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82-757: In 1942, as a result of the Nazi policy of "forcible coordination" known as the Gleichschaltung , UFA and all of its competitors, including Tobis , Terra , Bavaria Film and Wien-Film , were bundled together with Nazi-controlled foreign film production companies to form the super-corporation UFA-Film GmbH (Ufi), with headquarters in Berlin. After the Red Army occupied the UFA complex in 1945 in Babelsberg , and after

164-698: A direct influence on UFA's production planning; it also severely curtailed the work of production head Ernst Hugo Correll . In 1939, Correll was fired after refusing to join the Nazi Party . At the time of its nationalization, among the production facilities belonging to UFA were 27 film studios, nine of which were in Neubabelsberg (Potsdam-Babelsberg), and seven of which were in Berlin-Tempelhof, including three that belonged to Carl Froelich-Film GmbH in name only. UFA also had two dubbing studios,

246-713: A merger with Pearson TV and the creation of the RTL Group, in which Bertelsmann has held the majority (90.4%) since late 2001. All worldwide production activities of the RTL Group are consolidated in FremantleMedia, and UFA is the holding company of all FremantleMedia's production activities in Germany. UFAInteractive, a small subsidiary directly associated with the holding company, was created to fulfill UFA's need for constant innovation (e.g. program content for mobile devices and special-interest channels) as well as to assist

328-446: A mixing studio, two animation studios, two ateliers for advertising films, one for cartoons and a small training atelier. On January 10, 1942, UFA officially became the subsidiary of UFA-Film GmbH (UFI), into which all German film production was merged. Other companies were dissolved or integrated into UFA at the time, including Bavaria Film, Berlin-Film, Terra Film and Tobis AG, which became additional production units. Film production in

410-597: A movie theater chain, for almost eleven million Deutschmarks. In 1997, UFA and the Luxembourgish rival CLT established the joint venture CLT-UFA, which, following the takeover of British rival Pearson Television , was restructured as RTL Group in 2000. Now, UFA GmbH (UFA) works as a subsidiary of RTL Group's production division Fremantle , which had been formed out of Pearson TV , and is responsible for all production activities of Bertelsmann and Fremantle in Germany. Until August 2013, eight subsidiaries operated under

492-540: A new holding – the UFA Film und Fernseh GmbH in Hamburg – which also held investments in radio and TV stations such as RTL and Premiere. They also established and marketed new film and sports rights. The production companies belonging to UFA Berlin have been under the management of Wolf Bauer, Norbert Sauer and Axel Reick since autumn 1991. Using the rhombus logo again, this team developed UFA Film & TV Produktion into

574-657: A prominent German woman—collected a list of terms employed in everyday speech by the Nazis, which he discussed in his book, LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii , published in English as The Language of the Third Reich . In this work, Klemperer contends that the Nazis made the German language itself a servant to their ideology through its repetitive use, eventually permeating the very "flesh and blood" of its people. For instance, if it

656-478: A quasi-governmental holding company that answered to Goebbels. This move meant that UFA was effectively nationalized. Emil Georg von Stauß was named Chairman of the Supervisory Committee, Ludwig Klitzsch remained general director, and Carl Opitz was named press officer. In May, an art committee headed by Carl Froelich – but in fact controlled by Goebbels – was founded. This committee proceeded to have

738-420: A very short period they achieved dominance over the administration in every state. The pattern was in each case similar: pressure on the non-Nazi state governments to place a National Socialist in charge of the police; threatening demonstrations from SA and SS troops in the big cities; the symbolic raising of the swastika banner on town halls; the capitulation with hardly any resistance of the elected governments;

820-605: The Jungmädel (Young Maidens) at age ten and at age fourteen were enrolled in the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Maidens). At eighteen, BDM members generally went to the eastern territory for their Pflichtdienst , or Landjahr , a year of labor on a farm. By 1940, membership in the Hitler Youth numbered some eight million. The German trade union movement had a long history, dating to

