The series is inspired by Patrick Süskind's novel 'Das Parfum' (Perfume) but unlike the novel, the story takes place in the present day.

The series is inspired not only by Süskind's novel but also by Tom Tykwer's 2006 film 'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer'.

Filming took place between August 2, 2017 and December 5, 2017.

Although the story of the series takes place in the Lower Rhine (Niederrhein) region, filming did not occur in this area; most of it took place near Cologne, Bergisches Land, and Hohes Venn near Aachen.

Heessen Castle in Hamm was used as the fictional St. Laurentius boarding school; scenes were also filmed at Fiskusfriedhof cemetery in Duisburg and Eibach Castle in Lindlar.

The series had its world premiere on June 29, 2018 at the Munich Film Festival, and its TV premiere was on November 14, 2018 on the ZDFneo channel.

Netflix took over international distribution rights and the series was released on Netflix on December 21, 2018, outside German-speaking Europe.

Reviews in the German press were mixed: Stern magazine found the series visually impressive, while Spiegel Online critic Oliver Kaever called it 'a complete disaster' and described it as a conventional series that appeared washed out and with most scenes mistakenly shot in slow motion.