Netflix’s Dark is a show that involves four families and multiple timelines and within each all characters are intricately connected to each other. And if you’re scratching your head trying to understand who’s who and how everyone is involved with each then worry not because we are going to break it all down for you in this article.
Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers from season one and two.
The four families are The Kahnwalds, The Nielsens, The Tiedmans and The Dopplers.
1.The Kahnwalds
Firstly there’s Jonas Kahnwald who is Hannah and Michael Kahnwald’s son. He dated Martha Nielsen in 2019 and in the future he is the one who tries to destroy the wormhole. When Jonas travels forward to 2053 he learns of the God Particle and then travels back in time to 1921 to discover that he is actually Adam the man behind the whole situation.
Michael Kahnwald or Mikkel Nielsen is the son of Ulrich and Kathrina Nielsen. He goes on a trip with his siblings, Martha and Magnus and Jonas Kahnwald and Bartosz Tiedmann to the caves where he travels to November, 2019 and meets Hannah and they get married and have a son, Jonas. He kills himself in June, 2019 after future Jonas shows him the suicide letter.
Hannah Kahnwald is Jonas’s mom and Michael’s wife but also is in love with Ulrich Nielsen in 1986. She has an affair with him in 2019 but it ends after Michael’s disappearance. She travels back to 1954 to meet Ulrich but decides to leave him and start a new life in that year itself. And finally Ines Kahnwald is the adoptive mother of Michael as she was a nurse in the hospital where he was stranded and formed a bond with him.
2.The Nielsens
Mikkel Nielsen is the youngest sibling of the Nielsen family in 1986 from where he time travels to the future with the help of future Jonas.
Martha Nielsen is Mikkel’s sister and future Jonas’s aunt, which gets messy as they also date for a brief period in the future. She also dates Bartosz Tiedmann while Jonas got treatment after his father’s death. She is killed by Adam in 2020 but there is still another Martha from another reality who is alive.
Magnus Nielsen is the eldest son of the Nielsen family. He dates Franziska Doppler and also is the one who supports Adam in 1921.
Ulrich Nielsen is the son of Jana and Tronte Nielsen. He works in law enforcement along with Charlotte Doppler and is entangled in an affair with Hannah Kahnwald before Mikkel’s disappearance. He ends the affair because his brother also disappeared in a similar way which makes him want to investigate Mikkel’s disappearance. He travels back to 1953 and is arrested for the death of two boys. He was in a psychiatric hospital from 1954 till 1987.
Katharina Nielsen is Ulrich’s wife and the principal of a high school in 2019. Due to miscommunication in a false police reporting case Regina Tiedmann and she have animosity towards each other in the present. She is seen opening the passage of the caves during the 2020 apocalypse.
Jana Nielsen is Ulrich and Mads’s mother and Tronte Nielson is their father. He had an affair with Claudia Tiedmann in 1986. Agnes is Tronte’s mother whom she moved with to Winden in 1953. Her husband is never seen but it seems that he was abusive. She has an affair with Doris Tiedmann in ’54. She also infiltrates Sic Mundus as a double agent to pledge her allegiance to Adam.
3. The Tiedmanns
Regina and Aleksander Tiedmann’s son is Bartosz. He dated Martha after she broke up with Jonas Kahnwald.
Regina ran the only hotel in Winden before it shut down and is the daughter of Claudia Tiedmann. Her nemesis is Katharina Nielsen.
Aleksander Tiedmann was born Boris Niewald but stole Aleksander Kohler’s identity in 1986. He runs the power plant in 2019 but is charged with identity theft in 2020 by Investigator Clausen.
Claudia Tiedmann is Doris and Egon’s daughter. She runs the power plant in Winden and has an affair with Tronte Nielsen as well. She injures her father but doesn’t help him just so the God Particle remains undiscovered. She is Adam’s nemesis and is killed by Noah in ’54.
Egon Tiedmann is a police officer in 1953 investigating Helge Doppler’s disappearance and Mads Nielsen’s disappearance in 1986 because he has a hunch that Ulrich is behind the latter’s disappearance. He also arrests Ulrich for raping Katharina which turns out to be a lie. He is killed by Claudia a few days after he learns about time travel in 1987.
4.The Dopplers
Elisabeth Doppler is the youngest in the family. She is deaf and dates Yasin in 2019 who eventually dies in that year. She is one of the survivors of the apocalypse and becomes a leader of the post-apocalyptic world in 2053.
Franziska Doppler is the eldest daughter of the family and her grandfather is Helge Doppler. She is dating Magnus Nielsen currently and is possibly seen with Adam and Magnus in ’21.
Charlotte Doppler is Elisabeth and Franziska’s mother and was raised by H.G. Tannhaus, the creator of the time travel device. She works in law enforcement with Ulrich. It is ultimately revealed that her real parents are Noah and Elisabeth, her daughter.
Peter Doppler is a therapist and married to Charlotte although is secretly gay.
Helge is Peter’s father and briefly goes missing in ’53 after being attacked by present Ulrich. But he returns in ’54. He is convinced by Noah to kidnap young kids to use for experimentation. He dies trying to stop his past self by ramming his car into himself but his younger self survives.
Finally Noah is a priest who with Adam is creating a new world. He is Charlotte’s father, Agnes’s brother and Erna’s son. He is killed in ’21 by Agnes after he finds out the truth about his daughter who also turns out to be his mother-in-law.
Dark’s season three premieres on June 27th on Netflix.
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