902-530: The Gleichschaltung process did not start until after the Nazi seizure of power at the Reich level at the end of January 1933, the table also presents earlier Nazi Party successes in infiltrating and taking charge of several German state administrations during 1930–1932. In most of these instances, they took the portfolio of the state interior ministries from which they controlled the police, installing Nazi adherents and purging opponents. Most coalition cabinets that

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984-521: The Law on the Trustees of Labour that decreed an end to collective bargaining. It established Trustees of Labour , who were appointed by Hitler and charged with regulating labor contracts and maintaining labor peace. Since their decisions were legally binding, strikes were effectively outlawed. An all-embracing recreational organization for workers, called Kraft durch Freude ("Strength Through Joy")

1066-578: The National Socialist Factory Cell Organization . Leipart and other union leaders were taken into "protective custody" and sent to concentration camps. Violence was inflicted on many and, in the most brutal incident, four union officials were beaten to death in Duisburg . Two days later, other non-SPD-aligned union amalgamations, such as the conservative German National Association of Commercial Employees and

1148-538: The Reichstag election of 5 March 1933 , violent episodes increased in intensity, with SA stormtroopers ransacking trade union offices, assaulting staff, destroying furniture and equipment, stealing funds and burning documents. By 25 March, union offices in some 45 towns throughout the Reich had been attacked. At this point, the trade unions began to distance themselves from the SPD in an attempt to seek an accommodation with

1230-574: The Riech Group acquired UFA-Theater AG and continued operating the company with a license from Bertelsmann under the UFA's trademark rhombus logo. The right to the UFA name remains, however, with Bertelsmann. Under the management of Werner Mietzner, the company experienced a renaissance in productions at UFA Fernsehproduktion. With the launch of private television in 1984, the Bertelsmann Group brought together its film and TV activities in

1312-729: The War Ministry and Deutsche Bank . The board chairman of the new company was Deutsche Bank director Emil Georg von Stauß. Prior to establishing the company, the General Staff had considered taking over the Deutsche Lichtbild-Gesellschaft  [ de ] e. V. (DLG), which had been founded in 1916. This agency was too much under the influence of heavy industry and, in particular, of Alfred Hugenberg , chairman of Krupp . Hugenberg would later take over UFA in 1927. Three main film companies formed

1394-596: The "co-ordination" effort was the purging of the civil service, both at the Federal and state level. Top Federal civil servants—the State Secretaries—were largely replaced if they were not sympathetic to the Nazi program, as were the equivalent bureaucrats in the states, but Nazification took place at every level. Civil servants rushed to join the Nazi Party, fearing they would lose their jobs if they did not. At

1476-512: The "we-consciousness" of the collective Volk, but the mandates of Nazi "coordination" remained: pay homage to the Führer, expel all foreigners, sacrifice for the German people, and welcome future challenges. While greater German social and economic unity was produced through the Gleichschaltung initiatives of the regime, it was at the expense of individuality and to the social detriment of any nonconformist; and worse—it contributed to and reinforced

1558-499: The 1935 resolutions approved during the Nuremberg Rally , when the symbols of the Nazi Party and the state were fused (see Flag of Nazi Germany ) and German Jews were deprived of their citizenship (see Nuremberg Laws ). The tenets of Gleichschaltung also applied to territories occupied by the Nazis . Gleichschaltung is a compound word that comes from the German words gleich (same) and schaltung (circuit) and

1640-779: The General Trustee for UFI assets in the British zone. The first film made by Universum-Film AG, a short documentary film called Am Seidenen Faden , came out in 1955. In 1958, the first UFA feature film Stefanie came out: it starred Sabine Sinjen and was directed by Josef von Baky , who had directed the UFA's large-scale 25th anniversary film Münchhausen in 1942. In 1969, after ten further feature films directed by leading artists such as Curtis Bernhardt , William Dieterle , Helmut Käutner and Wolfgang Liebeneiner – as well as such newcomers as Peter Beauvais , Rolf von Sydow and Georg Tressler – feature film production at UFA

