Die Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen is a major German film archive located in Berlin .
127-686: The Deutsche Kinemathek opened in 1963. Until the opening of a permanent display in the Museum of Film and Television Berlin (Museum für Film und Fernsehen) on 1 June 2006, it was known simply by this name; as the Deutsche Kinemathek, after that date acquiring the second part of its name. Since 1977, the Deutsche Kinemathek has supervised the annual "Retrospective and Homage" section of the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale). Since late 2000, part of
254-579: A FIAPF guideline that said: "All film festivals should contribute to better understanding between nations". Stevens claimed that the film, which includes a gang rape of a Vietnamese woman by American soldiers during the Vietnam War , was anti-American . One jury member, Dušan Makavejev , protested against this measure, stood up for the film and supported Verhoeven and producer Rob Houwer . Verhoeven defended his film by stating in these terms: "I have not made an anti-American film... The biggest part of
381-481: A Woolworths store on its ground floor, a major travel company housed on the floor above, and a restaurant offering fine views over the city from the top floor, the economic situation of the time meant that it would not be followed by more buildings in that vein: no further redevelopment in the immediate vicinity of Potsdamer Platz occurred prior to World War II, and so Columbushaus would always seem out of place in that location. Nevertheless, its exact position showed that
508-574: A Bronze Berlin Bear, determined by audience vote, were also awarded from 1952 to 1955. After the FIAPF ruled to allow it, an official international jury determined the prizes from 1956 onwards, and in the same year a second Golden Bear was added, for best short film , as well as a second category of award, the Silver Bear, for individual achievements in acting or directing. In 1965, a runner-up prize to
635-462: A Silver Bear International Prize. As of 2022 , the Golden Bear for Best Film is awarded to the producers of the best feature film . As of 2022 , the categories of Silver Bear awards are: The Honorary Golden Bear has been awarded for lifetime achievement since 1982, when it was awarded to James Stewart . It is presented to someone with an exceptional artistic career, and is given to
762-467: A West German panel, and there were five winners of the Golden Bear , divided by categories and genres. Cinderella , which won the Golden Bear for a Music Film, also won the audience award. The FIAPF (Fédération Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Films) banned the awarding of jury prizes at the festival, so between 1952 and 1955, the winners of the Golden Bear were determined by
889-615: A bakery from which the café was a 1796 offshoot. It had occupied various locations including (from 1812 till 1880), a site in front of the Berlin City Palace , before moving to Potsdamer Platz in the latter year. A major player on the Berlin café scene, Josty attracted writers, artists, politicians and international society: it was one of the places to be seen. The writer Theodor Fontane , painter Adolph von Menzel , and Dadaist Kurt Schwitters were all guests; Karl Liebknecht ,
1016-485: A concert venue until concerns were raised about increased traffic problems in the already congested streets, it was ruled that it should serve a gastronomic purpose only. Altogether it could accommodate 4,000 guests at a time, 1,100 of these in its main hall alone. Many of the total of 14 banquet and beer halls had a Wagnerian theme – indeed, the very name of the complex was taken from the Wagner opera Das Rheingold ,
1143-409: A dome rising 35 m above the pavement at the north (Stresemannstrasse) end, it contained the world's largest restaurant – the 2,500-seat Café Piccadilly, plus a 1,200-seat theatre and numerous offices. These included (from 1917 to 1927), the headquarters of Universum Film AG (aka UFA or Ufa), Germany's biggest film company. On 16 August 1914, less than three weeks after the start of World War I ,
1270-433: A few years later. Being outside Berlin, and therefore not subject to the same planning guidelines, Potsdamer Platz grew in a piecemeal and haphazard way, unlike Leipziger Platz, which had been planned and built all at once by Johann Philipp Gerlach . Prussian architect Friedrich David Gilly proposed a unified redesign of the two squares in 1797, but it was never built. In 1815, his pupil, Karl Friedrich Schinkel , proposed
1397-474: A great many buildings in the area, especially Columbushaus, where they took over most of the upper floors. As if to emphasise their presence, they used the building to advertise their own weekly publication: a huge neon sign on its roof proclaimed DIE BRAUNE POST – N.S. SONNTAGSZEITUNG (The Brown Post – N.S. Sunday Newspaper), the N.S. standing for Nationalsozialist (National Socialist), i.e. Nazi. Probably Potsdamer Platz's most prominent landmark in
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#17327727452351524-547: A new name, Pschorr-Haus . At 8.00 p.m. on 29 October 1923, Germany's first radio broadcast was made from a building ( Vox-Haus ) close by in Potsdamer Strasse. Standing alongside the Weinhaus Rheingold's Potsdamer Strasse entrance, this five-storey steel-framed edifice had been erected as an office building in 1907-8 by architect and one-time Berlin inspector of buildings Otto Stahn (1859–1930), who
1651-489: A number of different names including Conditorei Friediger , Café Wiener , Engelhardt Brau and Kaffee Potsdamer Platz (sometimes appearing to have two or more names simultaneously), before its eventual destruction in World War II . Among the many beer palaces around Potsdamer Platz were two in particular which contained an extensive range of rooms and halls covering a large area. The Alt-Bayern in Potsdamer Strasse
1778-429: A replica of the tower was erected, just for show, close to its original location by Siemens, to celebrate the company's 150th anniversary. The replica was moved again on 29 September 2000, to the place where it stands today. The traffic problems that had blighted Potsdamer Platz for decades continued to be a big headache, despite the new lights, and these led to a strong desire to solve them once and for all. By now Berlin
1905-735: A room that came to be named after him – the Kaisersaal . The other was the Hotel Excelsior , also 600 rooms but superior provision of other facilities made it the largest hotel in Continental Europe, located in Stresemannstrasse opposite the Anhalter Bahnhof and connected to it by a 100-metre-long subterranean passageway complete with a parade of underground shops. Two other hotels which shared
2032-490: A row of new single-storey shops was erected along Potsdamer Straße. Out on the streets, even the flower-sellers, for whom the area had once been renowned, were doing brisk business again. The area around Potsdamer Platz had also become a focus for black market trading. Since the American, British and Soviet Occupation Zones converged there, people theoretically only had to walk a few paces across sector boundaries to avoid
