Integration of travelling exhibitions into the area of the permanent exhibition

Museums are made for their guests. Often, exhibition organisers have to come up with new ideas as, from time to time, unexpected circumstances occur. The family exhibition "Fairyland Babelsberg" is still being well received. Due to these good responses, the semi-permanent exhibition will not be removed in April 2006 (as initially planned) but will be extended until 2007. As the museum does not have more than two exhibition areas with 450 square metres each, exhibition space is needed for the travelling exhibitions of 2006 that have already been prepared for a long time: a vital museum has to consistently develop new offers for its guests.

This new exhibition area is created by a restructuring of the permanent exhibition: both installations (illustrating the prohibited films of 1965/66 and the end of DEFA) will be removed, same as the two children′s areas (on "1, 2, 3 – Corona" and on film trick design). The children′s areas will be taken over by the museum′s cooperation partner Filmpark Babelsberg for the 2006 season.
The four media tables (with two monitors each, one showing excerpts from the exhibition′s films, the other providing access to the computer-based information system) will be integrated into the "wall of contemporary history". This way, both the permanent exhibition′s core and the offer of information will remain almost complete.

The room will be divided by lengthwise installed translucent partitions. At the beginning of May 2006, guests may visit two exhibitions on the ground floor. Travelling exhibition.


former Exhibition tour


1912 - 1945: Bioscop - Decla-Bioscop - Ufa
1946 - 1953: DEFA
1954 - 1966: DEFA
1967 - 1976: DEFA
1977 - 1994: DEFA
1994 - today: Studio Babelsberg



1912 - 1945: 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).

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1946 - 1953: DEFA








- Die Mörder sind unter uns - Freies Land - Ehe im Schatten - Wozzeck - Die Buntkarierten - Figaros Hochzeit - Die blauen Schwerter - Der Kahn der fröhlichen Leute - Das Beil von Wandsbek - Frauenschicksale -

In April 1945, the Soviet Army occupies the Babelsberg studios. Film production is abandoned. No German film company will produce in Babelsberg until one year later: By order of the Soviet military administration, communist German filmmakers found DEFA (Deutsche Film AG) on 17 May, 1946. Its ideological orientation is anti-fascist. On 15 October, 1946, the first DEFA film – which is also the first post-war German film – is released: Die Mörder sind unter uns ("Murderers Among Us") by director Wolfgang Staudte.

One of the most successful early DEFA films is Ehe im Schatten ("Marriage in the Shadows", 1947, DIR: Kurt Maetzig). The film is released in all four occupation zones (which is rather unusual in the post-war period) and seen by millions, also attracting international attention. From the very beginning, anti-fascism becomes one of the most important values DEFA films try to pass on.
Using traditional Ufa imagery, director Kurt Maetzig, one of DEFA′s founding members and himself persecuted in the Third Reich as Half-Jew, tells a true story: Popular Ufa star Joachim Gottschalk is married to a Jewish actress. Soon after the Nazis rise to power, she is banned from her film career. When she is about to be deported to a concentration camp, the couple commits suicide with their little son in 1941. The exhibition shows character as well as private shots of the couple, Joachim Gottschalk‘s cigarette case and pictures of the family apartment taken shortly after their suicides in 1941. Grotesquely, some staff members of this first German post-war production dealing with the Holocaust had participated in producing anti-Semitic films in the Third Reich: Film composer Wolfgang Zeller, whose score is on display, wrote the soundtrack for one of the best-known anti-Semitic films of the Third Reich, Jud Süß.

Die Geschichte vom kleinen Muck ("The Story of Little Mook", DIR: Wolfgang Staudte), DEFA’s second fairy tale film and top-selling item of DEFA exports until the end of the GDR, was shot in 1953. Ever since, DEFA has been famous for its fairy tale films. Exhibits illustrate with how much loving care and great effort Wilhelm Hauff’s fairy tale was transformed into a motion picture: beautiful costume and set designs by Sybille Gerstner, Walter Schulze-Mittendorf, Willi Eplinius and Erich Zander. Some former Ufa artists bring their skills into DEFA productions after the war. The large, carved clock from the film’s background story is displayed in the exhibition. In one of the showcase drawers, you will also find a book of fairy tales composed entirely of the film′s set and costume designs.

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1954 - 1966: DEFA








- Carola Lamberti - Eine Berliner Romanze - Die Abenteuer des Till Ulenspiegel - Emilia Galotti - Meine Frau macht Musik - Das Feuerzeug - Auf der Sonnenseite - Das zweite Gleis - Der Kinnhaken - Der geteilte Himmel - Geliebte weiße Maus - Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt - Ernst Thälmann I/II - Das Kaninchen bin ich -

The link between filmmaking and politics is symbolised by a wide gap in the showcase in 1953: After the death of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1953, many countries of the Eastern Bloc have to deal with unrests. The Korean War 1950 - 53 strains the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union: The Cold War is in full swing. Filming in the DEFA studios is affected by the harsher political climate as well. In the exhibition, projected documentary images illustrate some of the historical events.

