Wikipedia

Ufa-Palast am Zoo

TheUfa-Palast am Zoo,located nearBerlin Zoological Gardenin theNew Westarea ofCharlottenburg,was a majorBerlincinema owned byUniversum Film AG,or Ufa. Opened in 1919 and enlarged in 1925, it was the largest cinema in Germany until 1929 and was one of the main locations of film premières in the country. The building was destroyed in November 1943 during theBombing of Berlin in World War IIand replaced in 1957 by theZoo Palast.

Ufa-Palast,c. 1935

History

edit
Ausstellungshallen am Zoo(left) and Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church,c. 1910postcard

TheNeo-Romanesquebuilding at Hardenbergstraße was designed as an exhibition hall by architect Carl Gause (1851–1907), an alumnus of theBauakademiewho had also drawn plans for theHotel Adlon.Like theRomanisches Hausnearby, the design followed the model of theKaiser Wilhelm Memorial ChurchatAuguste-Viktoria-Platz(present-day Breitscheidplatz), built in 1891–1895 according to plans byFranz Schwechten.The development of a "Romanesque forum" met the demands of EmperorWilhelm IIwho even set guidelines for the design of streetlights andtrampower lines.[1]Construction work took place from 1905 to 1906; the building complex initially hosted theAusstellungshallen am Zoologischen Gartenexhibition halls, named after the adjacent Berlin Zoo.

In 1912, Arthur Biberfeld converted the western hall into a theatre. In 1913–15, projection facilities were installed byOskar Kaufmannfor the première of the filmQuo Vadis,produced by the ItalianCinescompany, and from 1913 to 1914, the theatre was called theCines-Palast.[2]The other section of the building housed a café and variety theatre called theWilhelmshallen.[3]

In 1919, architectMax Bischoffrebuilt it for Ufa as a 1,740-seat cinema, which opened on 18 September 1919 with the première ofErnst Lubitsch'sMadame Dubarry.[4][5]The cinema had a rectangular auditorium with two levels of proscenium boxes and the remaining seating arranged in horseshoe-shaped rows.[2]Siegfried Kracauerpraised the sightlines from the amphitheatre-style seating and the "discreet" and "tasteful" colour scheme;[6]the décor was simple, with faïence panels around the screen.[2]

In 1925, the cinema was again rebuilt byCarl Stahl-Urach;it was enlarged to 2,165 seats by the addition of a balcony, the lighting was improved, and an illuminated cinema organ was added.[2][7]The interior décor by Samuel Rachman resembled that ofBroadwaycinemas.[8]It was the largest cinema in Germany until the 1929 opening of theUfa-Palast in Hamburg,which was at that time the largest in Europe.

Ufa-Palast, Memorial Church and Gloria-Palast, view from Zoo station, August 1926

The reopening on 25 September 1925 was overseen byErnö Rapée,a former employee of the American cinema impresario"Roxy" Rothafelwho was brought over by Ufa together with Alexander Oumansky, who had been ballet director at Roxy'sCapitol Theatre,to introduce US-style cinema shows to Germany. They were given an 85-member orchestra plus a jazz band, and Roxy himself came to offer assistance. TheNew York Timesreported that the American "combination of symphony concert, ballet and film" had been successfully imported to Germany for the first time. Rapee stayed on for almost a year as manager and as Ufa's senior music director, in which role he arranged music to accompany several films; he left after supervising the opening of Ufa's newGloria-Palastacross the square.[9]Berlin's own Capitol cinema, designed byHans Poelzig,also opened in 1925 as a nearby competitor to the Ufa-Palast;[10]by 1928, whenJoseph Goebbelsmade a speech denouncing the entertainment and other business venues there, Berlin's premier cinemas were clustered close together around theKaiser Wilhelm Memorial Churchand some had deliberately sought to make it the "Broadway of Europe".[11]