2159-488: A sort to resume. The U-Bahn and S-Bahn were partially operational again from 2 June 1946, fully from 16 November 1947 (although repairs were not completed until May 1948) and trams by 1952. Part of the Haus Vaterland reopened in 1948 in a much simplified form. The new East German state-owned retail business H.O. ( Handelsorganisation , meaning Trading Organisation), had seized almost all of Wertheim's former assets in
2286-511: A specific film. The three Spanish films which were screened at the festival and won it were short film Ascensor directed by Tomás Muñoz and feature films La palabras de Max by Emilio Martínez Lázaro and Las truchas by José Luis García Sánchez . The 1978 festival also saw the start of the European Film Market as well as a new section, "Cinema for People Six and up" (which later became "Kinderfilmfest"). Just before
2413-428: A star-shaped intersection deemed the transport hub of the entire continent. These were: As well as the stations and other facilities and attractions already mentioned, in the immediate area was one of the world's biggest and most luxurious department stores: Wertheim . Founded by German merchant Georg Wertheim (1857–1939), designed by architect Alfred Messel (1853–1909), opened in 1897 and extended several times over
2540-479: A summer garden, winter garden and roof garden, an enormous restaurant and several smaller eating areas, its own laundry, a theater and concert booking office, its own bank, whose strongrooms were underground at the eastern end of the building, and a large fleet of private delivery vehicles. In the run-up to Christmas Wertheim was transformed into a fairytale kingdom, and was well known to children from all over Germany and far beyond. In Stresemannstrasse, and paralleling
2667-521: A time. The Café Vaterland had remained largely untouched, but the 1,200-seat theatre was now a 1,400-seat cinema. The rest of the building had been turned into a large number of theme restaurants, all served from a central kitchen containing the largest gas-fueled cooking plant in Europe. These included: Rheinterrasse, Löwenbräu ( Bavarian beer restaurant), Grinzing ( Viennese café and wine bar), Bodega (Spanish winery), Csarda (Hungarian), Wild West Bar (aka
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#17327727452352794-703: A very large government presence, with many German imperial departments, Prussian state authorities and their various sub-departments, came into the area, taking over 26 former palaces and aristocratic mansions in Leipziger Platz, Leipziger Strasse and Wilhelmstraße. Even the Reichstag itself, the German Parliament , occupied the former home of the family of composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47) in Leipziger Strasse before moving in 1894 to
2921-475: A wedge-shaped structure located in the angle between Potsdamer Strasse and Linkstrasse (literally "Left Street"), and with entrances in both streets. Wine merchant Friedrich Karl Christian Huth, whose great-grandfather had been kellermeister (cellar-master) to King Friedrich II back in 1769, had founded the firm in 1871 and taken over the former building in Potsdamer Straße on 23 March 1877. His son,
3048-402: A wine restaurant on the ground floor, and wine storage space above, so it had to take a lot of weight. It was thus given a strong steel skeleton, which would stand the building in very good stead some three decades after its completion. Famous for its fine claret, numerous members of European society were made welcome there as guests. A total of 15 chefs were employed there, and Alois Hitler Jr.,
3175-553: Is a major industry meeting for the international film circuit. The trade fair serves distributors, film buyers, producers, financiers and co-production agents. The Berlinale Talents , a week-long series of lectures and workshops, is a gathering of young filmmakers held in partnership with the festival. During the peak of the Cold War in 1950, Oscar Martay , a film officer of the Information Service Branch of
3302-518: Is independently awarded by European Film Promotion at Berlinale Palast. There are also many other prizes given by independent juries (not connected to the Berlinale) at the event. These include, among others: Potsdamer Platz Potsdamer Platz ( German: [ˈpɔtsdamɐ plats] , Potsdam Square ) is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin , Germany, lying about 1 km (1,100 yd) south of
3429-570: Is one of seven film museums in Germany, and is located at Potsdamer Straße 2 in Berlin. It opened in 2000 as part of the Deutsche Kinemathek. The Museum of Film and Television Berlin's permanent exhibition displays exhibits from the entire span of German film and television history, including the exile of many artists to Hollywood during the Nazi era. The exhibits include posters, photos, film costumes, architectural sketches, and props. A particular focus
3556-538: Is the actress Marlene Dietrich compiled from an extensive private collection. In addition to the permanent exhibition, the museum hosts film and television exhibitions, such as during the Berlinale . The museum also features a library with extensive collections of literature and film journals, including important early magazines like The Cinematograph , the photo-stage and the Film-Kurier . Until it moved to
3683-774: Is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. In its first year in 1951, it was awarded to the best film in each of five categories, by an all-German jury. From 1952 to 1955, the Golden and Silver Bears were awarded by audience voting, as the FIAPF had determined after the first festival that only the Cannes and the Venice film festivals were allowed to appoint official juries. A Silver Bear ( Silberner Bär ) and
3810-581: The Welthauptstadt (World Capital) Germania , to be realised by his architect friend Albert Speer (1905–81). Under these plans the immediate vicinity of Potsdamer Platz would have got off fairly lightly, although the Potsdamer Bahnhof (and the Anhalter Bahnhof a short distance away) would have lost their function. The new North-South Axis , the linchpin of the scheme, would have severed their approach tracks, leaving both termini stranded on
3937-536: The Anhalter Bahnhof was the Berlin terminus of a line running as far as Jüterbog and extended to Dessau , Kothen and beyond. Both termini began life modestly, but to cope with increasing demand, both went on to much bigger and better things, a new Potsdamer Bahnhof, destined to be Berlin's busiest station, opening on 30 August 1872 and a new Anhalter Bahnhof, destined to be the city's biggest and finest, on 15 June 1880. This latter station benefitted from
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4064-493: The Arizona Bar) (American), Osteria (Italian), Kombüse ( Bremen drinking den – literally "galley"), Rübchen ( Teltow , named after the well-known turnip dish Teltower Rübchen , made with turnips grown locally in the small town of Teltow just outside Berlin), plus a Turkish café and Japanese tearoom; additionally there was a large ballroom. Up to eight orchestras and dance bands regularly performed in different parts of
