The Staatliches Filmarchiv der DDR (SFA) ("State Film Archive of the GDR") was the central

film archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

of the GDR (

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

). The archive, founded on 1 October 1955, was commissioned to collect, secure and make publicly accessible the results of the national film production. The first director was Rudolf Bernstein, previously director of the film distribution company Progress Film. The initial collection consisted of copies of films given to the East German government in 1954 by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, comprising the remains of the collections of the former '' Reichsfilmarchiv'', the originals of which had been acquired by the Soviet army when it advanced into Berlin in 1945. Additionally the new film archive received copies of all films made in East Germany. For the better conservation and restoration of its film collections the archive possessed, among other facilities, a copying studio. After the reunification of Germany the ''Staatliches Filmarchiv der DDR'' was incorporated on 3 October 1990 into the film collections of the ''

Bundesarchiv , type = Archive , seal = , seal_size = , seal_caption = , seal_alt = , logo = Bundesarchiv-Logo.svg , logo_size = , logo_caption = , lo ...

'' ("German Federal Archives").

See also