Following the renovation, the exterior was used for advertising, designed by Ufa's scenic designerRudi Feld.This began with light displays and large posters and progressed to complete transformations of the appearance of the building. For example, forSpionein 1928, a gigantic stylised eye stared out of the centre of the façade and the letters of the title, written across the whole width of the central bay, became pupils which emitted searchlights;[12][13]forFrau im Mondin 1929, the façade was draped in lights to evoke stars, and above the entrances skyscraper cities jutted out, from the centres of which model spaceships travelled to a moon globe and back;[14]and forAsphalt,also in 1929, a huge transparency of a street scene—taken from the credits—was mounted on the front of the building, with speeding cars in the foreground, and alternately lighted and darkened; wooden gates swung closed in front of it, with the title written on them in letters blazing with light.[15][16]The exception wasFritz Lang'sMetropolis,which received a double première on 10 January 1927: the gala première at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo was attended by President Hindenburg but advertised only by a sign above the entrance readingWelturaufführung(world première), while the smaller première, primarily for the press, took place at the smallerUfa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz(Germany's first purpose-built cinema, dating to 1912), which for the occasion was painted silver and illuminated "gleam[ing] like a beacon into the night", as a contemporary reviewer put it, and had a gong mounted over the main entrance; the film's brief German run continued there.[17][18][19][20]

Under the Nazis, for important occasions like the 1935 première ofLeni Riefenstahl'sTriumph des Willensand the March 1943 celebration of Ufa's own 25th anniversary,Albert Speermodified the façade[21]and it was dressed with large numbers of swastika flags spotlighted from below and with a huge eagle.[22][23]For the1936 Summer Olympicsin Berlin, Speer designed a false front in simplified classical style.[2][22]The following year, the remainder of the façade was similarly covered and heavy masonry pylons evoking the entrance to the Olympic Stadium set on either side of the entrance;[24]one architectural historian has noted that except for the lack of windows and the decoration with film posters rather than government symbols, the building then looked very like Speer'sNew Reich Chancellery.[25]

The building was destroyed by bombing on 23 November 1943. The Zoo Palast was built on the site[citation needed]in 1957, built as a largefilm festivalcinema for theBerlin International Film Festival,and fully renovated in 2011–2013.[26]

Use for premières

edit
Joseph GoebbelsandEwald von Demandowsky(right rear) at an event in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo, 19 January 1938

The Ufa-Palast am Zoo was one of the main locations for film premières in Germany.[27][28]These included:

Premières under the Weimar Republic

edit

Premières in the Third Reich until the outbreak of World War II

edit

Premières during World War II

edit

Gala premières following first showing elsewhere

edit

The première ofFritz Lang'sDas Testament des Dr. Mabuse,like those of his earlier films, was scheduled to be held at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo, on 23 March 1933, but was cancelled when the film was banned by the Nazis.[81][82]