4191-757: The Berlinale ( German pronunciation: [bɛʁliˈnaːlə] ), is an annual film festival held in Berlin , Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europe's " Big Three " film festivals alongside the Venice Film Festival held in Italy and the Cannes Film Festival held in France. Furthermore, it is one of
4318-754: The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (Berlin Transport Services) company. At the Potsdamer Platz up to 11 policemen at a time had tried to control all this traffic but with varying success. The delays in tram traffic increased and the job was very dangerous for the policemen. The Berliner Straßenbahn-Betriebs-GmbH started researches to control the traffic on the main streets and places in 1924. Berlin traffic experts visited colleagues in Paris, London and New York. They had to organize
4445-668: The Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag ( German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corner of the Tiergarten park. It is named after the city of Potsdam , some 25 km (16 mi) to the south west, and marks the point where the old road from Potsdam passed through the city wall of Berlin at the Potsdam Gate . Initially, the open area near the city gate was used for military drills and parades. In
4572-457: The Golden Bear and Silver Bears , are decided on by the international jury, chaired by an internationally recognisable cinema personality. This jury and other specialised Berlinale juries also give many other awards, and in addition there are other awards given by independent juries and organisations. The European Film Market ( EFM ), a film trade fair held simultaneously to the Berlinale,
4699-477: The Noack Foundry . The main prizes in the festival are those awarded by the international jury since 1956, which today include the Golden Bear and various Silver Bears. In 1956, apart from the Golden Bear, there were also Silver Bears awarded by the new international feature film jury for best director, best actress, best actor, best outstanding single achievement, outstanding artistic contribution, and
4826-630: The Spartacus Communist movement leader read a lot here and even made some key political speeches from the pavement terrace, while author Erich Kästner wrote part of his 1929 bestseller for children, Emil und die Detektive ( Emil and the Detectives ), on the same terrace and made the café the setting for an important scene in the book. Despite the prestige associated with its name, Café Josty closed in 1930. It then went through an odyssey of re-openings, closures and relaunches under
4953-530: The Tolerance Edict of Potsdam was signed, whereby Frederick William , Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia from 1640 to 1688, allowed large numbers of religious refugees, including Jews from Austria and Huguenots expelled from France, to settle on his territory to repopulate it following the Thirty Years' War (1618–48). Several new districts were founded around the city's perimeter, just outside
5080-562: The festival was re-formed and a new International Forum for New Cinema was created. 1975 saw the first East German film to be entered into the festival, Jacob the Liar . At the premiere of In the Realm of the Senses in 1976, the film was confiscated in the projection room by Berlin police and the "Forum" management criminally accused of the public screening a pornographic film. Bauer
5207-477: The " Big Five ", the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The festival regularly draws tens of thousands of visitors each year. About 400 films are shown at multiple venues across Berlin, mostly in and around Potsdamer Platz . They are screened in nine sections across cinematic genres, with around twenty films competing for the festival's top awards in the Competition section. The major awards, called
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5334-554: The 1979 festival, Donner announced that he was resigning. The festival also saw further controversy that year when the Soviet Union and other socialist states withdrew their films and delegates in protest at the selection of The Deer Hunter and their solidarity with "the heroic people of Vietnam". Donner was followed by Moritz de Hadeln , who held the position from 1980 until director Dieter Kosslick took over in 2001. In 1981, de Hadeln only nominated one German film for
5461-523: The 19th into the 20th century, it developed from an intersection of suburban thoroughfares into the most bustling traffic intersection in Europe. The area was totally destroyed during World War II and then left desolate during the Cold War era when the Berlin Wall bisected its location. Since German reunification , Potsdamer Platz has been the site of major redevelopment projects. The history of Potsdamer Platz can be traced to 29 October 1685, when
5588-616: The 2022 event, still feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic , 156,472 tickets were sold. About 400 films are shown in several sections across cinematic genres, with around twenty films competing for the festival's top awards, the Golden Bear and Silver Bears. In 2022, festival was receiving €10.3 million from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. There was consideration given by
5715-595: The American High Commissioner for Germany stationed in Berlin, proposed the idea of a film festival in Berlin. The proposal was put through a committee, which included members of the Senate of Berlin and people from the German film industry , on 9 October 1950. Through his efforts and influence, the American military administration was persuaded to assist and to give loans for the first years of
5842-455: The American people today is against the war in Vietnam". Other directors taking part in the festival withdrew their films in protest, and the jury was accused of censorship and eventually disbanded, so no prizes were awarded and the competition was suspended. This scandal had such a big effect that it was unclear if the festival would continue to take place the next year. The following year,
5969-559: The Berlin International Film Festival, which commenced in June 1951. Film historian Dr. Alfred Bauer was the festival's first director, a position he would hold until 1976. Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca opened the first festival at the Titania-Palast in Steglitz on 6 June 1951. The festival ran from 6 to 17 June, with Waldbühne being another festival venue. The winners of the inaugural awards in 1951 were determined by
6096-624: The Café Piccadilly was given a new name – the more patriotic-sounding Café Vaterland. However, in 1927–8 the architect and entrepreneur Carl Stahl-Urach (1879–1933) transformed the whole building into a gastronomic fantasy land, financed and further elaborated upon by new owners the Kempinski organisation. It reopened on 31 August 1928 as the Haus Vaterland, offering "The World in One House," and could now hold up to 8,000 guests at