In the mid 1950s, DEFA produces its biggest propaganda film, the two-part film Ernst Thälmann – Sohn seiner Klasse ("Ernst Thälmann – Son of the Working Class", 1954) and Ernst Thälmann – Führer seiner Klasse ("Ernst Thälmann – Leader of the Working Class", 1955). Renowned Kurt Maetzig directs both parts. The films paint an imposing portrait of life and work of Hamburg labour leader Ernst Thälmann, who was executed by the Nazis in the Third Reich. As the films have the status of government projects, all drafts are controlled and corrected by the state party SED. In 1949, a collective of three authors, Willi Bredel, Michael Tschesno-Hell and Kurt Maetzig, begins to work on the screenplay. The exhibition supplies information on the authors and shows their portraits.
Shooting expenditures are immense. Even the burning of the Berlin Reichstag in 1933 is reconstructed: The model used in the film is more than 10 feet high. Photos in the showcase show its making and how the model is set on fire. Besides, takes done by assistant director Günter Reisch, who will later become a DEFA director himself, are on display. Furthermore, there are postcards of film stars, luxury editions of film stills bound in red imitation leather as well as an unusually colourful film programme, a four-colour print: costly advertising material in rather poor times. For years, the films shape Thälmann’s public image in the GDR. The viewing of the films is mandatory for school classes as well as for workers. Leading actors Günter Simon and Karla Runkehl gain lasting popularity: Years later, they are still voted the most popular DEFA performers by GDR filmgoers. Karla Runkehl’s family collected newspaper clippings and fan mail in a photo album.
In 1956, the new Soviet head of state Nikita Khrushchev puts an end to the official personality cult surrounding former dictator Joseph Stalin. In the GDR, however, this change of ideology only gradually gains acceptance. The removal of reminders of the Stalin era does not begin before the early 1960s. In 1961, all scenes in the "Thälmann" films featuring Stalin are deleted. We show the out-takes on a monitor screen.

In the "Thälmann" films, stereo optical sound recording is applied for the first time. This process of sound recording will, however, not become popular until the US company Dolby starts to use it in the 1970s. Stereo optical sound recording requires a special type of both recording and playback equipment. Since the "Thälmann" films are supposed to be screened in a great number of cinemas that would then need equipment refitting, the DEFA studio management postpones the implementation of the new technology. The films are screened in the regular mono sound, the stereo print disappears in the archives.

Another of director Kurt Maetzig’s productions contrasts with the two "Thälmann" films: Das Kaninchen bin ich ("The Rabbit Is Me"). The film, based on a novel about GDR arbitrary justice, is shot in 1965 but not released before 1990: In 1965, the 11th Plenary Assembly of the SED decides on a more restrictive cultural and educational policy. Experimental and critical tendencies in literature, the fine arts and film are to be suppressed in favour of the official art programme of "socialist realism".
Director Kurt Maetzig, up to then highly praised, is criticised in public. The release of "Das Kaninchen bin ich" is banned. Simultaneously, almost all DEFA productions from 1965 are banned. The exhibition shows a film costume from "Das Kaninchen bin ich" and a copy of the novel the film is based on, "Maria Morzeck oder Das Kaninchen bin ich". An album displays film stills and candid stills of several DEFA productions of 1964/65. It lists, marked by red notes, films banned by the SED party conference.
One of these banned films is Der verlorene Engel ("The Lost Angel", 1966, DIR: Ralf Kirsten). It deals with the destruction of the Ernst Barlach sculpture "Der schwebende Engel" in Güstrow Cathedral by the National Socialists.

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1967 - 1976: DEFA








- Die gefrorenen Blitze - Ich war 19 - Heißer Sommer - Spur des Falken - Eolomea - Die Legende von Paul und Paula - Wolz - Jakob der Lügner - Lotte in Weimar - Goya - Zeit zu Leben - Anflug Alpha 1-

While DEFA deals with the consequences of the 11th Plenary Assembly, the Vietnam War in South East Asia escalates during the mid 1960s. In the FRG, student revolts intensify; a left-wing movement promoting extra-parliamentary opposition is founded in 1967. In Prague, an important communist reform movement, the Prague Spring, is crushed by troops of the Warsaw Pact.
In 1963, "Das Geheimnis von Huntsville" ("the Secret of Huntsville") is published, a documentary report on the production of Hitler′s long-distance missile V2 in Peenemünde. Based on the report, a bestseller, DEFA produces the monumental two-part film Die gefrorenen Blitze (Dir: János Veiczi) in 1967. The film is in wide-screen "Totalvision". With small-scale models, the gigantic Peenemünde base is reconstructed. Several of these trick models, wooden wagons with rails and a miniature V2 are on display in the showcase. You will also find historical pictures - research material for the film – and some props: a secret service file, the file of a concentration camp prisoner and photos with metal seals.

