Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1991-0109-502, Berlin, Aufnahmegelände der Ufa in Tempelhof

The Tempelhof Studios are a

film studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...

located in Tempelhof in the German capital of Berlin. They were founded in 1912, 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 ...

, by German film pioneer

Alfred Duskes Alfred Duskes (1881-1918) was a German film producer and director. He was one of the German pioneers of the silent era, setting up his first production company in 1905. In 1912 he founded the original Tempelhof Studios The Tempelhof Studios a ...

, who built a glass-roofed studio on the site with financial backing from the French company

Pathé Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...

. The producer Paul Davidson's

PAGU The Projektions-AG Union (generally shortened to PAGU) was a German film production company which operated between 1911 and 1924 during the silent era. From 1917 onwards, the company functioned as an independent unit of Universum Film AG, and was e ...

then took control and constructed a grander structure. The First World War propaganda drama ''

The Yellow Passport ''The Yellow Passport'' is a lost 1916 silent film drama produced and distributed by the World Film Company. Based on Michael Morton's 1914 Broadway play of the same title, it was directed by Edwin August and starred Clara Kimball Young. On the ...

'', the historical comedy '' Madame DuBarry'' and the expressionist 1920 silent film '' The Golem'' were made there by PAGU. During the 1920s the site came into the hands of the dominant German company UFA which also controlled the Babelsberg and

Staaken Studios Staaken Studios was a film studio located in Staaken on the outskirts of the German capital Berlin. A large former zeppelin hangar, it was converted to film use following the First World War and operated during the Weimar Republic. In July 1923 it ...

in the city. It was used for several of the company's major productions during the Weimar Republic including '' The Last Laugh''. It was partly used by Terra Film during the

Nazi era Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. In 1945 the studios were captured by Soviet Army troops during the

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula– ...

while the shooting of the comedy film '' Tell the Truth'' was under way. It was later located in

Western Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under ...

and used for West German film and television production during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

.Bergfelder p.90

References

Bibliography

* Bergfelder, Tim. ''International Adventures: German Popular Cinema and European Co-Productions in the 1960s''. Berghahn Books, 2005. * Elsaesser, Thomas & Wedel, Michael. ''A Second Life: German Cinema's First Decades''. Amsterdam University Press, 1996. * Eyman, Scott. ''Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise''. JHU Press, 2000. * Kreimeier, Klaus. ''The Ufa Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company, 1918–1945''.University of California Press, 1999. * Prawer, S.S. ''Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910–1933''. Berghahn Books, 2005. 1912 establishments in Germany German film studios Buildings and structures in Tempelhof-Schöneberg Buildings and structures completed in 1912 {{film-studio-stub