6223-466: The Golden Bear was added. The statuettes awarded as trophies are based on the Bär first created by sculptor Renée Sintenis (1888–1965) in 1932. The bear, based on the coat of arms of Berlin and depicting a bear standing on its hind legs with its arms raised, became popular in the 1930s, bringing wealth to Sintenis. Since the 3rd edition of the festival in 1953, replicas of the bear have been produced by
6350-615: The Grand Hotel Belle Vue, on the corner of Bellevuestrasse and Königgrätzer Strasse, thus enabling one revolutionary new building to struggle through to reality despite considerable financial odds. Columbushaus was the result of a plan by the French retail company Galeries Lafayette , whose flagship store was the legendary Galeries Lafayette in Paris, to open a counterpart in Berlin, on the Grand Hotel Belle Vue's former site, but financial worries made them pull out. Undaunted,
6477-536: The Huguenots fleeing religious persecution in France, and their descendants, had also been living around the trading post and cultivating local fields. Noticing that traffic queues often built up at the Potsdam Gate due to delays in making the customs checks, these people had begun to offer coffee, bread, cakes and confectionery from their homes or from roadside stalls to travelers passing through, thus beginning
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#17327727452356604-459: The Nazi government. When the city was divided into sectors by the occupying Allies at the end of the war, the square found itself on the boundary between the American, British and Soviet sectors. Despite all the devastation, commercial life reappeared in the ruins around Potsdamer Platz within just a few weeks of war's end. The lower floors of a few buildings were patched up enough to allow business of
6731-524: The Potsdamer Bahnhof has not been documented. Meanwhile, the North-South Axis would have cut a giant swathe passing just to the west of Potsdamer Platz, some 5 km long and up to 100 m wide, and lined with Nazi government edifices on a gargantuan scale. The eastern half of the former Millionaires' Quarter, including Stüler's Matthiaskirche, would have been totally eradicated. New U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines were planned to run directly beneath almost
6858-613: The Potsdamer Bahnhof on its eastern side, was another great magnet for shoppers and tourists alike – a huge multi-national-themed eating establishment: the Haus Vaterland . Designed by architect Franz Heinrich Schwechten (1841–1924), who was also responsible for the Anhalter Bahnhof and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church , it was erected in 1911–12 as the Haus Potsdam. 93 m in length and with
6985-627: The Tiergarten, a large wooded park formerly the Royal Hunting Grounds, gave his name to Lennéstraße , a thoroughfare forming part of the southern boundary of the park very close to Potsdamer Platz, and transformed a muddy ditch to the south into one of Berlin's busiest waterways, the Landwehrkanal . Meanwhile, country peasantry were generally not welcome in the city, and so the gates also served to restrict access. However,
7112-451: The Tiergarten. The development was piecemeal, but in 1828 this area just to the west of Potsdamer Platz, sandwiched between the Tiergarten and the north bank of the future Landwehrkanal, received royal approval for a more purposeful metamorphosis into a residential colony of the affluent, gradually filling with palatial houses and villas. These became the homes of civil servants, officers, bankers, artists and politicians among others, and earned
7239-414: The architect, Erich Mendelsohn (1887–1953), erected vast advertising boards around the perimeter of the site, and the revenue generated by these enabled him to proceed with the development anyway. Columbushaus was a ten-storey ultra-modern office building, years ahead of its time, containing Germany's first artificial ventilation system, and whose elegance and clean lines won it much praise. However, despite
7366-582: The archival collection includes photographs, posters, costumes and architectural sketches. The permanent exhibition in the Filmhaus includes the set designs for Fritz Lang 's futuristic 1927 film Metropolis , Marlene Dietrich's cosmetics case, and the clothing from Wolfgang Petersen 's 1981 war film Das Boot . As of 2022 the Berlinale continues to use Zeughauskino a venue for some of its Retrospectives screenings. The Museum of Film and Television Berlin (German: Museum für Film und Fernsehen )
7493-676: The archived collection has been exhibited at the "Filmhaus' on Potsdamer Platz . The collection contains a wide range of material relating to film and television, including the estate of Marlene Dietrich ; items donated by famous German director Werner Herzog and TV documentary filmmaker Georg Stefan Troller; important film scripts , ranging from Carl Mayer to Christian Petzold . The film archive contains copies of over 26,500 films, as well as an inventory of over 40,000 films on video, DVD and Blu-ray . Mediathek Fernsehen contains over 9,000 broadcasts, made over around 70 years in both East and West Germany as well as modern Germany. In addition,
7620-497: The area as the location for a National Memorial Cathedral, to be known as the Residenzkirche , but this was never built either, due to lack of funds. However, Schinkel did get to rebuild the gate in 1823–1824, replacing what was little more than a gap in the customs wall with a much grander affair consisting of two matching Doric-style stone gate-houses, like little temples, facing each other across Leipziger Strasse. The one on
7747-567: The area the nickname "Millionaires' Quarter" although its official designation was Friedrichvorstadt (Friedrich's Suburb), or the Tiergartenviertel (Tiergarten Quarter). Many of the properties in the neighborhood were the work of architect Georg Friedrich Heinrich Hitzig (1811–81), a pupil of Schinkel who also built the original "English Embassy" in Leipziger Platz, where the vast Wertheim department store would stand, although Friedrichvorstadt's focal point and most notable building
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#17327727452357874-529: The audience members. In 1956, FIAPF formally accredited the festival and since then the Golden Bear has been awarded by an international jury. Prior to the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961, a selection of the films were also screened in East Berlin . The fifth edition in 1955 saw the first German film to win the Golden Bear, Robert Siodmak 's Die Ratten . In 1957, the Zoo Palast became
8001-435: The beginnings of the Runden Platz (Round Platz), a huge circular public space at the point where the North-South Axis and Potsdamer Straße intersected. Additionally, the southern edge of the Tiergarten was to be redefined, with a new road planned to slice through the built-up area immediately to the north of Columbushaus (although Columbushaus itself would remain unscathed); this road would line up with Voßstraße , one block to