1722-484: The German film industry in general entered a period of crisis: foreign sales stalled due to low profit margins, and the German market became profitable once again for American film giants. The resulting concentration on a few large German film companies, which came together to unite production, distribution and presentation under one UFA's managers made severe miscalculations with regard to two large-scale productions, Nibelungen and Metropolis in 1924-1926. This situation

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1804-729: The Heart or the musical film The Three from the Filling Station are produced by the UFA. In 1930, the company enjoyed worldwide success with the film The Blue Angel , starring Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings , directed by Joseph von Sternberg . UFA experienced a new commercial boom in the Nazi era, not least due to the government's protectionist measures, which freed the company from bothersome domestic and foreign competition, sometimes even incorporating their production facilities and staff (see also: National Socialist Film Policy). On top of that, by occupying almost all of Europe,

1886-699: The Jofa ateliers in Berlin-Johannisthal. Wolfgang Staudte directed the film and also wrote the screenplay. Additionally, the Soviets confiscated numerous UFA productions from the Babelsburg vaults and dubbed them into Russian for release in the USSR; and simultaneously began importing Soviet films to the same offices for dubbing into German and distribution to the surviving German theaters. In contrast,

1968-536: The Nazi regime also provided UFA with new sales markets, as well as placing distribution outlets in such "neutral" countries as the United States. By 1938, after taking over foreign film production facilities in France, Belgium and other countries, one third of the company's sales came from abroad. UFA's economic boom made it possible to further expand the so-called "star system," which had already been developed in

2050-467: The Nazi takeover of January 30, 1933, and made UFA openly available for Joseph Goebbels ' propaganda machine, even though Hugenberg was removed from his post shortly thereafter (June 1933) under pressure from Hitler. In an act of anticipatory obedience to the Nazi regime, UFA management fired several Jewish employees on March 29, 1933. In the summer of 1933, the Nazi regime created the Film Chamber of

2132-467: The Nazis came to power at the end of January 1933, there was some sentiment for a general strike by SPD politicians and trade unionists, but the national leadership was wary of such an action in the face of the worst unemployment crisis the nation had experienced. Though there were some sporadic isolated incidents, no general policy of resistance was undertaken. The Nazis embarked on a policy of violence and intimidation against all their opponents, including

2214-646: The Nazis formed were with the participation of their conservative nationalist ally, the German National People's Party (DNVP). The "Law Against the Founding of New Parties" (14 July 1933) banned all parties except the Nazi Party. The DNVP members of the remaining coalition cabinets eventually either joined the Party or were replaced by Nazis, resulting in one-party government in all the Länder . One of

2296-537: The Nazis were surprised. The most highly organized and powerful trade union movement in Europe offered no resistance and disappeared virtually overnight. In its place, the German Labor Front ( German : Deutsche Arbeitsfront or DAF), a Nazi Party organization led by Ley, was established on 10 May. Its goal was coordination of the entire labor force under Nazi leadership. On 19 May, the government enacted

2378-629: The Red Army. After the German Wehrmacht issued its unconditional surrender on May 7 & 9, 1945, the Military Government Law No. 191 initially halted and prohibited all further film production. On July 14, 1945, as a result of Military Government Law No. 52, all Reich-owned film assets of UFI Holding were seized. All activities in the film industry were placed under strict licensing regulations and all films were subject to censorship. The Soviet military government, which

2460-729: The Reich, which adopted regulations officially excluding Jewish filmmakers from all German studios. In 1936, Germany's first film institute was founded in the form of the UFA-Lehrschau set up by Hans Traub at the Babelsberg Film Complex. Goebbels systematically brought UFA and all other media companies under the control of his Propaganda Ministry. On March 18, 1937, the Hugenberg Company was forced to sell all of its UFA shares for 21.25 million Reichsmark (equivalent to 95 million 2021 €) to Cautio Treuhand GmbH,

