Tobis Film was a German

film production Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...

and film distribution company. Founded in the late 1920s as a merger of several companies involved in the switch from silent to sound films, the organisation emerged as a leading German sound studio. Tobis used the

Tri-Ergon The Tri-Ergon sound-on-film system was developed from around 1919 by three German inventors, Josef Engl (1893–1942), Joseph Massolle (1889–1957), and Hans Vogt (1890–1979). The system used a photoelectric recording method and a non-standar ...

sound-on-film Sound-on-film is a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying a picture is recorded on photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analo ...

system under the Tobis-Klang trade name. The Ufa production company had separate rights to the Tobis system, which it used under the trade name of Ufa-Klang. Some Tobis films were released in Germany by the subsidiary Europa Film. Its principal production studios were the Johannisthal Studios in Berlin. 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 ...

, Tobis was one of the four major film companies along with

Terra Film Terra Film was a Berlin-based film production company. Founded in 1919, it became one of Germany's largest film production companies in the 1930s under the Nazi regime. Corporate history The company was founded at end of 1919, initially as a li ...

Bavaria Film Bavaria Film is a German film production and distribution company. It is one of Europe's largest film production companies, with some 30 subsidiaries. History The studios were founded in 1919, when Munich-raised film producer Peter Ostermay ...

and UFA. In 1942 all these companies were merged into a single state-controlled industry bringing an end to Tobis' independent existence, though films continued to be released under the Tobis banner.

International operations

From 1933 until 1938, Tobis controlled the dominant Austrian producer Sascha-Film which was known as Tobis-Sascha. From 1932, it also owned a majority share of one of the main Portuguese producers known as

Tobis Portuguesa Tobis Portuguesa is a Portuguese film production and lab processing company. Establish in June 3, 1932, Tobis produced many of the major works in Portuguese cinema for three decades. . History Founded in 1932, Tobis originally focused on film p ...

, a name which the company kept even after the German participation was terminated at the end of world War II. Tobis established a Paris subsidiary and produced French-language film at the Epinay Studios during the 1930s. Among the directors under contract to the company was

René Clair René Clair (11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. He wen ...

who produced the films '' Under the Roofs of Paris'' and '' Le Million'' during the early sound era.

Legacy

One of the studio's employees Horst Wendlandt later (1971) founded a new distribution company which is also known as Tobis.Bergfelder p.439 In 2016, the present-day Tobis became an investor in Globalgate Entertainment.

Selected filmography

* ''

Land Without Women ''Land Without Women'' (german: Das Land ohne Frauen) is a 1929 German drama film directed by Carmine Gallone and starring Conrad Veidt, Elga Brink and Clifford McLaglen. It was based on the novel ''Die Braut Nr. 68'' by Peter Bolt. The film i ...

'' (1929) * '' Where the Lark Sings'' (1936) * ''

Adventure in Warsaw ''Adventure in Warsaw'' (german: Abenteuer in Warschau) is a 1938 German-Polish comedy film directed by Carl Boese and starring Georg Alexander, Paul Klinger and Jadwiga Kenda. The film was the second of two German-Polish co-productions followi ...

'' (1937) * '' Truxa'' (1937) * ''

The Broken Jug ''The Broken Jug'' (german: Der zerbrochne Krug, link=no, , also sometimes translated ''The Broken Pitcher'') is a comedy written by the German playwright Heinrich von Kleist. Kleist first conceived the idea for the play in 1801, upon looking at ...

'' (1937) * '' The Gambler'' (1938) * '' Wibbel the Tailor'' (1939) * ''

The Journey to Tilsit ''The Journey to Tilsit'' (German: ''Die Reise nach Tilsit'') is a 1939 German drama film directed by Veit Harlan and starring Kristina Söderbaum, Philip Dorn and Anna Dammann. Synopsis Elske faithfully loves her husband Endrik as he is seduc ...

'' (1939) * '' We Danced Around the World'' (1939) * '' Renate in the Quartet'' (1939) * ''

Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( , ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera (though the bacteri ...

'' (1939) * '' The Fox of Glenarvon'' (1940) * ''

Falstaff in Vienna ''Falstaff in Vienna'' (german: Falstaff in Wien) is a 1940 German musical comedy film directed by Leopold Hainisch and starring Hans Nielsen, Gusti Wolf and Paul Hörbiger.Fawkes p. 110 It portrays the life of the nineteenth century composer O ...

'' (1940) * ''

Ohm Krüger ''Ohm Krüger'' (English: ''Uncle Krüger'') is a 1941 German biographical film directed by Hans Steinhoff and starring Emil Jannings, Lucie Höflich, and Werner Hinz. It was one of a series of major propaganda films produced in Nazi Germany a ...

'' (1941) * '' Ferdinand the Ant'' (1944) * ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unit ...

'' (1943) * '' Anna Alt'' (1945) * '' The Years Pass'' (1945)

References

Bibliography

* Bergfelder, Tim. ''International Adventures: German Popular Cinema and European Co-Productions in the 1960s''. Berhahn Books, 2005. * * (Restricted view, subscription needed) * Kreimeier, Klaus. ''The Ufa Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company, 1918-1945''. University of California Press, 1999.

External links

* German film studios Film production companies of Germany Mass media in Berlin Entertainment companies established in 1928 1928 establishments in Germany Film distributors of Germany {{film-company-stub