Studio Babelsberg

After the definitive liquidation of DEFA in 1994, a new company cooperative starts using the studios: Studio Babelsberg. It quickly develops into a service company. In 2004, owner Vivendi sells the studio, which still has not yielded profit, to the private investors Dr. Carl L. Woebcken and Christoph Fisser.

After the millenium, Babelsberg increasingly does international productions: Enemy at the Gates (2001, DIR: Jean-Jacques Annaud), a film about the battle of Stalingrad starring Jude Law, Bob Hoskins and Joseph Fiennes is the largest European production in recent years. Apart from several film stills and a candid still, you will find a Soviet uniform and the rifle used by Jude Law in the exhibition.
Taking Sides (2001, DIR: István Szabó) also brings international stars to Babelsberg: The film starring Harvey Keitel and Stellan Starsgard discusses German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler′s involvement in the Third Reich.
In 2002, renowned director Roman Polanski shoots The Pianist in Babelsberg. Dealing with the survival of Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman in the Second World War, the film is honoured with the European Film Award and two Oscars.

Not only international but also German productions made in Babelsberg enjoy a good reputation: Sonnenallee, a comedy by Leander Haußmann about GDR teenagers, is a box office hit in 1999 – the exhibition shows several props. In 2002, Halbe Treppe, a film by young German director Andreas Dresen, is awarded the Silver Bear at the Berlinale Film Festival. Rosenstraße(2003, DIR: Margarete von Trotta) portrays German women′s resistance in the Third Reich. At the Venice Film Festival, leading actress Katja Riemann is awarded the Volpi Cup, the Best Actress Award.

An important part of the "everyday" success story of the Babelsberg studios is played by TV productions: Since 1995, the daily soap Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten has been a favourite with German teenagers. Another series popular with an even younger audience is the high-school series Schloss Einstein.
The largest employer in Babelsberg is the local radio station rbb (former ORB), which belongs to the Alliance of Public Broadcasters of Germany. Some of its most important services are television and radio reports on current events, for instance on the "flood of the century" of the Oder river in 1997.

Further information is contained in our exhibition guide accompanying the permanent exhibition "Babelsberg – Faces of a Film Metropolis".