2542-516: The SPD-affiliated trade unions. In an effort to safeguard his organization and its members, Leipart declared the ADBG politically "neutral" within weeks of the Nazis coming to power. Meanwhile, Party leaders convinced conservative elements among the police, the judiciary, prison administrators and civil servants that suppression of the labor movement was justified. Following the Nazi gains in

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2624-707: The Soviet zone was very slow, in spite of the "Lex UFI" law issued in September 1949 by the American and British military regime and the Dissolution Law (June 1953) issued by the German Bundestag. The status of UFA was furthermore controversial, with doubts about whether it should be allowed to resume operations at all because of its identification with Nazi film production. Motion pictures produced after

2706-451: The UFA umbrella: UFA Fernsehproduktion, UFA Entertainment, Grundy UFA, Grundy Light Entertainment, UFA Cinema, teamWorx, Phoenix Film and UFA Brand Communication. In August 2013, UFA underwent an organizational restructuring that simplified the company down to three production divisions. Today, UFA Fiction , UFA Serial Drama , UFA Show & Factual and UFA Documentary are the four units responsible for production. An early step towards

2788-496: The administrative director general and were responsible for the overall planning of annual programming and content design all the way up to the actual shooting of the film: these heads were also responsible for giving instructions to the film line producers and directors. It was subsequently fully nationalized in mid-1944. In late April 1945, the UFA ateliers in Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin-Tempelhof were occupied by

2870-601: The captured nations was also brought under its aegis. Profits reached 155 million Reichsmarks in 1942 (equivalent to € 649,828,997 in 2021) and 175 million ℛℳ in 1943 (equivalent to €715,085,619 in 2021). At this point, the UFA staff hierarchy was reorganized according to the Nazi Führer principle . The coordination of individual sub-groups of the UFI Corporation was the job of the newly appointed Reich Film Director-General. The production heads worked for

2952-605: The construction of the Autobahn . It was the largest of the many organizations established by the Nazis and a propaganda success. Workers were also brought in line with the party through activities such as the Reichsberufswettkampf , a national vocational competition. Many unemployed people were also drafted into the Reich Labour Service where they were given uniforms and tools and put to work;

3034-400: The creation of Bufa. Ludendorff foresaw a large-scale, state-controlled film corporation that would serve national interests. In this spirit, Universum-Film AG (UFA) was founded as a consolidation of private film companies on December 18, 1917 in Berlin. The company's starting capital was 25 million Reichsmark (equivalent to 62 million 2021 €): among the contributors were the German government,

3116-641: The disappearance of unemployed people from the streets contributed to the perception that the Nazis were improving the economic conditions of Germany. Historian Claudia Koonz explains that the word Gleichschaltung stems from the arena of electricity , where it refers to converting power from alternating current to direct current , which is called " rectification " in English; the word Gleichschaltung translates literally as "phasing". Used in its socio-political sense, Gleichschaltung has no equivalent in any other language. The Nazis also used other similar terms, such as Ausschaltung , which constituted

3198-524: The emergency decree of 28 February provided no justification since there was plainly no need for defence from any 'communist acts of violence endangering the state'. The only such acts were those of the Nazis themselves. The following table presents an overview of the process of Gleichschaltung as it was applied to the Nazification of the German Länder governments. While, strictly speaking,

3280-670: The end, virtually the only non-Nazi associations left were the army and the Churches with their lay organizations. For example, in 1934, the government founded the Deutscher Reichsbund für Leibesübungen , later the Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen , as the official sports governing body. All other German sport associations gradually lost their freedom and were coopted into it. Besides sports, another more important part of

3362-524: The founding of UFA was taken on January 13, 1917, with the creation of the Bild- und Filmamt (Bufa) by Germany's Supreme Army Command. Formed as a reaction to the perceived advantage of Germany's enemies in the realm of film propaganda, Bufa's task was to use film for psychological warfare. The plans envisaged by the German General Staff – especially those of Erich Ludendorff – went far beyond

