State Film Archive of the GDR

The State Film Archive of the GDR ( SFA ) was the central film archive of the German Democratic Republic in (East) Berlin.

history

The archive, founded on October 1, 1955, had the task of collecting and safeguarding national film production and making it accessible to the public. The first director was Rudolf Bernstein , the former director of Progress Film Distribution . In April 1958, Gerhard Karsch became director of the SFA, who was followed in the same year by Herbert Volkmann , who headed the archive until 1969.

Wolfgang Klaue was director of the SFA from 1969 until it was merged with the Federal Film Archives in October 1990 . In 1979 Klaue became President of the Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film (FlAF), and in 1982 he was re-elected for a second term.

The holdings included film copies that the Soviet Union had given the GDR government since 1954, as well as copies of all national film productions. The archive had its own copy facility for the conservation and restoration of its holdings .

After German reunification , the GDR State Film Archive was incorporated into the Federal Film Archive on October 3, 1990 .

literature

• DEFA Foundation (Ed.): Pictures of the Century. State Film Archive of the GDR 1955–1990. Memories. Compiled by Eva Hahm, Hans Karnstädt, Wolfgang Klaue & Günter Schulz, Bertz + Fischer, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86505-405-0 .