8128-427: The building, plus a host of singers, dancers and other entertainers. It should be pointed out here though that not all of these attractions existed simultaneously, owing to changes in those countries that Germany was or was not allied to, in the volatile years leading up to and during World War II , a good example being the closure of the Wild West Bar following America's entry into the war as an enemy of Germany. Among
8255-409: The busiest traffic center in all of Europe, and the heart of Berlin's nightlife . It had acquired an iconic status, on a par with Piccadilly Circus in London or Times Square in New York. It was a key location that helped to symbolize Berlin; it was known worldwide, and a legend grew up around it. It represented the geographical center of the city, the meeting place of five of its busiest streets in
8382-421: The city authorities would not allow the new line to breach the customs wall, still standing at the time, it had to stop just short, at Potsdamer Platz, but it was this that kick-started the real transformation of the area, into the bustling focal point that Potsdamer Platz became. Three years later a second railway terminus opened. Six hundred meters to the southeast, with a front facade facing Askanischer Platz ,
8509-609: The city became the capital of the new German Empire on 18 January 1871. Potsdamer Platz and neighbouring Leipziger Platz came into their own afterward. Now firmly in the centre of a metropolis whose population eventually reached 4.4 million, making it the third largest city in the world after London and New York, the area was ready to take on its most celebrated role. Vast hotels and department stores, hundreds of smaller shops, theatres, dance-halls, cafés, restaurants, bars, beer palaces, wine-houses and clubs, all started to appear. Some of these places became internationally known. Also,
8636-400: The closure of a short-lived third terminus in the area – the Dresdner Bahnhof , located south of the Landwehrkanal, which lasted from 17 June 1875 until 15 October 1882. A railway line once ran through Potsdamer Platz: a connecting line opened in October 1851 and running around the city just inside the customs wall, crossing numerous streets and squares at street level, and whose purpose
8763-456: The competition, Der Neger Erwin , and other German producers and directors called for his resignation and proposed a boycott although no boycott took place. In 1986, Gina Lollobrigida was invited to head the jury at the 36th Berlin International Film Festival , which awarded the Golden Bear to Reinhard Hauff 's film Stammheim . She said the majority decision was "prefabricated", and opposed it. Kosslick started making some changes to
8890-446: The competition. Werner Herzog 's first feature film, Lebenszeichen , premiered at the festival in 1968. The 20th edition of the festival in 1970 was cut short and awards not issued following controversy over the showing of Michael Verhoeven 's anti-war film o.k. . The jury, headed by American film director George Stevens , decided after a 7–2 vote to remove the film from the competition, justifying their decision by citing
9017-405: The country folk were permitted to set up trading posts of their own just outside the gates, and the Potsdam Gate especially. It was hoped that this would encourage development of all the country lanes into proper roads; in turn it was hoped that these would emulate Parisian boulevards—broad, straight and magnificent, but the main intention was to enable troops to be moved quickly. Thus Potsdamer Platz
9144-468: The customs wall redundant, and so in 1866–7 most of it was demolished along with all the city gates except two – the Brandenburg Gate and the Potsdam Gate. The removal of the customs wall allowed its former route to be turned into yet another road running through Potsdamer Platz, thus increasing still further the amount of traffic passing through. This road, both north and south of the platz,
9271-403: The early 1930s there were so many diplomats living and working in the area that it came to be redesignated the "Diplomatic Quarter". By 1938, 37 out of 52 embassies and legations in Berlin, and 28 out of 29 consulates, were situated here. The first traffic light tower in Germany was erected at Potsdamer Platz on 20 October 1924 and went into service on 15. December 1924 in an attempt to control
9398-557: The entrance to Leipziger Platz (the Potsdam Gate), was the 400-room Hotel Fürstenhof , by Richard Bielenberg (1871–1929) and Josef Moser (1872–1963), erected in 1906–1907, also on the site of an earlier building. With its 200-metre-long main facade along Stresemannstrasse, the Fürstenhof was less opulent than some of the other hotels mentioned, despite its size, but was still popular with business people. The new U-Bahn station
9525-491: The event, a substantial amount of demolition did take place in Potsdamer Straße, between the platz itself and the Landwehrkanal, and this became the location of the one Germania building that actually went forward to a state of virtual completion: architect Theodor Dierksmeier 's Haus des Fremdenverkehrs (House of Tourism), basically a giant state-run travel agency . More significantly, its curving eastern facade marked
9652-495: The federal government to help compensate for revenue lost and additional expenditure owing to the pandemic, with funds drawn from the Neustart Kultur programme. Since 2019, Mariette Rissenbeek has been the festival's executive director; Carlo Chatrian is its artistic director . In September 2023, it was reported that artistic director Carlo Chatrian will relinquish his post after 2024 Berlinale. On 12 December 2023 it
9779-513: The festival, moving the emphasis from Hollywood in order to focus more on German and international cinema. He introduced various events to assist the development of emerging talent in German cinema. In 2010, for the 60th edition of the festival , Werner Herzog was appointed president of the jury. Also in that year, the city of Berlin unveiled its Boulevard of the Stars [ de ] , with
9906-691: The film museum, the library belonged to the German Film and Television Academy (dffb). The museum is a member of the German Kinemathekenverbund . 52°30′35″N 13°22′25″E / 52.5096°N 13.3735°E / 52.5096; 13.3735 Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival ( German : Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin ), usually called
10033-556: The first of 40 stars devoted to actors and filmmakers of the German-speaking film and TV industry. First to be honoured in the Boulevard was German-American actress Marlene Dietrich . In 2012 the 100th anniversary of the historic Studio Babelsberg was celebrated at the 62nd edition of the festival , with the screening of 10 classic films made at the studios. A new Series section, devoted to longform television series ,