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3444-405: The general description provided by historian Jane Caplan, who characterized the term as "the coordination of German institutions into a cohesive, Nazified whole." The Nazis were able to put Gleichschaltung into effect due to multiple legal measures enacted by the Reich government during the 20 months following 30 January 1933, when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany . When Hitler

3526-522: The ideas and prejudices of the Nazis. From March to July 1933 and continuing afterward, the Nazi Party systematically eliminated or co-opted non-Nazi organizations that could potentially influence people. Those critical of Hitler and the Nazis were suppressed, intimidated, or murdered. Every national voluntary association, and every local club, was brought under Nazi control, from industrial and agricultural pressure groups to sports associations, football clubs, male voice choirs, women's organizations—in short,

3608-470: The imposition of a Reich Commissar under the pretext of restoring order … Despite the semblance of legality, the usurpation of the powers of the Länder by the Reich was a plain breach of the Constitution. Force and pressure by the Nazi organizations themselves – political blackmail – had been solely responsible for creating the 'unrest' that had prompted the alleged restorations of 'order'. The terms of

3690-513: The larger companies independently in an advisory function. On August 9, 2013, the company underwent a major restructuring based on the new strategic goal and concept of "One UFA". UFA's organizational structure was simplified down to three production units. UFA experienced a golden age in cinema from the 1920s to the 1940s. In this period, the company contributed significantly to the history of German film. The following are among UFA's most famous productions from those years: The following are among

3772-522: The largest production company in Germany, now written in capital letters UFA . UFA's many prize-winning TV films, light entertainment formats, popular soap operas, long-running TV series, sitcoms and non-fiction programs have made it the leader on the German television market. The company broadcasts over 2,800 hours of content each year. In early 1997, the holding society UFA Hamburg (today Cologne) merged with CLT in Luxemburg to form CLT-UFA. April 2000 saw

3854-779: The liberal Hirsch-Dunckersche Gewerkvereine  [ de ] , placed themselves under the Action Committee for the Protection of German Labor, headed by Robert Ley , the Stabschef (chief of staff) of the Nazi Party organization. The last remaining union umbrella agency, the Christian-oriented Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (1919–1933)  [ de ] was absorbed at the end of June. Throughout this process, there were no strikes, no demonstrations and no protests. Even

3936-450: The local level, mayors and councils were terrorized by Nazi stormtroopers of the SA and SS into resigning or following orders to replace officials and workers at local public institutions who were Jewish or belonged to other political parties. The Gleichschaltung also included the formation of various organizations with compulsory membership for segments of the population, particularly

4018-487: The main UFA shareholder and which had determined the company's business policy as head of the shareholders' consortium. Köhnlechner bought UFA, which was heavily in debt, on behalf of Reinhard Mohn for roughly five million Deutschmarks. (Köhnlechner: "The question came up as to why not take the entire thing, it still had many gems.") Only a few months later, Köhnlechner also acquired the UFA-Filmtheaterkette,

4100-455: The main film-policy goal of the Allied occupying forces, under American insistence, consisted in preventing any future accumulation of power in the German film industry. The Western powers also had more interest in opening up the German film market for their own products rather than in letting the national film industry regain its foothold. Thus the reorganization of Germany's film industry outside

4182-694: The mid-nineteenth-century. At the time of the Weimar Republic , its largest grouping was the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB). This was an umbrella organization that was formed in July 1919 and was originally composed of 52 unions with about 8 million workers. It was generally affiliated with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and was on the left of the political spectrum. In March 1920, it

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4264-689: The most critical steps towards Gleichschaltung of German society was the introduction of the "Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda" under Joseph Goebbels in March 1933 and the subsequent steps taken by the Propaganda Ministry to assume complete control of the press and all means of social communication. This included oversight of newspapers, magazines, films, books, public meetings and ceremonies, foreign press relations, theater, art and music, radio, and television. To this end, Goebbels said: [T]he secret of propaganda [is to] permeate

