Babelsberg Studios

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The Babelsberg Studios is a film studio located in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany. The studio has significant historical value as the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. It was founded in 1911 and it covers an area of about 270,000 square feet. Legendary films such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Der Blaue Engel have been filmed there.

Today, Studio Babelsberg is an internationally recognised full-service provider and a centre for national and international film and television productions. It is one of the leading media locations in Europe. The Studio includes the theme park Filmpark Babelsberg for visitors with stunt-shows and parts of the movies.

1 History
2 The Filmpark Babelsberg
3 Famous films shot at Babelsberg Studios
4 External links

[edit] History

In 1911, the company Bioscop built its first – glass – film studio in Babelsberg. The first shoot began as early as February 1912 . After the First World War, the Deutsche Bioscop Gesellschaft merged with the German branch of the French film concern Eclair „Decla“ in Babelsberg into „Decla Bioscop“. In 1921, Decla Bioscop passed into Universum Film AG (Ufa) which had been founded in 1917. This company erected the large studio (which is now known as the „Marlene Dietrich Halle“) in 1926 for the big film production of „Metropolis“ by Fritz Lang. A new chapter in the history of cinema began with the construction of the first German sound stage in Babelsberg in 1929, the Tonkreuz. „Melodie des Herzens“ with Willy Fritsch is the first German full sound film.

This is followed in 1930 with the premiere of The Blue Angel by Josef von Sternberg with Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings in the lead roles.

From 1933 to 1945, around 1,000 feature films are made in the studios and on the studio lot. The new beginning is not long in coming after the end of the Second World War. The first clapperboard for Wolfgang Staudte's "Die Mörder sind unter uns" with Hildegard Knef and Ernst Wilhelm Borchert has already fallen on May 4, 1946. On May 17, 1946, the DEFA - Deutsche Film AG - is established. The DEFA produced over 700 feature films, including 150 children's films. Over 600 films are produced for television from 1959 to 1990. The internationally not so well-known DEFA period will be historically reappraised and honoured by the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York in autumn 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 Compagnie Générale des Eaux concern (now Vivendi Universal). In the following 12 years, the company invested approx. Euros 500 million in the film studio and the media city. This created the infrastructure in order to maintain one's hold successfully on today's market.

In July 2004, Vivendi sold Studio Babelsberg to the investment company FBB - Filmbetriebe Berlin Brandenburg GmbH which has Dr. Carl Woebcken and Christoph Fisser as shareholders.

[edit] The Filmpark Babelsberg

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The Filmpark Babelsberg ist a theme-park about movies located in the Filmstudios. The Filmpark is divided into six different themes and 20 attractions. The Filmpark started in 1991 after the German reunification. Popular attractions are the 4D Metropolis-cinema, a U-Boot-Ride, sceneries from different movies, an animalshow and a stuntshow.