Main edit

• Jonas Nay as Martin Rauch, a former border patrol guard from East Germany who went undercover in 1983 in West Germany in an operation that prevented a pre-emptive nuclear strike by the Soviets against NATO but forced him to go into hiding.
• Maria Schrader as Lenora Rauch, Martin's aunt and former handler for the Stasi, now operating in Cape Town.
• Florence Kasumba^[2] as Rose Seithathi, an African National Congress (ANC) operative working with Lenora.
• Sylvester Groth as Walter Schweppenstette, Lenora's former boss at the East German Permanent Mission (StäV), and Martin's anonymous father, who has been demoted after the 1983 incident.
• Sonja Gerhardt as Annett Schneider, Martin's former fiancée who is now a junior intelligence agent in the inner circle of the East German StäV.
• Lavinia Wilson^[2] as Brigitte Winkelmann, dentist wife of the West German Trade Commissioner and a West German Intelligence Service (BND) officer.
• Ludwig Trepte as Alex Edel, a gay West German who served as Oberleutnant in the military with Martin in Deutschland 83 before being dismissed. Now works in an AIDS hospice with Tim.
• Alexander Beyer as Tobias Tischbier, Martin's former handler from the Stasi's foreign arm, the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (HVA), who is now a member of Parliament for the Alternative Party.
• Fritzi Haberlandt^[2] as Tina Fischer, an East German doctor whose novelist brother, Thomas Posimski, defected to West Germany.
• Chris Veres^[1] as Tim, a closeted gay American G.I. who works with Alex at an AIDS hospice.

Recurring edit

• Vladimir Burlakov as Thomas Posimski, Annett's former lover and Tina's brother.
• Anke Engelke^[2] as Barbara Dietrich, a new financial consultant to the StäV.
• Uwe Preuss as Markus Fuchs, Walter's associate who was promoted to Walter's position at the StäV.
• Carina Wiese as Ingrid Rauch, Martin's mother
• Michaela Caspar as Mrs. Netz, the former secretary to Alex's father in the Bundeswehr, now working as an agent for the BND.
• Jonathan Pienaar as Gary Banks, a South African mercenary, hired by Lenora and Martin.
• Philipp Hochmair as Frank Winkelmann, the husband of Brigitte Winkelmann.^[3]

There are 10 episodes. In addition, a documentary entitled "Comrades and Cash" was produced to accompany the series. Narrated by Nay, it describes various business activities undertaken by the East German state to earn hard currency, including: the sale of arms by the East German state to the apartheid government of South Africa, their notional enemies; smuggling arms to both sides in the Iran-Iraq war; forced labor in prisons; appropriating antiques and safe-deposit-box contents from its citizens and selling them abroad; selling blood abroad without testing it for HIV.

Deutschland 86 first aired in Germany on Amazon Prime on 19 October 2018.^[5] The series premiered in Australia on Stan on 22 October 2018,^[6] and in the United States on 25 October 2018 on SundanceTV.^[7] It aired in the UK on More4 starting on 8 March 2019 and the boxset was released on Walter Presents on All 4 directly after its transmission.^[8]

In August 2017, filming began in Cape Town, South Africa, with the majority of the returning cast from Deutschland 83 and five new cast members being confirmed,^[2][9] and concluded there in October^[10] before returning to Berlin. On 18 December 2017, both star Jonas Nay and co-creator Anna Winger confirmed on Twitter that it was the final day of filming on the series ^[11] with filming wrapping four days later.^[12] New cast member Chris Veres was promoted to series regular in November 2017.^[13] On 26 July 2018, Nay revealed the German premiere date on Instagram.^[14] Two days later, the US premiere date was revealed on the show's official Facebook and Instagram accounts.^[15][16]

The Guardian described the series as "geopolitically fascinating".^[17]

• Deutschland 86 at IMDb