4346-929: The most successful UFA directors in the silent era and early talkie period: Ludwig Berger , Paul Czinner , Wilhelm Dieterle , Ewald André Dupont , Karl Grune , Fritz Lang , Ernst Lubitsch , Joe May , Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau , Arthur Robison , Hanns Schwarz , Paul L. Stein , Wilhelm Thiele , Alfred Zeisler . Between 1933 and 1942, the following were house directors at UFA: Carl Boese , Eduard von Borsody , Peter Paul Brauer , Karl Hartl , Georg Jacoby , Gerhard Lamprecht , Herbert Maisch , Paul Martin , Karl Ritter , Reinhold Schünzel (until 1936), Douglas Sirk (until 1937), Hans Steinhoff , Robert A. Stemmle , Viktor Tourjansky , Gustav Ucicky und Erich Waschneck . Notes Citations Gleichschaltung Final solution Parties The Nazi term Gleichschaltung ( German pronunciation: [ˈɡlaɪçʃaltʊŋ] ), roughly " coordination ",

4428-401: The nucleus of UFA from the end of 1917: More companies joined UFA not long after: UFA continued to sign production agreements with various independent producers: Given that Germany had been – and continued to be – largely cut off from film imports due to World War I, the new company had ideal conditions for their conquest of the German market. The mission of UFA at the time of its founding

4510-484: The part of the unions were to prove futile, as the Nazis had already begun to plot a complete takeover of the trade union movement, as demonstrated by Goebbels' diary entry of 17 April: On 1 May we shall arrange May Day as a grandiose demonstration of the German people's will. On 2 May the trade union offices will be occupied. Coordination in this area too. There might possibly be a row for a few days, but then they will belong to us. We must make no allowances anymore. … Once

4592-401: The person it aims to grasp, without his even noticing that he is being permeated. Of course propaganda has a purpose, but the purpose must be concealed with such cleverness and virtuosity that the person on whom this purpose is to be carried out doesn't notice it at all. This was also the purpose of "co-ordination": to ensure that every aspect of the lives of German citizens was permeated with

4674-475: The privatization of Bavaria and UFA in 1956 in West Germany, the company was restructured to form Universum Film AG and taken over by a consortium of banks. However, in film production and distribution, it failed to revive and went into receivership. In 1964, Bertelsmann 's Chief Representative, Manfred Köhnlechner, acquired the entire Universum Film AG holdings from Deutsche Bank, which had previously been

4756-560: The realm of talkie production as a result of a contract with Tobis-Klangfilm, which simplified the licensing situation for UFA. Nevertheless, UFA has recorded unsurpassed artistic successes with films such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis (inscribed on UNESCO 's Memory of the World Register , the first film thus distinguished) and Woman in the Moon to this day. Asphalt ( German Realism ) or entertainment movies such as Melody of

4838-423: The regime. On 28 April, the ADGB agreed to move toward unification with the conservative Christian and the bourgeois liberal trade union groups, to form a single national labor organization in the new Nazi state. Leipart also supported the announcement by Goebbels that May Day would be celebrated as a public holiday for the first time, a long-sought goal of the labor movement. However, any efforts at reconciliation on

4920-539: The removal or "switching off" of anyone who stained or soiled the German nation. This seemingly clinical terminology captured both the mechanical and biological meaning for members of German society; as one German citizen visiting London explained, "It means the same stream will flow through the ethnic body politic [ Volkskörper ]." Former University of Dresden professor of romance languages, Viktor Klemperer —dismissed from his post for being Jewish in 1935 and who only survived his time in Germany due to being married to

5002-426: The seeking of Lebensraum , and the violent mass destruction of human life deemed somehow less valuable by the National Socialist government of Germany. The Gleichschaltung measures were used to give the Nazi regime the appearance of legality. Thousands of decrees, including many of the Gleichschaltung laws, were based explicitly on the Reichstag Fire Decree, and hence on Article 48. The Reichstag renewed

