The Marmorhaus (English: Marble House) is a former

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ...

located on the

Kurfürstendamm The Kurfürstendamm (; colloquially ''Ku'damm'', ; en, Prince Elector Embankment) is one of the most famous avenues in Berlin. The street takes its name from the former ''Kurfürsten'' (prince-electors) of Brandenburg. The broad, long boulevar ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. Opened in 1913, it takes its name from a large

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

. Designed by the architect Hugo Pál, the walls of the foyer and auditorium were decorated by the

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

artist

Cesar Klein César Klein (14 September 1876 – 13 March 1954) was a German Expressionist painter and designer, probably best known as one of the founders the November Group and the Arbeitsrat für Kunst. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of pa ...

. During the

silent era A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...

it frequently functioned as a venue for

premiere A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first ...

s of new films. These included '' The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'', ''

Johannes Goth ''Johannes Goth'' is a 1920 German silent film directed by Karl Gerhardt and starring Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur, Carola Toelle, and Werner Krauss Werner Johannes Krauss (''Krauß'' in German; 23 June 1884 – 20 October 1959) was a German stage ...

'', ''

The Woman in Heaven ''The Woman in Heaven'' (German:''Die Frau im Himmel'') is a 1920 German silent film directed by Johannes Guter and starring Lil Dagover and Werner Krauss.Bock & Bergfelder p.1 The film's art direction was by Franz Seemann. Cast In alphabetica ...

'', ''

The Head of Janus ''Der Januskopf'' () is a 1920 German silent film directed by F. W. Murnau. The film was an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde''. Little is kn ...

'', '' Genuine'', ''

Four Around a Woman ''Four Around the Woman'' (german: Vier um die Frau) is a 1921 German silent drama film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Hermann Böttcher, Carola Toelle and Lilli Lohrer. It is also known by the alternative title of ''Kämpfende Herzen''. T ...

'', ''

Wandering Souls ''Wandering Souls'' (German: ''Irrende Seelen'') is a 1921 German silent drama film directed by Carl Froelich and starring Asta Nielsen, Alfred Abel, and Walter Janssen. It was based on the 1869 novel ''The Idiot'' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The fil ...

'', and '' The Haunted Castle''.Kreimeier p.74 Owned by the giant

UFA Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital city, capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya River (Kama), Belaya and Ufa River, Ufa rivers, in the centre-n ...

company for many years, it was later developed into a

multiplex Multiplex may refer to: * Multiplex (automobile), a former American car make * Multiplex (comics), a DC comic book supervillain * Multiplex (company), a global contracting and development company * Multiplex (assay), a biological assay which measu ...

. In 2001 the cinema was closed and the property sold off.

References

Bibliography

* Hardt, Ursula. ''From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's life in the International Film Wars''. Berghahn Books, 1996. * Kreimeier, Klaus. ''The Ufa Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company, 1918-1945''. University of California Press, 1999. Cinemas and movie theaters in Berlin category:Former cinemas Cinemas in Germany {{Berlin-struct-stub