Jonas Kahnwald

Plot overview

Jonas is born in 2003 to Hannah and Michael Kahnwald.

On 20 June 2019, a teenage Jonas goes to the lake with his friends Bartosz Tiedemann and Martha and Magnus Nielsen. At the lake, Jonas and Martha find a pendant with Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, on it. Jonas gifts the pendant to Martha before having to run off to help Ines Kahnwald, who he believes to be his paternal grandmother, with technology. That night, Jonas goes to Martha's house to celebrate her parents' 25th anniversary, where Martha returns the pendant to him and the two make love. The next day, Jonas's father Michael commits suicide by hanging himself.

After Michael's death, Jonas leaves the town of Winden to stay in a psychiatric ward. He returns in November 2019 and starts therapy with Peter Doppler. When he returns to school, he finds out that Martha has now started dating Bartosz and that his classmate Erik Obendorf is missing. That night, Jonas goes with Bartosz, Martha, Magnus and Martha's younger brother Mikkel to find Erik's missing drug stash near the Winden Caves. After hearing a strange sound coming from the caves, the group runs away from the caves. When they all regroup they find that Mikkel has gone missing.

Over the next few days, Jonas finds a map of the caves that belonged to his father which reads "Where is the Crossing?" The next day, the map is marked with a line revealing a passageway through the caves, and a day later Jonas receives a letter from an unknown person. The letter is his father suicide's note which reveals that the day Mikkel went missing, he travelled back in time to 1986 and became Michael Kahnwald. The next night, Jonas goes to the caves and travels through the passageway and arrives in 1986 where he runs into his mother who at this time is 14-years-old. In the morning, Jonas goes to the hospital where he sees Mikkel talking to a young Hannah. His plan to take Mikkel back to 2019 is stopped when a stranger appears and tells him that if he takes Mikkel back, Mikkel would never become his father and he would never exist.

Jonas returns to 2019 and blows off Martha after she kisses him in the rain as he now realizes Martha is his aunt. He visits Ines Kahnwald, who took Mikkel in when he arrived in 1986, and she gives him Michael's suicide letter, which Jonas thought he had burned. Jonas once more travels to 1986 with the intention of taking Mikkel back to 2019. When Jonas arrives at the hospital, he is kidnapped by Noah and an adult Helge Doppler, who locks him in the Doppler bunker. The Stranger meets him again on the other side of the bunker door and reveals that he is Jonas from 33 years in the future. He keeps Jonas locked in the bunker. As Jonas struggles to get out, a wormhole opens connecting a child Helge from 1953 to him. When the two touch, Jonas is sucked into the wormhole and ends up in the year 2052 where Winden has been partially destroyed by an apocalypse.

First Reality

When the apocalypse hits, Jonas saves himself by jumping into the basement of his house. He then spends the next three months trying to create the God Particle, and on 26 September 2020 is joined by adult Claudia, who has been living in 2020 ever since Jonas bought her to the year in June. Jonas and Claudia work fruitlessly to reactivate the God Particle. In 2023, Jonas goes to his old house and tries committing suicide by hanging himself but a young Noah arrives and stops him from doing so. He explains that Jonas cannot die because his older self already exists. Jonas begins to live with Noah and Elisabeth. In 2041, Noah's daughter Charlotte is kidnapped and Noah blames both Jonas and Claudia. He leaves to look for her throughout time.

In 2052, the God Particle is finally ready to use. Claudia sends Jonas back to guide his younger self and to close the wormhole. He travels back to 2019 on the day after Mikkel's disappearance. He books a hotel room at Waldhotel Winden and meets his younger self at Michael's grave. He tells his younger self that Michael once saved his life, and later asks Regina Tiedemann to send his younger self Michael's goodbye letter, which he has been carrying around for 33 years.

Jonas uses the caves to travel to 1986 where he meets with clockmaker H.G. Tannhaus and the two have a talk about concepts such as Einstein-Rosen bridges, and the number 33 which has a lot of significance such as the amount of years it takes for the lunar-earth cycle to be complete, the amount of miracles Jesus performed, and the year the Antichrist began his reign. During this time, Jonas gives his broken time machine to Tannhaus for him to fix, and Jonas reveals to Tannhaus he plans to use the time machine to destroy the wormhole. While in 1986, Jonas also stops his younger self from taking Mikkel back to 2019.