10160-537: The first of the four parts of the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , although this name did hark back to the building's planned former role as a concert venue. Another building by the same architect but which still stands – the "Rosengarten" in Mannheim , has a remarkably similar main facade. Finally, on the corner between Potsdamer Strasse and the Potsdamer Bahnhof, stood Bierhaus Siechen , built by Johann Emil Schaudt (1874–1957), opened in 1910 and relaunched under
10287-423: The following 40 years, it ultimately possessed a floor area double that of the Reichstag, a 330-metre-long granite and plate glass facade along Leipziger Strasse, 83 elevators , three escalators , 1,000 telephones , 10,000 lamps, five kilometers of pneumatic tubing for moving items from the various departments to the packing area, and a separate entrance directly from the nearby U-Bahn station. It also contained
10414-607: The guest of honour of the Homage section which has been run since 1977 by the Berlinale and the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen . Awards for short films are awarded by a separate international short film jury consisting of three filmmakers and artists. As of 2022 , the short film award are: There are also awards given by separate juries or via other routes at the Berlinale. These include: The Shooting Stars Award for young European acting talent
10541-648: The height of the Kingdom of Prussia . Initially known as the Achteck (Octagon), on 15 September 1814 it was renamed Leipziger Platz after the site of Prussia's final decisive defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Leipzig , which brought to an end the Wars of Liberation that had been going on since 1806. The gate itself was redesignated Leipziger Tor (Leipzig Gate) around the same time, but reverted to its old name
10668-424: The late 1920s and early 1930s, especially around 1928–9, when the creative fervour was at its peak. On the cards was an almost total redevelopment of the area. One design submitted by Wagner himself comprised an array of gleaming new buildings arranged around a vast multi-level system of fly-overs and underpasses, with a huge glass-roofed circular car-park in the middle. Unfortunately the worldwide Great Depression of
10795-535: The line itself being extended north and east on 1 October 1908. In 1939 the S-Bahn followed, its North-South Link between Unter den Linden and Yorckstraße opening in stages during the year, the Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn station itself opening on 15 April. By the second half of the 19th century, Berlin had been growing at a tremendous rate for some time, but its growth accelerated even faster after
10922-442: The location of his palace, in 1660. After Frederick II became king in 1740, the road was significantly improved, and became known as Potsdamer Straße ; the gate became Potsdamer Tor (Potsdam Gate). Just inside the gate was a large octagonal area, created at the time of Friedrichstadt's expansion in 1732-4 and bisected by Leipziger Strasse; this was one of several parade grounds for the thousands of soldiers garrisoned in Berlin at
11049-546: The main venue for the festival, and remained so until the move to Potsdamer Platz in 2000 (see Venues below). In 1963, two years after the Berlin Wall had been erected, a daily show of the Berlinale was shown on television in East Germany, with five films in competition broadcast. Controversy arose in 1964 with the rejection by Bauer, on insistence from the church, of Vilgot Sjöman 's second film, 491 , from
11176-472: The major hotels at or near Potsdamer Platz were two designed by the same architect, Otto Rehnig (1864–1925), and opened in the same year, 1908. One was the 600-room Hotel Esplanade (sometimes known as the "Grand Hotel Esplanade"), in Bellevuestrasse. Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo were guests there, and Kaiser Wilhelm II himself held regular "gentlemen's evenings" and other functions there in
11303-475: The major stations, allowed the connecting line to be scrapped in 1871, although the Ringbahn itself was not complete and open for all traffic until 15 November 1877. Potsdamer Platz was served by both of Berlin's two local rail systems. The U-Bahn arrived first, from the south; begun on 10 September 1896, it opened on 18 February 1902, with a new and better sited station being provided on 29 September 1907, and
11430-615: The mid-1930s, the sign first appears in photographs dated 1935 but was gone again by 1938. On an even darker note, those Nazi concerns included the Gestapo , who set up a secret prison in an upper part of the building, complete with interrogation and torture rooms. Meanwhile, in another part of the building, the Information Office of the Olympic Games Organising Committee was housed. Here much of
11557-477: The new suburbs were absorbed into Berlin around 1709–10. In 1721-3 a south-westwards expansion of Friedrichstadt was planned under the orders of King Frederick William I , and this was completed in 1732-4 by architect Philipp Gerlach (1679–1748). In this expansion, a new north–south axis emerged: Wilhelmstrasse . In 1735–1737, after Friedrichstadt's expansion was complete, the Berlin Customs Wall
11684-568: The newly created German Democratic Republic but, unable to start up the giant Leipziger Platz store again (it was too badly damaged), it opened a new Kaufhaus (department store) on the ground floor of Columbushaus. An office of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei (literally "Barracked People's Police") – the military precursor of the Nationale Volksarmee (National People's Army), occupied the floor above. Meanwhile,
11811-554: The next street ( Prinz-Albrecht-Straße ), also by Colditz, that had been built for the Preußischer Landtag (the Prussian Lower House), in 1892–9. Potsdamer Platz was also the location of Germany's first electric street lights , installed in 1882 by the electrical giant Siemens , founded and based in the city. The heyday of Potsdamer Platz was in the 1920s and 1930s. By this time it had developed into
11938-399: The north of Leipziger Platz. Here Albert Speer erected Hitler's enormous new Reichskanzlei building, and yet even this was little more than a dry run for an even larger structure some distance further away. Meanwhile, the Nazi influence was no less evident at Potsdamer Platz than anywhere else in Berlin. As well as swastika flags and propaganda everywhere, Nazi-affiliated concerns occupied
12065-421: The north side served as the customs house and excise collection point, while its southern counterpart was a military guardhouse, set up to prevent desertions of Prussian soldiers , which had become a major problem. The new gate was dedicated on 23 August 1824. Schinkel's proposal to add a garden was not implemented, but in 1828 a plan by gardener and landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné went ahead. He redesigned
