The Terra Studios or Marienfelde Studios were
film studios
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 productio ...
located in the
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 ...
suburb of
Marienfelde
Marienfelde () is a locality in southwest Berlin, Germany, part of the Tempelhof-Schöneberg borough. The former village, incorporated according to the Greater Berlin Act of 1920, today is a mixed industrial and residential area.
Geography
The Ma ...
.
The studios were originally a
glasshouse constructed in 1913 by the early company
Eiko Film
Eiko Film was a German film production company of the silent era. It was established in 1912 by the producer Franz Vogel
Franz Vogel (1883–1956) was a German film producer.Bock & Bergfelder p.274 In 1912 he established Eiko Film which enjoyed ...
, controlled by the
producer Franz Vogel
Franz Vogel (1883–1956) was a German film producer.Bock & Bergfelder p.274 In 1912 he established Eiko Film which enjoyed success during the First World War. In 1913 the company constructed the Marienfelde Studios in Berlin.
Selected filmograp ...
who had previously been using the Sellerstrasse Studios of Rex Film. In the early 1920s Terra Film was founded and took over the studios from the defunct Eiko. It was known as the Terra-Glashaus during these years.
[Jung & Schatzberg p.220]
In 1930 the studio underwent major rebuilding following the acquisition of Terra by
Eugen Scotoni, and was fitted for
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
production using the
Tobis-Klangfilm system. During the consolidation of the German film industry in the 1930s under 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 ...
, Terra rose to become one of the four major companies alongside
UFA
Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya and Ufa rivers, in the centre-north of Bashkortostan, on hills forming the ...
,
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
and
Tobis. It continued producing at Marienfelde until the late 1930s when the further centralisation of German film production under the
Nazi regime
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 ...
led to the downgrading of the studios, and gave Terra access to the better-equipped Berlin studios of
Babelsberg
Babelsberg () is the largest quarter (''Stadtteil'') of Potsdam, the capital city of the German state of Brandenburg. The affluent neighbourhood named after a small hill on the Havel river is famous for Babelsberg Palace and Park, part of the Palac ...
,
Johannisthal and
Tempelhof
Tempelhof () is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. It is the location of the former Tempelhof Airport, one of the earliest commercial airports in the world. The former airport and surroundings are now a park called ...
.
References
Bibliography
* Bach, Steven. ''Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend''. University of Minnesota Press, 2013.
*Kramer, Thomas & Siegrist, Dominik. ''Terra: ein Schweizer Filmkonzern im Dritten Reich''. Chronos, 1991.
* Kreimeier, Klaus. ''The Ufa Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company, 1918–1945''.University of California Press, 1999.
* Jung, Uli & Schatzberg, Walter. ''Beyond Caligari: The Films of Robert Wiene''. Berghahn Books, 1999.
German film studios
{{film-studio-stub