After taking a small amount of caesium-137 from 2019, Tannhaus gives Jonas the brand-new time machine, which he only learnt how to create due to having seen the future version Jonas bought him. With this time machine in hand, Jonas goes to close the wormhole. There he comes into contact with his younger self once more and reveals his identity to him, leaving him in the bunker so he can be taken to 2052. Jonas closes the wormhole and waits 7 months before revealing himself and his identity to Hannah on 21 June 2020. The next day, he uses the time machine to take Hannah to 1987 and shows her Mikkel living with Ines, proving to her that Mikkel is Michael Kahnwald. Hannah introduces Charlotte to Jonas, and Charlotte, who has been investigating the possibility of time travel herself, believes that Jonas is from the future. Jonas tells Charlotte and Hannah about Noah and Sic Mundus, and later tells Katharina that Mikkel is his father and she is his grandmother, which she initially laughs at in disbelief.

Second Reality

Jonas is saved from the apocalypse by the alternate version of teenage Martha. She brings him to her world before disappearing. In this world, Jonas finds many things are different such as Franziska being deaf instead of her sister Elisabeth, or Martha is dating Killian Obendorf instead of Bartosz. Jonas also finds out that he doesn't exist in this world due to Mikkel not travelling back in time. After many attempts to talk with Martha from the alternate world, who doesn't recognize him due to her not having met him yet, Jonas is confronted by Eva and he finds out in this universe the apocalypse will occur on 8 November 2019 instead of 27 July 2020 which is when it happens in his world.

Jonas meets the alternate Martha once more and convinces her to come into the caves with him. The two go from 2019 to 2052 where they are approached by Martha's adult self, who tell them they have a chance to save one of the two worlds by stopping the apocalypse in Eva's World. However, Jonas will be forced to choose between Mikkel living in his world or Martha living in Eva's world. Jonas and Martha return to 2019 and make love. The next day, Jonas and Martha go to the nuclear power plant to try and hide the yellow barrels. When Martha gets a small cut on her cheek, identical to the one that she had when she saved him from the apocalypse, Jonas realizes he's been lied to. He confronts Eva and adult Martha before a future version of teenage Martha appears and shoots him dead. He dies in Martha's arms.

Third Reality

On the day of the apocalypse, Jonas is saved by Adam from the First Reality. Adam takes him to Eva's world and explains that Tannhaus created time travel and that Jonas and the alternate Martha have to stop him. Adam gives Jonas a time travel machine, and Jonas rescues the alternate Martha before she joins Sic Mundus. Jonas and Martha travel into the caves of Adam's world on 21 June 1986, the day Tannhaus destroyed his world and created Adam's and Eva's. They are brought to a place between the three worlds, where Jonas sees a child version of alternate Martha after being separated from her teenage self. Jonas and Martha eventually reunite and use the machine to travel to the origin world, where they appear in front of Tannhaus’ son Marek and his wife Sonja. They tell them the bridge is closed leading them to go back to Tannhaus’ house and not be involved in the accident that killed them. As Jonas and Martha disappear from existence, he holds Martha's hands telling her that they're a perfect match and to never think otherwise.

Production

The character of Jonas was mainly played by three different actors: In the first season, Louis Hofmann plays teenage Jonas and Andreas Pietschmann plays the adult Jonas, credited as “The Stranger”. Pietschmann's character was only revealed to be the adult Jonas in the first season's finale. The second season introduces Dietrich Hollinderbäumer as Adam, the leader of the Sic Mundus group, who is later revealed to be Jonas's elder self in the fourth episode of the season. On the character, Hofmann stated Jonas is “very reserved and a very broken character, but then he strives so much for the truth and has so much drive and will and strength.” Pietschmann stated that the three actors never talked to each other about the role and that “[it] wouldn’t be helpful to try to imitate each other: how do you lift that cup? How do you say this word? The richness of the character comes from it being played by three actors.” Jonas Gerzabek also plays the character as a child in the series finale.

The character was created by series creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese. He appears in all 26 episodes except the third episode of the first season. On writing the character's fate, series director Odar chose to view Jonas's sacrifice as a happy ending stating that "I always liked the idea that there are two components who are opponents, fighting each other all of the time, actually having to realize that they are not important. They have to realize that, yes, we suffer and we have pain and desires, but we two are not so important that we must exist so someone else can’t be happy."

Reception

Jonas Kahnwald is considered one of the best characters in the show. Nishid Motwani of Screen Rant listed Jonas as the best character saying "Jonas is the one who binds the mysteries surrounding Winden; consequently, he is the most important (and best) character in Dark." Brian Sheridan from Comic Book Resources stated that Hofmann gives the second best performance in the show behind Julika Jenkins writing that "[he] could not have been better as the most prominent version of Jonas' character. Jonas often spirals through uncertainty, confusion, and fear, with Hofmann's voice and expressions perfectly embodying every word and feeling Jonas has to sort through," while also writing that Jonas's raw determination comes "as naturally as breathing to Hofmann."

For his performance in the first season of Dark, Hofmann won the Junior Actor Prize at the Goldene Kamera in 2018.