References

edit
  1. ^Romanisches Forum - Berlin.de(in German)
  2. ^abcdeEhemaliger Ufa-Palast am Zoo,Lexikon: Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf von A bis Z, Bezirksamt Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, City of Berlin, retrieved 19 December 2012(in German)
  3. ^Rudolf Woelky,EIN ETWAS ERLEBT ETWAS:... UND DAS WAR DAS LEBEN,Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2010,ISBN978-3842313354,p. 76(in German)
  4. ^abKlaus Kreimeier, trans. Robert and Rita Kimber,The Ufa Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company, 1918–1945,1996, repr. Berkeley: University of California, 1999,ISBN978-0-520-22069-0,p. 56,referring to the film by its U.S. title,Passion.
  5. ^abMarc Silberman,German Cinema: Texts in Context,Detroit: Wayne State University, 1995,ISBN978-0814325605,p. 3.
  6. ^Cited in Sabine Hake,Passions and Deceptions: The Early Films of Ernst Lubitsch,Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University, 1992,ISBN978-0691031972,p. 119.
  7. ^Ken Roe,Ufa Palast am Zoo,Cinema Treasures, retrieved 20 December 2012.
  8. ^Victoria De Grazia,Irresistible Empire: America's Advance Through Twentieth-Century Europe,Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard-Belknap, 2005,ISBN978-0674016729,p. 286.
  9. ^Ross Melnick,American Showman: Samuel "Roxy" Rothafel and the Birth of the Entertainment Industry, 1908–1935,Film and culture, New York: Columbia University, 2012,ISBN978-0231159043,pp. 253–54.
  10. ^Michael Bienert and Elke Linda Buchholz,Die Zwanziger Jahre in Berlin: ein Wegweiser durch die Stadt,2nd ed. Berlin: Berlin-Story, 2006,ISBN978-3929829280,p. 208(in German)
  11. ^Janet Ward,Weimar Surfaces: Urban Visual Culture in 1920s Germany,Weimar and now 27, Berkeley: University of California, 2001,ISBN9780520222991,pp. 181–83.
  12. ^Ward,p. 171.
  13. ^Photoin Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić,The Anatomy of Design: Uncovering the Influences and Inspiration in Modern Graphic Design,Minneapolis, Minnesota: Quayside, 2009,ISBN978-1592535545.
  14. ^Ward,p. 169,Fig. 41, p. 170.
  15. ^abWard,p. 157,Fig. 37. p. 158.
  16. ^Kreimeier,p. 117;photographs following p. 152.
  17. ^Aitam Bar-Sagi,"'Metropolis' around the World",The Film Music Museum, 6 November 2010, retrieved 23 December 2012.
  18. ^Ward,pp. 166–67,Figure 40 p. 168.
  19. ^Review inDer Kinematograph,16 January 1927, in translation in: Michael Minden and Holger Bachmann (eds.),Fritz Lang's Metropolis: Cinematic Visions of Technology and Fear,Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture, Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2000,ISBN978-1571131225,pp. 82–83.
  20. ^"1927: Art & Culture", Starr Figura and Peter Jelavich,German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse,exhibition catalogue, New York: Museum of Modern Art / Distributed Art, 2011,ISBN978-0870707957,p. 280.
  21. ^abSteven Bach,Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl,New York: Knopf, 2007,ISBN978-0375404009,p. 138.
  22. ^abKreimeier,p. 254.
  23. ^Kreimeier,p. 322.
  24. ^abBach,Leni,p. 164.
  25. ^Kreimeier, p. 254, citing Dieter Bartetzko,Illusionen in Stein: Stimmungsarchitektur im deutschen Faschismus: ihre Vorgeschichte in Theater- und Film-Bauten,Rororo Sachbuch, Kulturen und Ideen, Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1985,ISBN978-3499178894.
  26. ^"Festival Map: Zoo Palast".Berlinale: Zoo Palast.Retrieved18 September2022.
  27. ^Stephen Brockmann,A Critical History of German Film,Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture, Rochester, New York: Camden House-Boydell & Brewer, 2010,ISBN978-1-57113-468-4,p. 144.