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5084-408: The silent film era. The highest paid UFA stars in the Nazi era were Hans Albers and Zarah Leander . Veit Harlan was the highest-earning director. In addition, as a result of the nationalist German spirit that already dominated the company, UFA was perfectly suited to serve the goals of National Socialist propaganda in film. Hugenberg had been named Reich Minister of Economics immediately following

5166-413: The social and racial exclusion of anyone deemed an enemy by National Socialist doctrine. The Nazi Gleichschaltung or "synchronization" of German society—along with a series of Nazi legislation —was part and parcel to Jewish economic disenfranchisement, the violence against political opposition, the creation of concentration camps, the Nuremberg Laws, the establishment of a racial Volksgemeinschaft ,

5248-448: The trade unions are in our hands the other parties and organizations will not be able to hold out for much longer. Accordingly, 1 May 1933 was declared the Day of National Labor, a day of parades, speeches and propaganda displays to celebrate the unity of the German labor movement with the nation, featuring SA military bands, swastika flags and fireworks. It culminated with a huge rally and speech by Hitler at Berlin Tempelhof Airport that

5330-489: The untranslated German word to convey its unique historical meaning. In their seminal work on National Socialist vernacular, Nazi-Deutsch/Nazi-German: An English Lexicon of the Language of the Third Reich , historians Robert Michael and Karin Doerr define Gleichschaltung as: "Consolidation. All of the German Volk's social, political, and cultural organizations to be controlled and run according to Nazi ideology and policy. All opposition to be eliminated." This accords with

5412-424: The war in the Allied zones were, for a decade, made by other, fledgling companies. It was 1956 by the time Bavaria was outsourced and the remaining UFA re-privatized. A bank consortium led by Deutsche Bank was behind the founding of the new Universum-Film AG, whose production facilities included the Afifa-Kopierwerk and the ateliers in Berlin-Tempelhof. Its first board chairman was Arno Hauke who, until then, had been

5494-433: The whole fabric of associational life was Nazified. Rival, politically oriented clubs or societies were merged into a single Nazi body. Existing leaders of voluntary associations were either unceremoniously ousted, or knuckled under of their own accord. Many organizations expelled leftish or liberal members and declared their allegiance to the new state and its institutions. The whole process ... went on all over Germany. ... By

5576-420: The youth of Germany. Boys first served as apprentices in the Pimpfen (cubs), beginning at the age of six, and at age ten, entered the Deutsches Jungvolk (Young German Boys) and served there until joining the Hitler Youth proper at age fourteen. Boys remained there until age eighteen, at which time they entered into the Arbeitsdienst (Labor Service) and the armed forces . Girls became part of

5658-404: Was Ludwig Klitzsch; Hugenberg himself took over the chairmanship of the supervisory board; his deputy was banker Emil Georg von Stauß . At first, nothing changed in UFA's production policy. In 1928, Erich Pommer was replaced as head of production by Ernst Hugo Correll , who led the company through the transition to talking pictures or "talkies". UFA gained an advantage over smaller companies in

5740-427: Was a leader in the time of the German Expressionism , experienced a further boom, and emerged as a direct competitor to Hollywood with films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), Die Nibelungen (1924), Variety (1925) and Faust (1926). In 1927, UFA found itself in serious financial trouble. After the stabilization of the German currency starting in November 1924,

5822-643: Was already in 1921 producing the lion's share of German feature films, and in that year it was privatized. Starting in 1922, large ateliers in Neubabelsberg (today's Babelsberg Studio ) and on Oberlandstraße in Berlin-Tempelhof were made available for film production. In 1926, the facilities were expanded by means of the construction of the largest studio hall in Europe at the time. In 1923, after Decla-Bioscop AG and others were taken over, Erich Pommer became head of all production operations and discovered and fostered many stars, including Emil Jannings , Pola Negri , Conrad Veidt and Lya de Putti . During this era UFA

