Babelsberg Film Studio (German: Filmstudio Babelsberg) (also known as Studio Babelsberg), located in Potsdam-Babelsberg outside Berlin, Germany, is the second oldest large-scale film studio in the world only preceded by the Danish Nordisk Film (est. 1906), producing films since 1912. With a total area of about 460,000 square metres (5,000,000sqft) and a studio area of about 25,000 square metres (270,000sqft) it is Europe's largest film studio.[1][2]
Today, Studio Babelsberg remains operational mainly for feature film productions. It also acts as producer on German productions and co-producer on international high-budget productions. Since January 2022 it has been owned by TPG Real Estate Partners (TREP) and Filmbetriebe Berlin Brandenburg GmbH (FBB), and promoted as part of the platform Cinespace Film Studios.[3]
History
Movie set Berlin at Filmpark Babelsberg, adjacent to the studiosBabelsberg Studios in 1952
In 1911, the film production company Deutsche Bioscope bought the current site in Babelsberg and built its first glasshouse film studio (early studios designed to take advantage of natural light) in Neubabelsberg. The company had been originally formed by Jules Greenbaum in 1899 and incorporated in 1902.[4][5] As his business increased, Greenbaum made a deal with the chemist Carl Moritz Schleussner of the photochemicals firm Schleussner AG in Frankfurt/Main. Carl Schleussner had been involved since 1896 in producing negative film stock for Röntgen photography soon after its discovery.[6] In February 1908 Carl Schleussner bought a majority share in Deutsche Bioscop as a film manufacturing, duplicating and sales operation, for a two thirds share of 140,000 marks, with one third provided by Jules Greenbaum and his brother Max. Ownership of Deutsche Bioscop was transferred to Schleussner AG and registered on 27 February 1908: Schleussner bought out the Greenbaums' remaining share of Deutsche Bioscop in 1909.[7]
The first filming in Babelsberg began as early as February 1912 for The Dance of Death by Danish director Urban Gad. In 1920 the Deutsche Bioscop Gesellschaft merged with Erich Pommer's Decla-Film GmbH to form "Decla-Bioscop". In 1928, Decla-Bioscop merged with Universum Film AG (Ufa) which had been founded in 1917. This company built the large studio (which is now known as the "Marlene Dietrich Halle") in 1926 for the major film production of Metropolis by Fritz Lang.
Spaceflight owes director Fritz Lang and the film team of the science fiction silent film Woman in the Moon (1929), completely made in the Babelsberg studios, a famous achievement: the countdown was born in Babelsberg.[8]
The first sound stage in Europe, the "Tonkreuz", was built during 1929 in Babelsberg, to make use of the Tri-Ergon sound-on-film process to which Ufa acquired the rights. Ufa's first successful full-sound film Melodie des Herzens / Melody of the Heart with Willy Fritsch was shot in the "Tonkreuz" and in Hungary in 1929,[9] although this was followed in April 1930 by the premiere of The Blue Angel (which was made at Babelsberg)[10] by Josef von Sternberg, with Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings in the main roles.
From 1933 to 1945, around 1,000 feature films were made in the studios and on the studio lot. Under the direction of Hitler's propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, the studio churned out hundreds of films including Leni Riefenstahl's openly propagandistic Triumph of the Will (1935). The virulently anti-Semitic propaganda film Jud Süss (The Jew Süss) (1940), was also made at Babelsberg.[11]
On May 17, 1946, the DEFA (Deutsche Film AG) was established in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany and Babelsberg Studio was made its headquarters the next year. DEFA became the state-owned film production company in East Germany, producing over 800 feature films, including 150 children's films until 1990. In addition, over 600 films were made for television from 1959 to 1990. The DEFA period was honored by a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City in 2005.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Treuhand took over the responsibility for the privatisation of the former DEFA. In August 1992, the Treuhandanstalt sold the former DEFA film studios in Babelsberg to the French group Compagnie Générale des Eaux (later absorbed into Vivendi Universal). Over the following 12 years the company invested around €500 million updating the studio's infrastructure.
In July 2004, Vivendi sold Studio Babelsberg to the investment company FBB (Filmbetriebe Berlin Brandenburg GmbH), which has Carl Woebcken and Christoph Fisser as shareholders. In spring of 2005, the restructured studio presented an initial public offering and began trading on the free market.
In 2008, Studio Babelsberg and Hollywood producer Joel Silver formed a strategic alliance to produce feature films from the Dark Castle production slate at the world's oldest film studio.
In 2019, the love story Dream Factory conquered the European cinema screens. The starting point is true events: the construction of the Berlin Wall and the closure of the German-German border on August 13, 1961, brings the international co-productions to a close, affects the film studio and is the stroke of fate for the two main characters, a German extra and a French dance double, who are separated by the events. With this, the Babelsberg film studio was working on a part of its own story.
Recent co-productions of Studio Babelsberg include Matrix 4 (2021), Uncharted (2022) and Retribution (2022).
In 2021, the largest permanent virtual production stage in Europe was set up in Studio Babelsberg for the major European Netflix production 1899.[12] The studio is operated by Dark Bay GmbH, which is managed by Baran Bo Odar and Jantje Friese. Netflix and the investment bank of the state of Brandenburg financed the project. In order to raise the necessary funds, Netflix has committed to realizing several projects in the Dark Bay studio in the coming years. The Brandenburg Ministry of Economic Affairs funded the project with around two million euros.[13]
DEFA was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic throughout the country's existence.
