Deutschland 83, about a Stasi spy in 1980s West Germany, is currently thought to be the target of a bidding war between three British broadcasters, after being the subject of a similar three-way battle in France.
Its even breaking America. Having been acquired by SundanceTV, the eight-part drama is also due to become the first German-language drama to be aired on a major US network, and is being backed by a heavily financed publicity drive ahead of its first airing next month.
International excitement is also growing about Babylon Berlin, a 12-part series set in the days of the Weimar Republic being directed by Tom Tykwer, whose cinematic credits include Perfume and Cloud Atlas.
In October he signalled something pretty new for German TV drama by promising multifaceted characters, epic breadth and innovative narrative form.
Some have even suggested foreign buyers are enjoying the humour in the new shows.
One British source at FremantleMedia International, the worldwide distributor of Deutschland 83, said: It is so different from almost anything else Germany has produced. There are bits of humour in it. Its quite unusual to see this kind of humour in a German drama, and thats one of the reasons why everyone is so excited about it.
It has left Nico Hofmann, the chairman of UFA Fiction, the German company that produced Deutschland 83, predicting a rosy future for German television.
Speaking yesterday before boarding a flight to LA for a meeting with Netflix executives to discuss Killing Berlin, another forthcoming drama series, he said the new wave of German drama was ushering in a golden age.
I definitely think we are in the middle of it. Because there is a younger generation now, that is digging up a lot of interesting, complex historical topics.
Despite isolated classics like (the wartime U-boat drama) Das Boot, broadcast to huge acclaim on BBC2 in 1984, Mr Hofmann, 55, showed no great desire to defend his countrys previous TV drama achievements.
In the last 30 years, he said, There was a very boring, stiff, didactic way of television making very German, very narrow-minded.
Especially in the field of historical topics, there was an anxiety about discussing issues emotionally. You didnt get the inner emotional feelings and psychological complexity you are getting now.