Apart from anti-fascist films, DEFA increasingly relies on light entertainment after the large-scale banning by the SED. In 1965, the production of western films starts that are released every year in the summer and soon prove to be box office hits. Yugoslavian performer Gojko Mitic, starring as an American Indian hero in almost all of the films, soon becomes the audience favourite. The exhibition portrays his role in Spur des Falken ("Trail of the Falcon", 1968, DIR: Gottfried Kolditz); here, you can have a close look at the wig he wore in the film, his bow and arrow and a peace-pipe. Besides, there are other props and a blueprint of a typical North American railway engine reconstructed especially for the film.
The suitcase in the lower part of the showcase belonged to foley artist Hugo Gries: With this simple equipment, he imitated the sound of galloping horses and moving carriages.
Just as the westerns, science fiction films are supposed to attract viewers after the mid 1960s: Eolomea (1972, DIR: Hermann Zschoche) even wins the international technology award UNIATEC for the film′s tricks. Some of the original spaceship models, blueprints by set designer Werner Pieske and candid stills of the trick shots are on display.

After 1966, DEFA not only increases its output of light entertainment, it also refrains from producing critical contemporary films. Instead, directors choose historical or literary material. One of these films is Jakob der Lügner ("Jacob the Liar"), shot in 1975 after Jurek Becker′s novel. The film tells the story of a Jew in the Warsaw Ghetto who tries to spread hope among ghetto inhabitants by making up good news, pretending he heard them on the radio.
The director is Frank Beyer, whose film Spur der Steine ("The Trace of Stones") was banned in 1966. Jakob der Lügner is a DEFA coproduction with GDR television and the first – and only – DEFA film ever to be nominated for an Oscar. You will find the nomination document in the exhibition.
For a long time, it remained uncertain who would play Jacob. Initially, actor Heinz Rühmann was considered but, being a West German star, was turned down for political reasons in favour of Czech actor Vlastimil Brodsky. Brodsky′s film costume and a costume design for Jacob by Joachim Dittrich are exhibited. In 1999, a Hollywood remake starring Robin Williams as Jacob was released.

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1977 - 1994: DEFA








- Solo Sunny - Alle meine Mädchen - Die Verlobte - Bürgschaft für ein Jahr - Märkische Forschungen - Dein unbekannter Bruder - Das Luftschiff - Moritz in der Litfasssäule - Erscheinen Pflicht - Ete und Ali - Die Entfernung zwischen dir und mir und ihr - Die Architekten - Die Beunruhigung - Simplicius Simplicissimus -

In 1975, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) signs its final communiqués in Helsinki. While tension is relieved on an international level, internal problems in the GDR increase: After giving a concert in Cologne in 1976, critical singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann is denied re-entry into the GDR because of "remarks hostile towards the state". Biermann′s expatriation throws the entire East German cultural scene into turmoil. Many artists, actors and writers who support Biermann consequently leave the GDR – more or less voluntarily.

In the 1970s, DEFA successfully returns to contemporary films. In 1980, Solo Sunny causes a sensation. It is a film by Konrad Wolf, one of the most widely renowned DEFA directors, president of the GDR Academy of Fine Arts and brother of head of the secret service Markus Wolf. The film’s plot deals with a delicate issue, considering the situation in the GDR of the early 1980s: the rebellious singer Sunny′s quest for individual freedom and autonomy. Sunny′s extravagant outfit – a leather jacket, a fox fur, a hairnet – can been seen in the exhibition. Same as the film′s English title track, these items represent Sunny’s attempt to escape from traditional social norms. In the following years, DEFA films repeatedly allude to Wolf′s "Solo Sunny", honouring it as an important contribution to the struggle for greater individual freedom. When leading actress Renate Krößner leaves for West Germany, "Solo Sunny" is withdrawn from the cinemas – the official banning order is on display.

Just as precarious is the subject of Märkische Forschungen (1982, DIR: Roland Gräf), a film released two years later, dealing with the issue of the distortion of history. A professor and a village schoolteacher do research on the biography of a revolutionary poet. The teacher finds out that the poet changed sides and became a reactionary in later years. The professor – well known to the public, influential with the media and afraid that the findings might damage his career – hinders the teacher from publishing the truth.
In the exhibition, you will find the director’s hand-written notes planning the film’s structure, props and an award: Gräf′s film opens at the GDR Film Festival in 1982. Because of its subject, it is agreed even before the festival that the film will not be awarded a prize. "Märkische Forschungen", however, quickly proves to be an outstanding contribution. Sneaking out of the dilemma, a special award is created just for Gräf’s film – "Der Findling".

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, DEFA film production continues as before. The films, however, hardly capture public attention anymore. The atmosphere in the studios becomes tense when mass dismissals start in the mid 1990s. In 1992, the company and its premises are sold to the French conglomerate CGE (Compagnie Général des Eaux, later Vivendi). DEFA is deleted from the Register of Companies in 1994.

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1994 - today: 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.

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