12192-557: The number of lines had soared to 35 by 1908 and ultimately reached 40, carrying between them 600 trams every hour, day and night. Services were run by a large number of companies. After 1918 most of the tram companies joined. In 1923, at the peak of the Hyperinflation the tram traffic was stopped for two days and a new communal company called Berliner Straßenbahn-Betriebs-GmbH was founded. Finally in 1929 all communal traffic companies (Underground, Tram and Buses) were unified into
12319-485: The old fortifications. The largest of these was Friedrichstadt , just south west of the historic core of Berlin, begun in 1688 and named after the new elector, Frederick William III, who became King Frederick I of Prussia . Its street layout followed the Baroque -style grid pattern much favoured at the time, and was based on two main axes: Friedrichstraße running north–south, and Leipziger Strasse running east–west. All
12446-498: The planning of the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympic Games took place. As was the case in most of central Berlin, almost all of the buildings around Potsdamer Platz were turned to rubble by air raids and heavy artillery bombardment during the last years of World War II. The three most destructive raids (out of 363 that the city suffered), occurred on 23 November 1943, and 3 and 26 February 1945. Things were not helped by
12573-509: The platz was starting to be opened out: the former hotel had mostly stood on a large flagged area laid out in front of it, indicating that the new building curved away from the existing street line; this would have enabled future street widening to take place. Columbushaus was completed and opened in January 1933, the same month that the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) came to power. Hitler had big plans for Berlin, to transform it into
12700-548: The preceding year. As of 2024 the festival is composed of eight different sections: "Perspektive Deutsches Kino" (Perspectives on German Cinema) was created in 2002 by incoming director Dieter Kosslick with Alfred Holighaus. This was dropped from 2024 Berlinale due to budget cuts. A section called "Culinary Cinema" had also been introduced by Kosslick in 2007, as well as a series called "NATIVe" (for indigenous filmmakers) in 2013; however, these were dropped after his departure in 2019. The Golden Bear ( Goldener Bär )
12827-610: The respective police officials. Meanwhile, friction between the Western Allies and Soviets was steadily rising. The Soviets even took to marking out their border by stationing armed soldiers along it at intervals of a few metres, day and night, in all weathers. Since there was not, as yet, a fixed marker, the borders were prone to abuse, which eventually resulted (in August 1948), in white lines in luminous paint appearing across roads and even through ruined buildings to try to deter
12954-479: The same architect, in this case Ludwig Heim (1844–1917), were the 68-room Hotel Bellevue (sometimes known as the "Grand Hotel Bellevue"), built 1887–8, and the 110-room Palast Hotel , built 1892–3 on the site of an earlier hotel. These stood on either side of the northern exit from Potsdamer Platz along Ebertstraße. The Bellevue was well known for its Winter Garden. Meanwhile, facing the Palast Hotel across
13081-466: The sheer volume of traffic passing through. This traffic had grown to extraordinary levels. Even in 1900, more than 100,000 people, 20,000 cars, horse-drawn vehicles and handcarts, plus many thousands of bicycles, passed through the platz daily. By the 1920s the number of cars had soared to 60,000. The trams added greatly to this. The first four lines had appeared in 1880, rising to 13 by 1897, all horse-drawn, but after electrification between 1898 and 1902
13208-636: The stepbrother of the future Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler , was a waiter there in the 1920s, before he opened his own restaurant and hotel at Wittenbergplatz , in the western part of the city. Café Josty was one of two rival cafés (the other being the Astoria , later Café Eins A ), occupying the broad corner between Potsdamer Strasse and Bellevuestrasse. The Josty company had been founded in 1793 by two Swiss brothers, Johann and Daniel Josty, who had emigrated to Berlin from Sils in Switzerland and set up
13335-472: The time, triggered by the Wall Street Crash of 1929 , meant that most of the plans remained on the drawing board. However, in Germany this depression was virtually a continuation of an economic morass that had blighted the country since the end of World War I , partly the result of the war reparations the country had been made to pay, and this morass had brought about the closure and demolition of
13462-404: The tower cabin. A solitary policeman sat in a small cabin at the top of the tower and switched the lights around manually, until they were automated in 1926. Yet some officers still remained on the ground in case people did not pay any attention to the lights. The tower remained until October 1937, when it was removed to allow for excavations for the new S-Bahn underground line. On 26 September 1997,
13589-434: The tradition of providing food and drink around the future Potsdamer Platz. Larger and more purpose-built establishments began to take their place, and they in turn were superseded by bigger and grander ones. The former district of quiet villas was by now anything but quiet: Potsdamer Platz had taken on an existence all its own whose sheer pace of life rivalled anything within the city. By the mid-1860s direct taxation had made
13716-425: The traffic, define traffic rules and select a solution to control the traffic. In New York, Fifth Avenue they found traffic light towers designed by Joseph H. Freedlander in 1922 which can be regarded as a model for the Berlin tower. The Potsdamer Platz five-sided 8.5 m high traffic tower was designed by Jean Kramer , a German architect. The traffic lights were delivered by Siemens & Halske and mounted on top of
13843-654: The vast new edifice near the Brandenburg Gate, erected by Paul Wallot (1841–1912). Next door, the Herrenhaus, or Prussian House of Lords (the Upper House of the Prussian State Parliament), occupied a former porcelain factory for a while, before moving to an impressive new building erected on the site of the former Mendelssohn family home in 1899–1904 by Friedrich Schulze Colditz (1843–1912). This building backed on to an equally grand edifice in
13970-556: The very close proximity of Hitler's Reich Chancellery, just one block away in Voßstraße, and many other Nazi government edifices nearby as well, and so Potsdamer Platz was right in a major target area. Once the bombing and shelling had largely ceased, the ground invasion began as Soviet forces stormed the centre of Berlin street by street, building by building, aiming to capture the Reich Chancellery and other key symbols of
14097-530: The whole length of the axis, and the city's entire underground network reoriented to gravitate towards this new hub (at least one tunnel section, around 220 metres in length, was actually constructed and still exists today, buried some 20 metres beneath the Tiergarten, despite having never seen a train). This was in addition to the S-Bahn North-South Link beneath Potsdamer Platz itself, which went forward to completion, opening in stages in 1939. In
