The Deutsches Filmarchiv ("German Film Archive"), originally the Archiv für Filmwissenschaft ("Archive for Film Science"), formally established in 1947, was the first

film archive An archive is an accumulation of Historical document, historical records or Historical source, materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located.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 accumula ...

set up in

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after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Archiv für Filmwissenschaft (1947-52)

By the end of the war in 1945, the two greatest existing German film collections, the Reichsfilmarchiv and the Ufa-Lehrschau ("UFA Educational Viewing"), had been in part destroyed and in part scattered to the four winds. The initiative for the setting up of a new film archive came from Hanns Wilhelm Lavies, who immediately after the war, on his own initiative and without any organisational backing, began intensively collecting films and film-related documentation in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and the West German zone of occupation. From the beginning of the Cold War he had the support of the

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occupying authorities. At first he tried to have his collection, formalised in 1947 as the ''Archiv für Filmwissenschaft'', attached to the photographic collection of

Marburg University The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

, but without success. However, with the support of

Curt Oertel Kurt is a male given name of Germanic or Turkish origin. ''Kurt'' or ''Curt'' originated as short forms of the Germanic Conrad, depending on geographical usage, with meanings including counselor or advisor. In Turkish, Kurt means "Wolf" and i ...

, Lavies' collection was accepted in 1948 for placement at

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

, and was moved the following year to

Schloss Biebrich Biebrich Palace (german: link=no, Schloss Biebrich) is a Baroque residence (''Schloss'') in the borough of Biebrich in the city of Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany. Built in 1702 by Prince Georg August Samuel of Nassau-Idstein, it served as the duca ...

. On 13 April 1949 it was renamed the '' Deutsches Institut für Filmkunde'' (DIF) ("German Institute for Film Studies"). In 1952 the ''Archiv für Filmwissenschaft'' became a department within the expanded DIF and was renamed the Deutsches Filmarchiv ("German Film Archive").

Deutsches Filmarchiv (1952-56)

Lavies, as the creator of the collection, remained as the head of the new operation, which however he continued to run as his own private endeavour; this brought him into repeated conflict with his funders in the film world. He stayed however until 1 January 1959, by which time most of the underlying organisational problems had been resolved. As proper storage of the vulnerable archive material and film stock was not possible in the Institute's premises, part of the collection had to be stored offsite in the ''

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'' ("German Federal Archive"), founded in 1954, and systematic sorting and conservation of the DIF film prints did not start until 1958. However, the constant disagreements about the Institute's finances and the fact of its support from both the film industry and the public purse, which raised serious questions about the ownership of the collections, led to a split on 29 May 1956 between the DIF and the film archive, which was turned into an association called ''Das Deutsche Filmarchiv'' ("The German Film Archive"),the difference in name is minimal in both German and English: "The German Film Archive", as opposed to the "German Film Archive" under which name it joined the ''Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film'' (FIAF).

Notes

Sources

Deutsches Filminstitut website: foundation of the ''Archiv für Filmwissenschaft''

{{Authority control Film archives in Germany Film organisations in Germany Culture in Wiesbaden Mass media in Wiesbaden

Archiv für Filmwissenschaft (1947-52)

Deutsches Filmarchiv (1952-56)

See also

Notes

Sources