German film history in the archives
The tradition of Adlershof as a location for film and television began already after the First World War. The first film studios were established on the site in former aircraft hangars, and legendary classics such as ‘The Testament of Dr. Mabuse’ were filmed.
From 1952, GDR television began broadcasting from the DEFA studios, located in what was once the borough of Treptow, and many a programme flickered from Adlershof into the living rooms of East Germany.
The German Broadcasting Archive contains a range of productions, co-productions and commissioned productions by the Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF), the former East German state television broadcaster. From ‘Aktuelle Kamera’ to ‘Kessel Buntes’, the archive contains 100,000 titles and 60,000 subjects from the first broadcast on December 21st, 1952, up until the time when broadcasting ceased on December 31st, 1991.
Links
- DEFA Foundation preserves GDR film stock (in German)
- GDR television stock in the German Broadcasting Archive (in German)