  28. ^abMichael Bienert,Ufa-Palast,Erich Kästners Berliner Adreßbuch, retrieved 19 December 2012(in German)
  29. ^Herman G. Weinberg,The Lubitsch Touch: A Critical Study,3rd ed. New York: Dover, 1977,ISBN978-0486234830,p. 29.
  30. ^Bernard Eisenschitzand Jean Narboni,Ernst Lubitsch,[Paris]: Cahiers du cinéma: Cinémathèque française, 1985,ISBN978-2866420352,p. 269(in French)
  31. ^Der Bär von Berlin(1995)p. 52(in German)
  32. ^Ute Becker, Johannes Ebert,et al.,Die Chronik. Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts bis heute,ISBN978-3577146418,[Gütersloh]: Wissen Media, 2006,p. 143(in German)
  33. ^Christian Rogowski (ed.),The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy,Screen cultures, Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2010,ISBN978-1571134295,p. 326.
  34. ^Frances Guerin, "Dazzled by the Light: Technological Entertainment and Its Social Impact in 'Varieté'",Cinema Journal 42.4, Summer 2003, pp. 98–115,p. 113, note 22.
  35. ^Weinberg,p. 330.
  36. ^Becker, Ebert,et al.,p. 150.
  37. ^Georges Sturm,Fritz Lang: films, textes, références,Collection "Films/textes/références" 2, Nancy: Presses universitaires de Nancy, 1990,ISBN978-2864804147,p. 51(in French)
  38. ^Kreimeier,p. 87.
  39. ^abcdeLotte H. Eisner,Fritz Lang,London: Secker & Warburg, repr. New York: Da Capo, 1976,ISBN978-0306802713,p. 408.
  40. ^Lotte Eisner,Murnau,rev. trans. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973,ISBN978-0520022850,p. 276.
  41. ^Eisner,Murnau,p. 277.
  42. ^Kreimeier,p. 145.
  43. ^Eisner,Murnau,p. 277.
  44. ^Richard W. McCormick, "The carnival of humiliation: sex, spectacle, and self-reflexivity in E.A. Dupont'sVariety(1925) ", in:Light Motives: German Popular Film in Perspective,ed. Randall Halle and Margaret McCarthy, Contemporary film and television series, Detroit: Wayne State University, 2003,ISBN978-0814330449,pp. 41–60,p. 60.
  45. ^Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht,In 1926: Living on the Edge of Time,Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University, 1998,ISBN978-0674000568,p. 145.
  46. ^Bach,Leni,p. 46.
  47. ^abcdefgh"Chronology", Rainer Rother, tr. Martin H. Bott,Leni Riefenstahl: The Seduction of Genius,London/New York: Continuum, 2002,ISBN978-0826461018,pp. 223–32,pp. 223–26.
  48. ^Kreimeier,p. 156.
  49. ^Steven Bach,Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend,New York: Morrow, 1992,ISBN978-0688071196,p. 493.
  50. ^abcEisner,Fritz Lang,p. 409.
  51. ^Kreimeier,p. 188.
  52. ^Bach,Leni,p. 77.
  53. ^Eric Rentschler,The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife,Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University, 1996,ISBN978-0674576391,p. 31.
  54. ^Krieg und Militär im Film des 20. Jahrhunderts,ed. Berhard Chiari, Matthias Rogg and Wolfgang Schmidt, Beiträge zur Militärgeschichte, Bd. 59, Munich: Oldenbourg, 2003,ISBN978-3486567168,p. 295(in German)
  55. ^Kreimeier,p. 205.
  56. ^Rentschler,p. 227.
  57. ^Bach,Leni,p. 87.
  58. ^Bach,Leni,p. 121.
  59. ^Rentschler,p. 229.
  60. ^Kraft Wetzel and Peter A. Hagemann,Liebe, Tod und Technik: Kino des Phantastischen 1933-1945,Berlin: Spiess, 1977,ISBN978-3920889597,p. 58(in German)
  61. ^Ulrich J. Klaus,Deutsche Tonfilme: Filmlexikon der abendfüllenden deutschen und deutschsprachigen Tonfilme nach ihren deutschen Uraufführungen: 6. Jahrgang 1935,Klaus-Archiv, Berlin/Berchtesgaden: Klaus, 1995,ISBN978-3927352056,p. 30(in German)
