Bioscop - Decla-Bioscop - Ufa

Filmmakers have been using Babelsberg, a former factory site, since 1912. Bioscop, a small Berlin-based film company, purchases the vast area in 1911. After the company has set up a glass studio next to the old factory building, the first film is shot in 1912: Der Totentanz ("The Dance of the Dead", DIR: Urban Gad). Leading actress is the first great European film star Asta Nielsen. With her subtle performance, Nielsen helps to establish the young medium film as a serious art form. In Erdgeist ("Earth Spirit", 1923, DIR: Leopold Jessner), the Danish actress appears seductively wrapped a fringed shawl. The shawl, now on display in the exhibition, was also used by Nielsen for decorative purposes – as tablecloth in her Berlin apartment.

During the First World War, Babelsberg filmmaking almost comes to a standstill. While the first devastating gas attacks are launched on the Western front, Paul Wegener’s film Der Golem ("The Golem", 1915) achieves nominal artistic success. Paul Wegener’s films are pioneering works, helping the young studio to establish a good reputation; Wegener himself becomes particularly famous for his handling of fantasy material. In the 1930s, Wegener quits directing. Instead, he exclusively turns to acting.

In the early 1920s, financial difficulties force Bioscop to merge, first with Decla (Deutsche Eclair) into Decla-Bioscop and, only a few years later, with Ufa (Universum Film AG) that was founded in 1917. The merger adds to Babelsberg′s stock of resources and artists who soon bring worldwide fame to the studio. The technical and artistic innovations it employs have the world spellbound – a shining example of a Babelsberg innovation of great significance is the "moving camera". Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s film Der letzte Mann ("The Last Laugh", 1924) sees the camera "liberated" from its fixed attachment to the tripod, enabling it to be moved in a variety of ways: on a bicycle, in a basket sliding downward or strapped to the chest of ingenious cameraman Karl Freund. The inventiveness is dazzling – even Hollywood sends its best cinematographers to Babelsberg for further training.
One of the oldest exhibits comes from a Murnau film: the Egyptian wig worn by actor Martin Wolfgang in the (lost) film Satanas (1920).

Ufa is almost ruined by mismanagement. Production times of up to two years for a single film and an ever-growing trend towards escapism reach a peak in Fritz Lang′s science fiction film Metropolis (1927). Consequently, Ufa has to sign an adhesion contract with a number of US companies. Alfred Hugenberg, owner of a right-wing press conglomerate, buys Ufa out of the contract with the Americans in 1927. From this point onwards, Ufa increasingly produces reactionary films and mass entertainment.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Ufa mainly succeeds with its entertainment films. Stars like Hans Albers, Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch, Heinrich George or Marika Rökk leave their mark on Ufa films. The comedy Die Feuerzangenbowle (1944, DIR: Helmut Weiss) becomes a great success, featuring Ufa star Heinz Rühmann as student "Pfeiffer with three ′F′". The film still enjoys cult status in Germany. One of the school desks used in the film has been preserved. The only costume remaining from leading actress Zara Leander′s Ufa engagement is also displayed in the exhibition. She wore it in Das Herz der Königin ("The Heart of a Queen", 1949; DIR: Carl Fröhlich).

Already during the 1920s, patriotic historical films on Prussian King Frederic the Great are popular. In fourteen of these films, actor Otto Gebühr plays the main role. The wig he wore in Fridericus Rex (1922/24, DIR: Arzen von Czèrepy) is on display.

After Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, the production of propaganda films increases greatly: Ufa filmmakers shoot anti-Semitic films like Jud Süß ("Jew Süß", 1940, DIR: Veit Harlan), war films like Stukas (1941, DIR: Karl Ritter), or, towards the end of the war, never-surrender films like Kolberg (1945, DIR: Veit Harlan), urging the Germans to "stand firm".
For the shooting of the extensive military scenes shown in "Kolberg", Propaganda Minister Goebbels even diverts real troops from the front – their generals protest in vain.

The accordion of actor Carl Raddatz is a prop from one of the last Ufa films, Unter den Brücken ("Under the Bridges", 1945/1950, DIR: Helmut Käutner). The film is shot on the river Havel, close to Potsdam, while the Soviet Army is already closing in on Berlin. The apolitical, charming love story still passes censorship in 1945 but is not released until 1950. In this film, a tiny role is cast with Hildegard Knef, who will play the leading part in the first German post-war film Die Mörder sind unter uns ("Murderers Among Us", 1946; DIR: Wolfgang Staudte).