Geyer works

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Former main building of Geyer-Werke AG, later the seat of CinePostproduction GmbH Geyer Berlin, Harzer Straße 39, Berlin

The Geyer-Werke , from which the still existing company CinePostproduction GmbH emerged , were the oldest film technology service provider ("oldest film factory ") in Germany.

Company history

In the early days of moving film, the production of a film - from the script to recording and development to the copy - was still completely in the hands of the filmmaker. Back then, films were laboriously developed and copied strip by strip by photographers. The engineer Karl August Geyer, however, was of the opinion: "The amalgamation of the theater-like film business with its artistic or even just bohemian level is extremely detrimental to the strictly industrial and technical work of film finishing."

For example, on July 15, 1911, a few months after the premiere of the first “program-filling” films in Europe and Germany, he founded a “Kino-Kopier-Gesellschaft mbH” in Berlin-Lankwitz . With this first film printing company in Germany, which deals with the photographic development of negative films and the production of positive copies for the cinema, Geyer laid the foundation for the emergence of a new service branch in the film industry, which is now summarized under the term film post-production .

Before World War II

In 1914 the company moved from the premises, which had meanwhile become too small, to the Harzer Strasse 39 site in Berlin-Neukölln. Due to the nitrocellulose (" celluloid ") still used as film material at the time, a large fire broke out there in 1917, which destroyed a large part of the film camp.

In 1918 the "Geyer-Maschinenbau GmbH", which had dedicated itself to the production of film cameras, film editing machines and the like, was spun off from the Geyer works, and from 1924 they also relocated their headquarters.

In 1922, Geyer rationalized the previously time-consuming manual production of screening copies using specially developed machines and processes. His first own construction was z. B. a perforating machine with four-hole punching on both sides, which is still standard today. As early as 1922, the Geyer-Werke worked together with Hans Vogt , Joseph Massolle and Joseph Benedict Engl , the inventors of the optical sound system (Tri-Ergon), which is still valid today , on the production of the first sound films. In 1926 the company was renamed “Geyer-Werke AG”, with its headquarters in the Berlin-Neukölln district , Harzer Strasse 39-46. The renowned architect Otto Rudolf Salvisberg was commissioned to build an extension made of brick clinker bricks (with stylistic elements of the New Objectivity ) from 1927–1928 . The building is now a listed building .

For the film "Reichsparteitag 1934" ( Triumph of the Will ) by Leni Riefenstahl , Adolf Hitler arranged for the establishment of an "office for the Nazi party rally film", located in the Geyer-Werke copy facilities. On December 6, 1934, Hitler visited Riefenstahl while she was working in the Geyer works and “... here the Führer was the first to have parts of the 'Triumph of the Will' shown”. Also an “Archive of the Reich Party Rally” (later known as the “Film Archive of the National Socialism ”) Riefenstahl had set up on behalf of the NSDAP on the site of the Geyer works. The whereabouts of the archive are still unclear.

Post war and restructuring

After the Second World War, Geyer-Werke GmbH was re-established in Hamburg-Rahlstedt in 1949 , and Geyer-Werke in Berlin was reopened in 1954. From January 1950, Hamburg's Geyer-Werke synchronized and reproduced the films in the “ Neue Deutsche Wochenschau ”, which had previously been edited in a directly adjacent building.

Many well-known films from the post-war period were edited in the Geyer-Werke, e. B. " The Third Man ", " Große Freiheit Nr. 7 " and " Sissi ", in later years all of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films and most of the productions by Wim Wenders , the television series Tatort , more recently z. B. the movies Run Lola , Die Untouchbare , The Lives of Others or Waltz with Bashir .

At the beginning of the 1960s, after the new medium of television had become widespread, Geyer also included video post production in the company's program, and in 1961 also dubbing studios .

Since 1967 the Geyer-Werke were represented on the premises of the FSM through the purchase of the RIVA-Kopierwerk of the ZDF in Munich- Unterföhring . Since the beginning of 1988, the copier and video transformer of Bavaria Film GmbH in Geiselgasteig belonged to Hamburger Geyer-Werke GmbH. In return, Bavaria Film GmbH took a 25% stake in Geyer-Werke. In 1989 Geyer-Werke GmbH took over the “Atlantik Film” copier in Hamburg-Ohlstedt and in 1999 “Bavaria Ton”, one of the largest and most modern recording studios in Germany. The Geyer works in Unterföhring have meanwhile been closed and activities have been concentrated on the Bavaria Film site in Grünwald.