  62. ^NS-Presseanweisungen der Vorkriegszeit: Edition und DokumentationVolume 3.11935,ed. Gabriele Toepser-Ziegert and Hans Bohrmann, Munich: Saur, 1987,ISBN978-3598105548,p. 768(in German)(stating 20 November; however, that was the day the first reviews appeared).
  63. ^Ulrich J. Klaus,Deutsche Tonfilme: Filmlexikon der abendfüllenden deutschen und deutschsprachigen Tonfilme nach ihren deutschen Uraufführungen: 7 Jahrgang 1936,Klaus-Archiv, Berlin/Berchtesgaden: Klaus, 1996,ISBN978-3927352063,p. 197(in German)
  64. ^Franz Josef Görtz and Hans Sarkowicz,Heinz Rühmann 1902–1994: Der Schauspieler und sein Jahrhundert,Munich: Beck, 2001,p. 177(in German)
  65. ^Ulrich J. Klaus,Deutsche Tonfilme: Filmlexikon der abendfüllenden deutschen und deutschsprachigen Tonfilme nach ihren deutschen Uraufführungen: 11 Jahrgang 1940/41,Klaus-Archiv, Berlin/Berchtesgaden: Klaus, 2000,ISBN978-3927352100,p. 135(in German)
  66. ^Toby Haggith andJoanna Newman,Holocaust and the Moving Image: Representations in Film and Television Since 1933,London/New York: Wallflower, 2005,ISBN978-1904764526,p. 85.
  67. ^Klaus Kanzog,Staatspolitisch besonders wertvoll: ein Handbuch zu 30 deutschen Spielfilmen der Jahre 1934 bis 1945,Diskurs Film 6, Munich: Schaudig & Ledig, 1994,ISBN978-3926372055,p. 235(in German)
  68. ^Görtz and Sarkowicz,p. 216
  69. ^Sabine Hake, "Mapping the native body: on Africa and the colonial film in the Third Reich", in:The Imperialist Imagination: German Colonialism and Its Legacy,ed. Sara Friedrichsmeyer, Sara Lennox and Susanne Zantop, Social history, popular culture, and politics in Germany, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1998,ISBN978-0472096824,pp. 163–88,p. 179.
  70. ^Mary Elizabeth O'Brien, "The Spectacle of War inDie große Liebe",inCultural History through a National Socialist Lens: Essays on the Cinema of the Third Reich,ed. Robert C. Reimer, Studies in German literature, linguistics and culture, Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2000,ISBN978-1571131645,pp. 197–213,p. 197.
  71. ^Rentschler,pp. 194, 202, 263.
  72. ^Bach,Leni,p. 57.
  73. ^Rentschler,p. 319, note 1.
  74. ^Die ungewöhnlichen Abenteuer des Dr. Mabuse im Lande der Bolschewiki: das Buch zur Filmreihe "Moskau-Berlin",ed.Oksana Bulgakowa,Berlin: Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek, 1995,ISBN978-3927876101,p. 75(in German).
  75. ^Lutz Schmökel,Der Spielfilm Robert Koch—Der Bekämpfer Des Todes Im Kontext antisemitischer Propaganda im Dritten Reich,MA thesis, Munich: GRIN print on demand, 2007,ISBN978-3638636742,p. 60(in German)
  76. ^Dagmar Herzog,Sexuality and German Fascism,New York: Berghahn, 2005,ISBN978-1571816528,p. 174.
  77. ^Terri J. Gordon, "Fascism and the Female Form: Performance Art in the Third Reich",Journal of the History of Sexuality11.1/2, January–April 2002, pp. 164–200,p. 174.
  78. ^Rentschler,p. 356, note 1.
  79. ^Gerald Trimmel,Heimkehr: Strategien eines nationalsozialistischen Films,Vienna: Eichbauer, 1998,ISBN978-3901699061,p. 66(in German)
  80. ^Michael Hanisch,"Kann denn Lüge Wahrheit sein?": Stereotypen im polnischen und deutschen Film,Kinemathek 87, Berlin: Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek, 1995,OCLC246883294,p. 29(in German)
  81. ^Eisner,Fritz Lang,p. 130.
  82. ^Gösta Werner, "Fritz Lang and Goebbels: Myth and Facts",Film Quarterly43.3, Spring 1990, pp. 24–27,p. 25.
edit
Wikimedia Commons has media related toUfa-Palast am Zoo.

52°30′22″N13°20′03″E/ 52.50611°N 13.33417°E/52.50611; 13.33417

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ufa-Palast_am_Zoo&oldid=1258630219"