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A Chronology of Cinema in
Germany and Elsewhere
Cinematic History in Germany, France, and the USA - Part 2
The Ufa Story - A book about the history of Germany's great film studio.
1 January 1919 - The Munich Film Art Co. (Emelka), in an effort to form a southern German counterbalance to Ufa, converts to a stock company.
June 1919 - Producer and director Peter Ostermayr purchases 37 hectares of land in Geiselgasteig near Munich and construction of a glass-enclosed film studio begins in September. The Treaty of Versailles ends World War I.
18 September 1919 - Opening ceremonies in Berlin for the Ufa-Palast am Zoo, a new luxury theater. The featured film, Ernst Lubitsch's Madame Dubarry (“Passion” in the U.S.) becomes a world-wide hit.
21 June 1920 - Production begins on the first movie to be filmed at the new studios at Geiselgasteig near Munich.
4 March 1922 - Premiere of F.W. Murnau's "Nosferatu" with Max Schreck as Count Orlock, aka Dracula.
17 September 1922 - First public perfomance in Germany of a sound movie using a film sound track (Tri-Ergon) in Berlin.
2 December 1922 - Ernst Lubitsch leaves Germany to work in Hollywood.
May 1925 - Alfred Hitchcock begins filming The Pleasure Garden in Italy and at the Emelka Studios (later Bavaria Film) in Munich. It will be the first complete film directed by the future master of suspense.
17 September 1925 - First edition of the Ufa-Wochenschau weekly newsreel, the result of the merger of the Decla and Messter newsreels.
24 September 1925 - A remodeled Ufa-Palast am Zoo opens in Berlin with 2,165 seats.
4 November 1929 - Filming begins for Der blaue Engel ("The Blue Angel") with Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings at Ufa's new sound studios in Neubabelsberg (Berlin). Two versions are made: English and German. For a while, most sound films will be filmed in multi-language versions, an expensive process that later gives way to dubbing or subtitles.
2 April 1930 - On the day after the premiere of Der blaue Engel Marlene Dietrich leaves for Hollywood.
March 1931 - Popular star Charlie Chaplin visits Berlin, causing such a commotion he is forced to cut his stay short.
28 March 1933 - Reichsminister for Propaganda Josef Goebbels makes a speech to film industry representatives at the Hotel Kaiserhof in Berlin in which he says: “Art is free. However, it must conform to certain norms.” Two days later he bans Fritz Lang's Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse as a danger to public order and safety. Lang leaves Germany that summer, later to end up in Hollywood.
Summer 1936 - The XI Olympic games take place in Berlin. Jesse Owens wins a Gold Medal while Leni Riefenstahl films it all.
November 1936 - A Goebbels decree forbids any film criticism in newspapers or on the radio. Most respected German film critics were already in exile.
1937 - The German Reich government now secretly owns 72 percent of the shares of Ufa.
1942 - All German film production is now incorporated in a state-controlled Ufa, which is dubbed "Ufi" to distinguish it from the former Ufa. There are no longer any privately-owned film production companies in Germany.
1943 - Ufa marks its 25th anniversary (on 17 December 1942) with the production of the Agfacolor spectacular "Baron Münchhausen" (1943). (IMDb link) Directed by Josef von Baky and starring Hans Albers and Brigitte Horney, "Münchhausen" was also intended as Germany's (and Goebbels') answer to "Gone With the Wind." It wasn't even close. (Available on video. Remade by director Terry Gilliam as The Adventures of Baron Münchhausen in 1989; also on video.)
1946-48 - Ufa has been disbanded, but the first post-war film productions in Germany (both east and west) are almost exclusively by former Ufa film people. The Soviets allow the establishment of DEFA (Deutsche Film-AG) at the old Ufa facilities for the resumption of East German film production in 1948.
1952 - The DEFA studios in Babelsberg become state-owned (VEB, Volkseigener Betrieb), part of the communist East German economic system.
1989 - The Berlin Wall comes down in November. East and West Germany will soon be reunited, and East German concerns like DEFA will be privatized.
1992 - The French concern Vivendi buys the Babelsberg studios, intending to make it an important European film center.
2000 - The international production Enemy at the Gates becomes the most expensive film to be made at Babelsberg.
2001 - More feature film productions: The Pianist, Taking Sides, and Joe and Max. In April, Henning Molfenter, formerly with New Line Cinema and Cinehaus in New York, takes over as head of the studio's Production Division, specializing in international productions like The Pianist.
2002 - Babelsberg Motion Pictures GmbH is now part of Vivendi Universal.
2003 - Studio Babelsberg is chosen as a primary production site for the Jackie Chan film Around the World in 80 Days. Parts of Berlin stand in for Paris and other locations. The adjacent Filmpark Babelsberg is split off from the studio as a separate entity owned by Friedhelm Schatz. Vivendi sells all of its interests in the amusement park division. The film studio division handles almost 80 cinema and television productions worth about 20 million euros.
2004 - Babelsberg remains popular for English-language film productions. Paul Greengrass directs The Bourne Supremacy in Babelsberg and on location in nearby Berlin. Kevin Spacey also chooses Babelsberg for his production of Beyond the Sea. The third Mission Impossible film (with Tom Cruise) plans to film at Babelsberg and in Berlin. In July Vivendi sells all of its interests in the Babelsberg studio to two investors for the symbolic price of one euro. The Michael Moore documentary FAHRENHEIT 9/11 was dubbed in Babelsberg for its German theatrical release.
Sources: Studio Babelsberg Web site; Chronicle of the Cinema, Robyn Karney, Ed., Dorling, Kindersley, New York, 1995; Geschichte des deutschen Films, W. Jacobsen, A. Kaes and H. Prinzler, editors. J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart, 1993; The Great German Films by Frederick W. Ott. Citadel, Secaucus, 1986; The UFA Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company 1918-1945 by Klaus Kreimeier.
B A C K > Ufa Chronology 1
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Related Pages
The Ufa Studios
The Ufa Story (book)
The Emelka Studios (Munich)
Film Studios
Film Trivia Quiz
Film Connections (Links)
Studio Babelsberg - The Berlin film studios
Filmpark Babelsberg - Studio Tour
Bavaria Filmstadt Tour - Tour the Bavaria Studios near Munich (in German). Munich became the "Hollywood" of West Germany after the division of Germany following WWII.
WB Movie World Theme Park in Bottrop, Germany (site in English, German, French, and Dutch!). - "Hollywood in Germany"
Potsdam Web Site (in German). Information about accommodations, attractions, events, etc. in the city of Potsdam.
Media City Babelsberg Web site
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