‘Dark’s Crazy Family Tree Explained Before Season 2

This weekend marks the return of Dark, and it’s about time. Literally. The German language Netflix original revolves around time travel, missing children, and complicated, vaguely incestuous hookups. There’s only one problem: despite being one of the best sci-fi shows on TV, Dark was almost impossible to follow.

What makes Dark such an incredible sci-fi series is also what makes it incredibly hard to jump into. Dark never holds its audience’s hand while flinging characters from 1953 to 2019 to 1986 and back to 1953. Half the time viewers are only slightly less confused than Dark’s actual protagonists, because time travel is a complicated headache. This complexity and Dark‘s expertise at casting the perfect generational doppelgängers led to one of the most introspective examinations of time television has ever seen. But even when we were watching Dark Season 1, it was hard to remember who was directly related to who, and who was added to the family through a time travel paradox. Imagine trying to pick up these threads almost two years later!

Thankfully we’re here to make this experience a little easier. Introducing Decider’s Dark Season 1 Family Tree. If you browse through our catch-up guide to Dark’s first season and start your Season 2 binge with this bad boy open, it’s like you did a full rewatch:

(Click here to enlarge the family tree.)

But we didn’t stop there. To help you out even MORE, we’ve included a family-by-family cheat sheet… And trust us when we say, you’ll want this handy while watching Dark Season 2.

The Kahnwald Family

This is where our story begins. On June 21, 2019 Michael Kahnwald killed himself, leaving behind his wife Hannah and his son Jonas. Michael’s death is what leads Jonas to investigate the odd mysteries around Winden, and one of the biggest mysteries has to do with Michael himself.

Shortly after Michael’s death one of the Nielsen kids, Mikkel Nielsen, goes missing. As Jonas later learns, Mikkel didn’t die. Instead he traveled from 2019 back in time to the year 1986. Once there he was adopted by Ines Kahnwald who gave him the name name Michael Kahnwald. Jonas’ father is his ex-girlfriend’s little brother.

The other detail to remember with this family is that Hannah Kahnwald, Jonas’ mother, has been sleeping with Ulrich Nielsen, a family friend she used to like in high school. So yes, Hannah has slept with a Nielsen father and a Nielsen son. And since Jonas has had sex with his ex, Martha Nielsen, he has technically slept with his aunt.

The Nielsen Family

In June of 2019, Mikkel Nielsen went missing in the Winden caves. This disappearance helped break the Nielsen family, which was already fractured by Ulrich’s infidelity with Hannah Kahnwald. As we’ve covered before, Ulrich’s investigation into his son’s disappearance leads him to the year 1953, where he tries to murder a kid by the name of Helge Doppler.

But we’re not talking about Ulrich’s many arrests today, we’re talking about complex family dynamics. The only other noteworthy relationship in this family happened in 1953. That’s when the newly widowed Agnes Nielsen and her son Tronte moved in with Doris and Egon Tiedemann. It quickly became clear that Doris saw Agnes as more than just a new friend.

The Tiedemann Family

While Agnes Nielsen was living with Doris and Egon Tiedemann in 1953, they were also raising their daughter Claudia Tiedemann. Claudia became the new head of the nuclear power plant in 1986.

By 2019, Claudia is nowhere to be found. Her daughter Regina runs a hotel and has left the power plant to her mysterious husband, Aleksander Köhler, who takes on her last name of Tiedemann. Together Regina and Aleksander have a son named Barotsz. Apart from Claudia’s time traveling adventures and that time she introduced herself to her grandkid, the Tiedemann’s have a pretty normal family tree. Remember, you can always identify Claudia by her heterochromia. She has one blue, and one brown eye.

The Doppler Family

In 1953 Bernd and Greta Doppler were raising a son named Helge Doppler. That young boy was later almost murdered by a time-traveling Ulrich Nielsen who blamed Helge for kidnapping his brother in 1986. Helge later went on to work for the mysterious priest Noah, and kidnapped several innocent boys. However, for family tree purposes, he has a pretty normal life.

Helge later fathered Peter Doppler who married Charlotte. In 2019, they’re Jonas’ therapist and an officer on Winden’s police force respectively. They have two daughters, Franziska and Elisabeth Doppler. Franziska is currently dating Magnus Nielsen, and the young Elisabeth was dating another deaf child by the name of Yasin. Unfortunately, Yasin is one of the young boys who was kidnapped and experimented on by Helge and Noah.

The only other connection in the Doppler family worth highlighting is Charlotte Doppler’s grandfather. Charlotte is related to H.G. Tannhaus, the clockmaker-turned-scientist who is credited with inventing time travel.

The Obendorf Family

The poor, poor Obendorfs. Not much is known about Ulla and Jürgen’s parents or even them, for that matter. All that we know is that in 2019 their son Erik Obendorf went missing, and that his dead body re-emerged in 1953.

Watch Dark on Netflix