'The Berlin Apartment' immerses users in the lives of past city residents. They experience German history through the game, from Nazi rule through the Cold War and the COVID-19 pandemic.
A game that offers unique perspectives on the shifting tide of Berlin history from one apartment windowImage: Blue Backpack Games
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"The Berlin Apartment," a novel new video game, is initially set in 2020. The German capital was in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and few people walked the streets and cafes and restaurants were closed.
The game, created by the Berlin-based indie video game studio Blue Backpack, begins with second-grader Dilara as she accompanies her father, Malik, to work since schools are closed. Malik has been tasked with renovating an apartment in an old Berlin building.
As they begin to remove the wallpaper and tiles, they discover traces of the former residents. Players can take on the unique perspective of these different Berlin residents as they embark on a four-hour journey through over a century of German history.
Malik uncovers layers of history that come alive as he renovates a Berlin apartmentImage: Blue Backpack Games
Exploring Germany's dark past
The pivotal historical events explored in the game include the persecution and murder of Jews in Nazi Germany, the struggle for survival in postwar Germany, and state repression in the former East Germany (GDR). Throughout these eras, the atmosphere is gloomy.
One of the episodes, set in the winter of 1945, is the story of Mathilda, an apartment resident who misses her father. He was a decorated German soldier who hadn't returned from World War II.
Mathilda, who lives with her brother and mother, starts decorating the Christmas tree with whatever she can find: Straw stars, medals and bullet casings found in the rubble of her bombed-out city. At their meager Christmas dinner, she asks her mother, "Mom, are we the bad guys?"
Until 1933, the Jewish cinema operator Josef had lived in the same apartment. The Nazis burned down his cinema. Players get to follow Josef's story as he prepares to flee to Paris.
While he's packing, the suspense builds gradually through different sounds: A ticking clock, loud screams from the hallway and aggressive knocking on doors. At the same time, Josef's apartment invites players on a journey through his eventful life and into the world of cinema and the arts.
Berlin's Jewish memorials are places of remembrance
On November 9, 1938, synagogues were defiled in Nazi Germany, marking the beginning of the genocide of Jews in Europe. Many memorials in Berlin now commemorate Holocaust victims.
Image: Marko Priske/Ständige Konferenz
Jewish Community Center on Fasanenstrasse
On November 9, 2023, a memorial procession will be held in Berlin. On the same date 85 years ago, Nazis carried out antisemitic attacks on synagogues and Jewish businesses. The memorial procession will end at the Jewish Community Center in Fasanenstrasse. A sculpture of a broken Torah scroll and a former synagogue entrance commemorate the religious building that once stood on the site.
The synagogue in Fasanenstrasse (pictured here in 1930) was set on fire by the Nazis on November 9, 1938. On that night in coordinated attacks, around 1,400 synagogues and 7,000 Jewish-owned stores around Germany and Austria were destroyed or severely damaged. Approximately 1,300 people died and 30,000 Jewish men were deported to concentration camps.
Image: akg-images/picture-alliance
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
The November pogrom marked a gruesome turning point in the Nazis' persecution of Jews, which culminated in the genocide of millions of Jews and other victims in Europe. A memorial in the center of Berlin consists of 3,000 stone blocks that pay tribute to the 6 million Jewish people from all over Europe who were murdered by the Nazis. It was designed by New York architect Peter Eisenman.
Image: picture-alliance/Schoening
Track 17 Memorial
White roses on track 17 at Grunewald station in Berlin honor the more than 50,000 Berlin Jews who were sent to their deaths on trains departing from this site. Steel plates show the date, destination and number of deportees. The first train went to the Litzmannstadt ghetto in Lodz, Poland, on October 18, 1941. The last train to the Theresienstadt concentration camp left on March 27, 1945.
Image: imago/IPON
Memorial at Koppenplatz
Before the Holocaust, around 173,000 Jews lived in Berlin. By 1945 there were only 7,000 left. The monument "Der Verlassene Raum" ("The Deserted Room") is located in the middle of the Koppenplatz residential area in Berlin's Mitte district. It is a reminder of the Jewish citizens who were taken from their homes without warning, never to return.
Image: Jörg Carstensen/dpa/picture alliance
House of the Wannsee Conference
Several high-ranking Nazi officials met in this villa on Lake Wannsee in January 1942 to discuss the systematic murder of European Jews, which they termed the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." Today, the building is a memorial that informs visitors about the horrific dimensions of the genocide that was discussed here.
Image: Paul Zinken/dpa/picture alliance
'Stumbling Stones'
Designed by German artist Gunter Demnig, these brass plates are very small — only 10 x 10 centimeters (3.9 x 3.9 inches). They mark the homes and offices from which people were deported by the Nazis. Around 10,000 of them have been placed throughout Berlin, with thousands more across Europe.
