Die Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen Berlin (English: "German Cinematheque – Museum of Film and Television Berlin") is a major German

film archive An archive is an accumulation of Historical document, historical records or Historical source, materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated ove ...

and film museum located in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Germany. Located at

Potsdamer Platz Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag building, Reichstag (Bundestag, German Parliament Building), and ...

since 1963, it moved to a new temporary location at

E-Werk E-Werk may refer to of a number of music venues across Germany, including *E-Werk (Berlin) E-Werk was a techno music club in Berlin, Germany that was held in a former electrical substation called ''Abspannwerk Buchhändlerhof''. Located near Chec ...

in 2025.

History

The Deutsche Kinemathek opened in 1963. Until the opening of a permanent display in the Museum of Film and Television Berlin (Museum für Film und Fernsehen) on 1 June 2006, it was known simply as the Deutsche Kinemathek, after that date acquiring the second part of its name". The Museum of Film and Television Berlin (''Museum für Film und Fernsehen'') opened in 2000 as part of the Deutsche Kinemathek at Potsdamer Straße 2 in Berlin. Part of the archived collection of Deutsche Kinemathek was placed on exhibition at the "Filmhaus" on

Location

The Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen Berlin was located at

until its closure at the end of 2024 ahead of its relocation. The permanent exhibition at the old location closed on 31 October 2024. In January 2025 Deutsche Kinemathek opened in a new location, the

, an old power substation in

Berlin-Mitte Mitte (; German for "middle" or "center") is a central section () of Berlin, Germany, in the eponymous Boroughs of Berlin, borough () of Mitte. Until 2001, it was itself an autonomous district. Mitte proper comprises the historic center of Old ...

. The film archive open on 2 May 2025.

Description

Deutsche Kinemathek is funded by the

Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media (German: ''Beauftragter der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, BKM''), also known as the Minister of State for Culture (German: ''Kulturstaatsminister''), is responsible for cultural a ...

Permanent exhibition

The Museum of Film and Television Berlin (''Museum für Film und Fernsehen'') was a permanent exhibition about German film and television history, which was also supplemented by special temporary exhibitions. The exhibits in the permanent exhibition included posters, photos, film costumes, architectural sketches, and props. It displayed exhibits from the entire span of German film and television history, including the exile of many artists to Hollywood during the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

era. A particular focus is the actress

Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however, Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...

compiled from an extensive private collection. The exhibits, located in the Filmhaus, include the

set design Scenic design, also known as stage design or set design, is the creation of scenery for theatrical productions including plays and musicals. The term can also be applied to film and television productions, where it may be referred to as prod ...

s for

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...

's futuristic 1927 film ''

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

'', Marlene Dietrich's

cosmetics Cosmetics are substances that are intended for application to the body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering appearance. They are mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either Natural product, natural source ...

case, and the clothing from

Wolfgang Petersen Wolfgang Petersen (14 March 1941 – 12 August 2022) was a German film and television director, screenwriter, and producer. His international breakthrough was the 1981 war film (1981), which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Directo ...

's 1981 war film ''

Das Boot (; ) is a 1981 West Germany, West German war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer and Klaus Wennemann. An Film adaptation, adaptation of Lothar-Günthe ...

''. It also includes items donated by German director

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; né Stipetić; born 5 September 1942) is a German filmmaker, actor, opera director, and author. Regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema, his films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unusu ...

and TV documentary filmmaker

Georg Stefan Troller Georg Stefan Troller (born December 10, 1921) is an Austrian-born French director and screenwriter. In 1938, Troller fled Austria from the Nazis, first to Czechoslovakia and from there on to France, where he was interned as an enemy alien. In 1 ...

and important

film scripts A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a ''teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writi ...

including by directors

Carl Mayer Carl Mayer (20 November 1894 – 1 July 1944) was an Austrians, Austrian screenwriter. Mayer wrote or co-wrote the screenplays to ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' (1920), ''The Haunted Castle (1921 film), The Haunted Castle'' (1921), ''Der Letz ...

, Christian Petzold, and many others. The permanent exhibition has been closed since 31 October 2024 and is set to re-open in autumn 2025.

Archive and library

The museum also features a library with extensive collections of literature and film journals, including important early magazines like ''The Cinematograph'', ''the photo-stage'' and ''the Film-Kurier''. Before it moved to the film museum, the library belonged to the German Film and Television Academy (dffb). The film archive contains copies of over 26,500 films, as well as an inventory of over 40,000 films on video, DVD, and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

. Mediathek Fernsehen contains over 9,000 broadcasts, made over around 70 years in both

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

and

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

as well as modern Germany. In addition, the archival collection includes photographs, posters, costumes, and architectural sketches.

Berlinale screenings

From 1977, the Deutsche Kinemathek has supervised the annual "Retrospective and Homage" section of the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

(Berlinale). Films in this section have been screened in the Zeughauskino (an archive film cinema specialising in retrospectives; from 2023 within the

Deutsches Historisches Museum The German Historical Museum (), known by the acronym DHM, is a museum in Berlin, Germany devoted to German history. It describes itself as a place of "enlightenment and understanding of the shared history of Germans and Europeans". It is often ...

at Unter den Linden 2) and the CinemaxX Potsdamer Platz.

Memberships

The museum is a member of the German ''Kinemathekenverbund''.

References

External links

* (in German) {{authority control Film archives in Germany Cinema museums in Germany Museums in Berlin 1963 establishments in Germany FIAF-affiliated institutions