UFA GmbH, shortened to UFA, is a film and television production company that unites all production activities of the media conglomerate Bertelsmann in Germany. The original UFA was established as Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft on December 18, 1917, as a direct response to foreign competition in film and propaganda. UFA was founded by a consortium headed by Emil Georg von Stauß, a former Deutsche Bank board member. In March 1927, Alfred Hugenberg, an influential German media entrepreneur and later Minister of the Economy and Minister of Agriculture and Nutrition in Adolf Hitler's cabinet, purchased UFA and transferred ownership of it to the Nazi Party in 1933.
Joe May was an Austrian film director and film producer and one of the pioneers of German cinema.
Babelsberg is the largest quarter of Potsdam, the capital city of the German state of Brandenburg. The neighbourhood is named after a small hill on the Havel river. It is the location of Babelsberg Palace and Park, part of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as Babelsberg Studio, a historical centre of the German film industry and the first large-scale movie studio in the world.
Erich Pommer was a German-born film producer and executive. Pommer was perhaps the most powerful person in the German and European film industries in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Sylvester Groth is a German theater, television, and film actor. He is best known to international audiences from his appearances in Hollywood movies including Inglourious Basterds and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Furthermore, he has appeared in the Netflix series Sense8, Fargo, and Dark.
Jules Greenbaum was a German pioneering film producer. He founded the production companies Deutsche Bioscope, Deutsche Vitascope and Greenbaum-Film and was a dominant figure in German cinema in the years before the First World War. He is also known for his early experiments with sound films around twenty years before the success of The Jazz Singer made them a more established feature of cinema.
Continental-Kunstfilm GmbH was a short-lived German film production company based in Berlin, formed in February 1912 by Walter Schmidthässler and Max Rittberger. A large number of Continental-Kunstfilm's productions are now probably lost, although some significant films have survived into the 21st century.
The Story of Christine von Herre is a 1921 German silent drama film directed by Ludwig Berger and starring Agnes Straub, Werner Krauss, and Paul Hartmann. It was based on a novella by Heinrich Zschokke. It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios of Decla-Bioscop in Berlin and on location at Glatz in Silesia. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Rudolf Bamberger and Franz Seemann. The film premiered on 30 September 1921 at the UT-Kurfürstendamm and the UT-Nollendorfplatz in Berlin. It was popular at the box office and with critics.
The Lost Shoe is a 1923 German silent fantasy film directed by Ludwig Berger and starring Helga Thomas, Paul Hartmann and Mady Christians. Its plot is loosely based on that of Cinderella. It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin. The film's sets were designed by the art director Rudolf Bamberger. The film premiered on 5 December 1923 at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin. It was produced by Decla-Bioscop which was by then part of the large UFA conglomerate.
The Plague in Florence is a 1919 German silent historical film directed by Otto Rippert for Eric Pommer's Deutsche Eclair (Decla) production company. The screenplay was written by Fritz Lang. It stars Marga von Kierska, Theodor Becker, Karl Bernhard and Julietta Brandt. The film is a tragic romance set in Florence in 1348, just before the first outbreaks in Italy of the Black Death, which then spread out across the entire continent.
National Film or National-Film was a German film production and distribution company which operated during the silent and early sound era. In the early 1920s it made an attempt to take over Erich Pommer's Decla-Bioscop, but the projected merger failed and Decla instead joined with the major studio UFA. While Decla was generally in favour of joining with National, it was pressured by its creditors Deutsche Bank to merge with UFA.
The Blood of the Ancestors is a 1920 German silent film directed by Karl Gerhardt and starring Robert Scholz, Harald Paulsen, and Lil Dagover. It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios of Decla-Bioscop in Berlin. The film's art direction was by Hermann Warm.
The Sign of the Malay is a 1920 German silent film directed by Carl Heinz Boese. It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin, then controlled by Decla-Bioscop.
The Kwannon of Okadera is a 1920 German silent film directed by Carl Froelich and starring Lil Dagover and Werner Krauss. Produced by Erich Pommer of Decla-Bioscop it was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin and premiered in the city's Marmorhaus.
Dirk Kummer is a German actor, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for directing movies Sugar Sand (2017), Wohin mit den Witwen (1999) and Rosenzweig's Freedom (1998).
The Weissensee Studios was a collection of separate film production studios located in the Berlin suburb of Weißensee during the silent era.
Decla-Film was a German film production and distribution company of the silent era, founded by Erich Pommer and Fritz Holz in February 1915.
Manfred Richter was a German writer, scriptwriter and dramaturg.
The Thirteen of Steel is a 1921 German silent crime film directed by Johannes Guter and starring Carl de Vogt, Georg H. Schnell and Claire Lotto. It was produced by Erich Pommer for Decla-Bioscop before the company merged with UFA. It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin. The film's sets were designed by the art director Franz Seemann.
References
↑ Welt - "Das Filmstudio Babelsberg ist Teil der Medienstadt Babelsberg. Auf 46 Hektar Fläche arbeiten etwa 2000 Menschen aus der Film- und Medienbranche.",retrieved 10 February 2019
↑ Studio BabelsbergArchived 2011-08-18 at the Wayback Machine - "Mit der Erschließung des direkt in der Nachbarschaft befindlichen Filmgeländes mit den Studios Neue Film 1 und Neue Film 2 konnte Studio Babelsberg seine Studiokapazitäten verdoppeln und verfügt so über Europas größten zusammenhängenden Studiokomplex.", retrieved 3 December 2013 (German)
Hampicke, Evelyn (1996). "'More than ten lines' Jules Greenbaum. A contribution against forgetting in film history.". Positionen deutscher Filmgeschichte (Positions of German film history) (Discourse-film-8) (in German). Schaudig, Michael (ed.). Munich: Discourse Filmverlag Schaudig & Single. pp.23–36. ISBN978-3926372079.
Hans-Jürgen Tast (ed.) Anton Weber (1904–1979) - Filmarchitekt bei der UFA (Schellerten 2005) ISBN3-88842-030-X;
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