In 1996 the Geyer family sold their shares in the Geyer-Holding to the entrepreneur Jochen Tschunke, and in 1998 the name was changed to "CineMedia Film AG Geyer-Werke". Due to failed expansion efforts in the course of the IPO in the context of the dot-com bubble in 2000, significant restructuring had to be undertaken at the beginning of the 21st century. The individual locations became independent company parts of the subsidiary CinePostproduction GmbH in 2002. The Geyer-Werke in Berlin were still represented as "CinePostproduction GmbH Geyer Berlin" with a branch at the original Berlin location at Harzer Strasse 39 until 2015.

Decline of the analog film division and bankruptcy

The migration to fully digital film production and projection in the cinema naturally also had an impact on companies in the traditional analog film industry. At the beginning of August 2013, Christian Sommer (CEO of the company, which now only trades as CineMedia AG) said: "In the 2nd quarter of 2013, the meter volume of analog film projection copies was 30% below that of the 1st quarter." (Source: Blickpunkt Film)

On August 19, 2013, CineMedia Film AG filed for insolvency, as a result of which the subsidiary CinePostproduction GmbH also had to report insolvency. Analog film development and processing was discontinued and the Atlantik Hamburg and Geyer Cologne locations were closed. The company CinePostproduction GmbH has its headquarters today as a subsidiary of MTI Teleport in Unterföhring near Munich, the Berlin location still exists, but now in Tempelhof . The name Geyer-Werke is no longer used in the company name. On the site in Neukölln, only Interaudio Tonstudio GmbH remains, following the Geyer-Werke founded in 1911, which was spun off from the group in 2006.

photos

  • Entrance to the Harzer Strasse 39 site in Berlin

  • Lettering "Geyer-Werke AG" on the facade at Harzer Strasse 39

References

  1. ^ Karl Geyer's work in: Film-Kurier July 15, 1920. quoted in: Matthias Georgi: 100 years for film - CinePostproduction 1911-2011: from copier to digital service provider . August-Dreesbach-Verlag Munich 2011. ISBN 978-3-940061-60-7
  2. ^ A b c Matthias Georgi: 100 years for film - CinePostproduction 1911-2011: from copier to digital service provider . August-Dreesbach-Verlag Munich 2011. ISBN 978-3-940061-60-7
  3. ↑ Bundesarchiv / Filmarchiv, Triumpf des Willens , film folder 17345 - "Feuilletons für Triumph des Willens", Werner Klette: "How the film from the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg came about" . See also: Jürgen Trimborn: Leni Riefenstahl. A German career . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 2002.
  4. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: application to open insolvency proceedings )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.cinemedia.de
  5. ↑ Salvation for CinePostproduction through sale

literature

  • Martin Koerber: The film factory - A company history of the Geyer-Werke . In: Klaus M. Boese, et al .: Zur Geschichte des Filmkopierwerk / A Short History of Cinema Film Post-Production . Cinematography wonder of the world. Vol. 8, pp. 133ff., Polzer Media Group, 2006. ISBN 3-934535-26-7
  • Martin Koerber: The film factory. A company history of Geyerwerk . In: Frank Arnold u. a .: Close-up of Neukölln . Berlin 1989, pp. 112-153.
  • "Chronicle of the Karl Geyer Film Factory", Volume 1 (1911–1921); available in: Stiftung Deutsche Kinamathek, Berlin.
  • 40 years of GEYER Werke . New German Wochenschau No. 77 from July 17, 1951. Preserved in the archive of the Deutsche Wochenschau GmbH in Hamburg.
  • 100 years for the film. Geyer-Werke - CinePostproduction 1911 - 2011. From copier to digital service provider. CinePostproduction, Berlin / August Dreesbach Verlag, Munich 2011. ISBN 978-3940061-60-7

Web links

Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 2 ″  N , 13 ° 27 ′ 3.1 ″  E