Image: DW/T.Walker
Memorial Fashion Center Hausvogteiplatz
The heart of Berlin's fashion metropolis once beat here. A memorial sign made of mirrors recalls the Jewish fashion designers and stylists who made clothes for all of Europe at Hausvogteiplatz. The Nazis expropriated the Jewish businesses, and Berlin's fashion center was destroyed during World War II.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Kalaene
Jewish cemetery in Weissensee
There are eight remaining Jewish cemeteries in Berlin, and the largest of them is in the Weissensee district. With over 115,000 graves, it is the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe. Many persecuted Jews hid in the complex premises during the Nazi era. On May 11, 1945, only three days after the end of World War II, the first postwar Jewish funeral service was held here.
Today, the Hackesche Höfe complex in Berlin Mitte is mentioned in every travel guide. It's a backyard courtyard complex in which many Jewish people lived and worked — for example in the brush factory of German entrepreneur Otto Weidt. During the Nazi period, Weidt employed many blind and deaf Jews, saving them from deportation and death. The former workshop is now a museum.
Image: picture-alliance/Arco Images
Jewish Museum Berlin
Architect Daniel Libeskind chose a dramatic design for this museum, which opened in 2001. Viewed from above, the building looks like a broken Star of David. The Jewish Museum is one of the most visited museums in Berlin. It gives an overview of centuries of German Jewish history.
Image: Miguel Villagran/AP Photo/picture alliance
The New Synagogue
When the New Synagogue on Oranienburger Strasse was consecrated in 1866, it was considered the largest and most magnificent synagogue in Germany. One of Berlin's 13 synagogues to survive the pogroms, it was later destroyed by Allied bombs. It was reconstructed and opened again in 1995. The 50-meter-high (164-foot) golden dome once again dominates the cityscape.
Image: Stephan Schulz/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/picture alliance
Kahal Adass Jisroel synagogue at Brunnenstrasse 33
On October 17, 2023, there was an attempted arson attack on a prominent synagogue located on Brunnenstrasse in central Berlin. At the same location on November 9, the German government will hold a memorial event to mark 85 years since the November pogroms. The event will commemorate both past and present victims of antisemitism.
Image: Sven Kaeuler/dpa/picture alliance
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Fictional stories, factual history
The residents' stories are fictional. "We made them up to make them entertaining, but they always take place against a historical backdrop," explained Florian Köhne, managing director Blue Backpack.
"We try to convey the story in such a way that you don't need too much knowledge."
As they meticulously search the apartment, gamers uncover clues that gradually coalesce into a broader first-person perspective. They also become immersed in how political systems restrict personal life and progress. Users learn to appreciate the privilege of living amid peace and freedom.
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Ordinary people instead of heroes
"The Berlin Apartment" stories are not about heroes. The characters are simply trying to get by.
Many question the system, like the GDR writer composing a space novel with a strong woman protagonist. She has to rewrite the text over and over again due to regime censorship. She sits down at her typewriter and reluctantly complies with the wishes of the authorities so that she can be published.
The game deliberately refrains from making judgments about who is good or bad — or who supports the regime. It's about experiencing life under different political systems, and often navigating restrictions on personal freedom. Do they flee, surrender to their fate, or simply try to make the best of it?
Gamers can explore how a female writer living in the apartment under East German rule is determined to be published, even in the face of censorshipImage: Blue Backpack Games
A fast-changing cityscape
The game's art director, Hans Böhme, was inspired to create "The Berlin Apartment" when, standing at the window of his old apartment in Berlin, he wondered how many people had stood in precisely the same spot before.
The game includes a view from a window onto a street intersection that changes significantly over the decades. Street trams run under swastika banners in 1933. But in the postwar years, it's a so-called death strip bordered by walls and fences that separate East and West Berlin.
The game's residents, apartment and intersection are fictional, yet are based on real-life models inspired by old Berlin apartments and museum materials. The narrative video game, "What Remains of Edith Finch" (2017), was also a touchstone, as players can delve deeply into a family's history.
"The Berlin Apartment" belongs to the game genre once disparagingly known as a "walking simulator," in which players merely find and collect items to develop a narrative.
In doing so, they can easily empathize with residents and can ask: What would I have done? Which side would I have been on? Would I have submitted to the political system or would I have rebelled — and risked losing my livelihood, or even death?
"The Berlin Apartment" was released in November 2025 on all platforms and is available in German and English with subtitles in numerous languages.
This article was originally written in German.
A virtual tour of Germany's inner border and the Berlin Wall