14224-404: The wine wholesale dealer William ("Willy") Huth (1877–1967), took over the business in 1904 and, a few years later, commissioned the replacement of the building by a new one on the same site. Running right through the block into Linkstrasse, this new Weinhaus Huth was designed by the architects Conrad Heidenreich (1873–1937) and Paul Michel (1877–1938), and opened on 2 October 1912, and contained
14351-407: The wrong side of it. All trains arriving in Berlin would have run into either of two vast new stations located on the Ringbahn to the north and south of the centre respectively, to be known as Nordbahnhof (North Station) and Südbahnhof (South Station), located at Wedding and Südkreuz . In Speer's plan the former Anhalter Bahnhof was earmarked to become a public swimming pool; the intended fate of
14478-410: Was a major centre of innovation in many different fields including architecture. In addition, the city's colossal pace of change (compared by some to that of Chicago ), had caused its chief planner, Martin Wagner (1885–1957), to foresee the entire centre being made over totally as often as every 25 years. These factors combined to produce some far more radical and futuristic plans for Potsdamer Platz in
14605-640: Was also responsible for the city's Oberbaumbrücke over the River Spree . In 1920 the Vox-group had taken over the building and the following year commissioned its remodelling by Swiss architect Rudolf Otto Salvisberg (1882–1940), and then erected two transmitting antennae. Despite several upgrades between December 1923 and July 1924, the nearby Hotel Esplanade's formidable bulk prevented the transmitter from functioning effectively and so in December 1924 it
14732-554: Was announced by the German culture ministry that Tricia Tuttle, formerly director of the BFI London Film Festival , will be the sole director of the Berlinale from April 2024. The festival is open to films of every length and genre, but there is priority given to international and European premieres, and the films need to have been completed within the year preceding the festival. Submissions open in September of
14859-456: Was being built at the same time as the hotel and actually ran through the hotel's basement, cutting it in half, thus making the construction of both into something of a technical challenge, but unlike the Wertheim department store (and contrary to several sources), the hotel did not enjoy a separate entrance directly from the station. The Weinhaus Huth , with its distinctive corner cupola, was
14986-431: Was erected around the city's new perimeter. Potsdamer Platz would eventually develop around the gate at the west end of Leipziger Strasse, which turned south toward the hamlet of Schöneberg after leaving the city. This road, which had developed into part of a trading route running across Europe from Paris to St. Petersburg via Aachen , Berlin and Königsberg , became Elector Frederick William's route of choice to Potsdam,
15113-594: Was erected by architect Wilhelm Walther (1857–1917) and opened in 1904. After closing in 1914, it underwent a revamp before reopening in 1926 under the new name Bayernhof . Meanwhile, in Bellevuestrasse, sandwiched between Café Josty and the Hotel Esplanade but extending right through the block with a separate entrance in Potsdamer Strasse, was the Weinhaus Rheingold , built by Bruno Schmitz (1858–1916) and opened on 6 February 1907. Intended to be
15240-647: Was introduced in 2015. In June 2018, it was announced that Mariette Rissenbeek would serve as the new executive director alongside artistic director Carlo Chatrian. They assumed their posts after Kosslick's final edition in 2019. Rissenbeek became the first woman to lead the Berlinale. A shortened 71st festival took place virtually in March 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic . 73rd Berlin International Film Festival held in February 2023,
15367-593: Was named Königgrätzer Straße after the Prussian victory over Austria at the Battle of Königgrätz on 3 July 1866, in the Austro-Prussian War . The railway first came to Berlin in 1838, with the opening of the Potsdamer Bahnhof , terminus of a 26 km line linking the city with Potsdam, opened throughout by 29 October (in 1848 the line would be extended to Magdeburg and beyond). Since
15494-402: Was off and running. It was not called that until 8 July 1831, but the area outside the Potsdam Gate began to develop in the early 19th century as a district of quiet villas, for as Berlin became even more congested, many of its richer citizens moved outside the customs wall and built spacious new homes around the trading post, along the newly developing boulevards, and around the southern edge of
15621-418: Was succeeded by film journalist Wolf Donner in 1976, who gave German films higher priority. After his first Berlinale in June 1977, Donner successfully negotiated the shift of the festival from the June to February (22 February – 5 March 1978), a change which has remained ever since. That festival, the 28th edition , saw the jury award the Golden Bear to Spain for its contribution to the festival rather than
15748-407: Was superseded by a better sited new one, but Vox-Haus lived on as the home of Germany's first radio station, Radiostunde Berlin , founded in 1923, renamed Funkstunde in March 1924, but it moved to a new home in 1931 and closed in 1934. In addition, the former Millionaires' Quarter just to the west of Potsdamer Platz had become a much favoured location for other countries to site their embassies. By
15875-467: Was the first completely in-person Berlinale since the 70th in 2020. The Berlinale is considered one of the five major film festivals in the world, alongside Venice , Cannes , Sundance and Toronto , and is the largest based on attendance. As of 2020, around 325,000 tickets were sold, and nearly 16,000 film industry professionals from 130 countries attended the festival. It is held in Berlin. It attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year. For
16002-460: Was the work of another architect—and another pupil of Schinkel. The Matthiaskirche (St. Matthew's Church), built in 1844–6, was an Italian Romanesque -style building in alternating bands of red and yellow brick, and designed by Friedrich August Stüler (1800–65). This church, one of fewer than half a dozen surviving pre-World War II buildings in the entire area, forms the centrepiece of today's Kulturforum ( Cultural Forum ). Meanwhile, many of
16129-459: Was to allow goods to be transported between the various Berlin stations, thus creating a hated traffic obstruction that lasted for twenty years. Half a dozen or more times a day, Potsdamer Platz ground to a halt while a train of 60 to 100 wagons trundled through at walking pace preceded by a railway official ringing a bell. The construction of the Ringbahn around the city's perimeter, linked to all
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