Film archive of the Federal Archives
| Film archive of the Federal Archives | |
|---|---|
| ISIL | DE-B1588 |
The film archive department of the Federal Archives is part of the Federal Archives and documents more than 100 years of German film history . It is one of the largest archives of its kind in the world and the central German film archive for the collection, preservation and provision of national film heritage .
After German reunification, the film archive of the Federal Archives and the State Film Archive of the GDR were merged on October 3, 1990 , in accordance with the Unification Treaty .
Movies
The film inventory currently comprises around 146,000 documentaries and feature films on a million film rolls or other carriers. Since it was founded in the 1950s, the film archive has been collecting German films of all genres , including newsreels , cartoons , documentaries and feature films that were not produced for television.
The oldest publicly shown films from 1895 are available as well as the current winners of the German Film Prize . The main focus of the tradition lies in the period from 1930 to 1945, in cinema newsreels after 1945 and films from the GDR . Commissioned productions by the federal authorities and films that were funded by the Federal Republic of Germany are also almost complete. Each film is documented with its title. For many films there is detailed filmographic information, content descriptions and evidence of places, people or subject terms.
Film accompanying material
The film archive also collects documents accompanying films that document the artistic and technical development of the film medium or the development and impact of individual productions. Rental catalogs, programs, photos, posters, scripts and other documents can be viewed. The collection of censorship and approval documents, which are often the last witnesses to lost films and important sources for film historians and archivists, is unique . A special library on the subject of film is also accessible to users.
Conservation
The archive has its own, highly specialized film technology workshops and warehouses in which the German film heritage is preserved, restored and preserved for posterity.
Events
In addition to supporting numerous national and international film events is the Federal Film Archive annually next CineGraph - Hamburg Center for Film Research Organizer of CineFest - International Festival of the German film heritage and looks after the retrospective at the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film (DOK Leipzig) .
history
The film archive was located at the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress in Koblenz . Films that used cellulose nitrate- based carriers were also stored there . These films, which were used well into the 1950s, represent an acute danger. Celluloid films (nitrocellulose films ) burn instantly, almost explosively, which is why they are now subject to the Explosives Act . Another danger is the aging-related decomposition of the nitrate films, during which nitrous gases develop.
Since the summer of 1958, nitrate film has been stored at the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. The storage rooms there, which had wooden floors and wooden doors, were only converted to meet fire protection requirements in 1960. In 1977/78 13 relatively small storage chambers were built next to each other, each of which was cooled and dehumidified by an air conditioning system with defrost heating. All around 24,000 rolls distributed throughout the fortress were stored there. On January 26, 1988, a fire disaster occurred in the nitrate film storage facility at Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, the cause of which, in all probability, was a defect in an air conditioning unit. Apparently the defrost heater of the device had warmed the steel shelves with about 2,000 film cans over a longer period of time. This led to a fire explosion in one of the 13 storage rooms because the nitrate films self-ignite at a temperature of more than 40 ° C.
About 80% of the films destroyed by the fire had already been copied onto non-flammable security film. However, it was customary to continue to archive the originals. This practice was changed as a result of the fire, and all copied films were to be destroyed immediately.
Four months after the fire, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate terminated the rental agreement concluded with the Federal Archives for the film warehouse affected by the fire and prohibited the general use of the fortress as a nitrate film warehouse. The site of the ammunition depot of a former NATO missile site in Obersayn in the Westerwald , where refrigerated containers were set up, was used as the new nitrate store . The film stocks in 1989 were around 20,000 rolls. After the incorporation of the State Film Archive of the GDR, around 60,000 roles were added, which were stored in Potsdam- Babelsberg and Berlin-Wilhelmshagen .
The film archive of the Federal Archives was located in Berlin-Wilmersdorf from 1990 to 2018 in the building of the former “Reichsgetreidestelle” on Fehrbelliner Platz, built by Ludwig Moshamer in 1937 . It has been in the Berlin-Lichterfelde property since February 2018. The service center of the film archive was set up in Hoppegarten near Berlin. In the new building in Lindenallee, a modern special magazine for nitrate films and workshops for restoration and copying went into operation on August 24, 2005. The storage climate is 6 ° C and 50% relative humidity, the pressure of a possible explosion should be absorbed by an earth wall. A new building for the storage of the non-fire-endangered cinema films has not yet been built.
Individual evidence
- ^ Rainer Hofmann: For the storage, processing and copying of nitro image negatives in the Federal Archives. Conservation forum, accessed on January 29, 2014.
- ↑ Federal Archives: Nitrofilm storage in the Federal Archives. ( Memento from February 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Haiko Prengel: Cinema classics in danger. Federal archives complain about desolate film magazines. Telepolis , August 23, 2013, accessed January 29, 2014.
literature
- Rolf W. Abresch: Tuesday, January 26th, 1988. A black day for the Federal Archives. In: Communications from the Federal Archives , Volume 16 (2008), Issue 1, pp. 11-14, ISSN 0945-5531 ( online ).
- Egbert Koppe: "Equipped for the challenges of the 21st century". Inauguration of the new buildings for the film archive in Hoppegarten. In: Mitteilungen aus dem Bundesarchiv , Volume 13 (2005), Issue 2, pp. 2–6, ISSN 0945-5531 ( online ).