5904-496: Was appointed Reich Chancellor on 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party had control of only five of the seventeen German Länder (states). However, the Nazis acted swiftly to eliminate any potential centers of opposition arising in the remaining states. Immediately following the Reichstag election of 5 March 1933, the central government began in earnest its campaign to take over the state governments that it did not yet control, and within

5986-521: Was attended by over one million people. Many workers, particularly those in state employment, were compelled to participate by threats of dismissal for not attending. The next day, as Goebbels had indicated, the German labor movement was crushed under a wave of unprecedented violence at the hands of SA and SS troops. All SPD-supported trade union offices were occupied, their newspapers and periodicals were discontinued, their banks and credit unions were closed and their assets were confiscated and turned over to

6068-403: Was derived from an electrical engineering term meaning that all switches are put on the same circuit so that all can be activated by throwing a single master switch. Its first use is credited to Reich Justice Minister Franz Gürtner . It has been variously translated as "coordination", "Nazification of state and society", "synchronization", and "bringing into line". English texts often use

6150-708: Was ended. In 1964, Bertelsmann acquired Universum-Film AG and all other divisions of UFA-Theater AG. In order to prevent the sale of film rights belonging to the old UFA, the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation was set up in Wiesbaden on the initiative of the German Federal Government and representatives of the film industry. In 1966, the foundation acquired the rights to UFA and Bavaria Film – and they have been administering, storing and restoring ever since. In 1972,

6232-610: Was in favour of a speedy reconstruction of the German film industry under Soviet supervision, incorporated the Babelsberg ateliers into DEFA , the state-run film studio, subsequently the GDR's state film studio, on May 17, 1946. Murderers Among Us was the first German feature film in the post-war era and the first so-called "Trümmerfilm" ("Rubble Film"). It was shot in 1945/46 by DEFA in the Althoff Studios in Babelsberg and

6314-414: Was instrumental in calling a general strike that led to the collapse of the right-wing Kapp Putsch that attempted to overthrow the republic. It was led from January 1921 by Theodor Leipart . Following the economic downturn of 1929 , the resulting sharp rise in unemployment caused a large drop-off in membership but, by 1932, it still represented an estimated 3.5 million workers in some 30 unions. When

6396-533: Was made even worse as the result of a gag contract (the Parufamet agreement) they had entered into in 1925 with the American companies Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . In March 1927, with the company facing bankruptcy, Alfred Hugenberg – Chairman of the German National People's Party and owner of the Scherl-Gruppe, a powerful media corporation – bought the company. The new general director

6478-571: Was set up under the auspices of the German Labor Front. Hobbies were regimented and all private clubs, whether chess, football, or woodworking, were brought under the control of Strength Through Joy, which also provided vacation trips, skiing, swimming, concerts, and ocean cruises. Some 43 million Germans enjoyed trips via the Strength Through Joy initiative. This effort inspired the idea of Germans acquiring automobiles and

6560-429: Was sunny and pleasant, it was described as "Hitler weather", or if you failed to comply with Nazi ideals of racial and social conformity , you were "switched off." When the blatant emphasis on racial hatred of others seemed to reach an impasse in the school system, through radio broadcasts, or on film reels, the overseers of Nazi Gleichschaltung propaganda switched to strategies that focused more on togetherness and

6642-573: Was the process of Nazification by which Adolf Hitler —leader of the Nazi Party in Germany —successively established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of German society "from the economy and trade associations to the media, culture and education". Although the Weimar Constitution remained nominally in effect until Germany's surrender following World War II , near total Nazification had been secured by

6724-502: Was the production of films – feature films, documentaries, cultural films and weekly headline (newsreel) films – designed to function as propaganda for Germany abroad. However, after mounting tensions between the company's founding members, Deutsche Bank was able to prevail and implement their approach to film production as a business rather than for military objectives. Instead of propaganda films, UFA now produced elaborate entertainment films such as Sumurun ( Ernst Lubitsch , 1920). UFA

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