Building of the Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation in Berlin© Deutsche Kinemathek

Collecting, storing, exploring, presenting and conveying our audiovisual heritage has been the remit of the Deutsche Kinemathek since its opening in 1963.

Our focus of interest is everything to do with film and television history, for example, materials from Marlene Dietrich, Werner Herzog or the television documentary film-maker Georg Stefan Troller, but also important scripts from writers ranging from Carl Mayer to Christian Petzold. We also maintain a film archive containing more than 13,000 films, and have a viewing inventory of more than 25,000 films on video. Academics and journalists use our diverse stock of materials for their research work and film copies can be viewed on site or rented to cinemas. Visitors can watch 4,000 productions from 50 years of television – both East and West – in our Program Gallery. On top of all this, the Filmhaus also accommodates one of Europe’s largest special interest libraries.

The Deutsche Kinemathek is home to more than 16,000 posters as well as around 20,000 costumes and architectural sketches, a selection of which have been exhibited at the Filmhaus on Potsdamer Platz since the autumn of 2000. The futuristic set designs for Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS, Marlene Dietrich’s vanity case and costumes from Wolfgang Petersen’s DAS BOOT tell the fascinating story of German film history in our permanent exhibition. And 2006 saw the opening of a section dealing with German television history. The Deutsche Kinemathek has been responsible for the historical film retrospective and homage at Berlin’s International Film Festival, the Berlinale since 1977. We have also made a name for ourselves by releasing various publications on the history of and contemporary situation in film and television, by holding special exhibitions and by hosting symposia and other events involving top experts.

A particular focus of the Deutsche Kinemathek’s work is the subject of Film in Exile, which has its own separate place in our permanent exhibition. The 2013 retrospective “The Weimar Touch” was dedicated to the continuities, interaction and processes of transformation in the films made by German-language émigrés up to the 1950s. In addition to this, the business documents of Hollywood agent Paul Kohner form one of the most extensive collections in our Personal Estates Archive and are the heart of our Film in Exile section, which also contains the estates or partial estates of personalities like Curtis Bernhardt (Kurt Bernhardt), William Dieterle (Wilhelm Dieterle), E. A. Dupont, Fritz Lang, Paul Leni, Joe May, Carl Mayer, Erich Pommer, Conrad Veidt and Billy Wilder.

Publications (excerpt)

Hanns Brodnitz: Flic Flac. Aufsätze, Kritiken, Glossen zu Theater, Film und Alltag. Hg. v. Wolfgang Jacobsen in Zusammenarbeit mit der Deutschen Kinemathek, Berlin 2013

Hans Wollenberg. Filmpublizist(Band 16 der Buchreihe Film & Schrift). Hg. v. Rolf Aurich, Wolfgang Jacobsen in Zusammenarbeit mit der Deutschen Kinemathek. München 2013

Wolfgang Jacobsen und Heike Klapdor (Hg.): In der Ferne das Glück. Geschichten für Hollywood von Vicki Baum, Ralph Benatzky, Fritz Kortner, Joseph Roth sowie Heinrich und Klaus Mann u. a. Berlin 2013

Hans Siemsen. Kritiker und Essayist(Band 15 der Buchreihe Film & Schrift). Hg. v. Rolf Aurich, Wolfgang Jacobsen in Zusammenarbeit mit der Deutschen Kinemathek. München 2012

Leontine Sagan: Licht und Schatten. Schauspielerin und Regisseurin auf vier Kontinenten. Hg. v. Michael Eckardt in Zusammenarbeit mit der Deutschen Kinemathek, Berlin 2010

Pem. Der Kritiker und Feuilletonist Paul Marcus(Band 10 der Buchreihe Film & Schrift). Hg. v. Rolf Aurich, Wolfgang Jacobsen in Zusammenarbeit mit der Deutschen Kinemathek. München 2009

Kurt Pinthus. Filmpublizist (Band 8 der Buchreihe Film & Schrift).Hg. v. Rolf Aurich, Wolfgang Jacobsen in Zusammenarbeit mit der Deutschen Kinemathek. München 2008

Heike Klapdor (Hg.): Ich bin ein unheilbarer Europäer. Briefe aus dem Exil. Hg. im Auftrag der Deutschen Kinemathek. Berlin 2007

Rolf Aurich, Wolfgang Jacobsen, Cornelius Schnauber (Hg.): FL. Fritz Lang. Berlin 2001

Norbert Grob, Rolf Aurich, Wolfgang Jacobsen (Hg.): Otto Preminger. Berlin 1999

Wolfgang Jacobsen, Hans Helmut Prinzler (Hg.): Siodmak Bros.

Berlin – Paris – London – Hollywood. Berlin 1998

Exhibitions 

film.geschichte: „Wenn ich sonntags in mein Kino geh'“. Ton – Film – Musik 1929-1933

20. December 2007 to 25. May 2008