1h 30m · DE
Als sie den Angeklagten Robin Böhme (Simon Licht) zum ersten Mal Auge in Auge sieht, bricht die Staatsanwältin Esther Dorwald (Ann-Kathrin Kramer) unter Schock zusammen. Sie hat in ihm den Mann wieder erkannt, der sie vor etwa zwanzig Jahren im Park überfiel und schwer sexuell demütigte und nötigte. Damals waren die Ermittlungen im Sande verlaufen, jetzt ist der Geschäftsmann wegen Waffenhandel und Mord angeklagt. Die Staatsanwältin will ihn zur Rechenschaft ziehen lassen, muss jedoch feststellen, dass die Tat verjährt ist. Der aktuelle Prozess gegen ihn droht ebenfalls zu platzen. Verzweifelt setzt Esther alle Hebel in Bewegung, riskiert den Bruch mit ihrem Mann Lukas (Klaus J. Behrendt) und schreckt auch vor illegalen Maßnahmen nicht zurück, um Robin Böhme dingfest zu machen.
Der Teilhaber
Der Teilhaber
1918 · DE
No overview available


Tycoon
2002 · 2h 8m · FR
During the Gorbachev years, Platon Makovski and his four buddies are university students who jump on the private capitalism movement. Fast-forward 20 years, Platon finds himself the richest man in Russia, having sacrificed his friends to get to the top. But with this cynical rise, comes a brutal fall.


My Son
2021 · 1h 35m · DE
When a man's only son goes missing, he travels to the town where his ex-wife lives in search of answers. [To play a man whose life is clouded by mystery, McAvoy will not be given a script of dialogue.]


Masks
1930
No overview available


Locked Up
2005 · 1h 24m · DE
Dennis is a new inmate. Mike is an older black inmate. Together the two face hostile prison officals and inmates in their attempts to become a loving couple.
German cinema's two great periods bookend the century: Weimar-era Expressionism, whose shadows and angles built the visual grammar of horror and noir, and the New German Cinema of the 1970s under Fassbinder, Herzog, and Wenders.
Crime films trace the machinery around lawbreaking — heists, syndicates, investigations, and the people worn down by all three. From film noir through the American gangster epic to modern procedurals, it's a genre that doubles as social commentary.