Frontier cinema

Photo from 2011 from Friedrich- Ecke Kochstraße to compare the historical photo with the border cinema "City" at Checkpoint Charlie . The bar-restaurant-café “Sotto Sopra” is currently located at the location of the “City” border cinema.

A border cinema is the name given to the cinemas in divided Berlin , which were easily accessible on the West Berlin side of the four- sector city on the sector border with East Berlin . Seen from north to south, these were the districts of Reinickendorf and Wedding in the French sector, the Tiergarten district in the British sector and the Kreuzberg and Neukölln districts in the American sector .

List of border cinemas

Most of the border cinemas were on the main road connections between East and West Berlin, often in the immediate vicinity of the first S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations there . Here is a small selection:

French sector

Reinickendorf district

• “Bali” (1953–1969) with 264 seats, Provinzstrasse 81, right on the border at Schönholz S-Bahn station

Wedding district

The "Corso" in Wedding, previously called " Lichtburg ", 1931

• “Polo-Lichtspiele” (1912–1961) with 281 seats, Chausseestraße 79, near the border at the Reinickendorfer Straße underground station
• The largest: “Corso” (1929–1962) with 1933 seats, better known as “ Lichtburg ”, “Atlantic”, Behmstrasse 7–9, right on the border at Gesundbrunnen train station
• “Vineta Lichtspiele” (1910–1961) with 200 seats, Vinetaplatz 6, near the border at the Voltastraße underground station

British sector

Tiergarten district

• “Welt-Kino” (1919–1966) with 1024 seats, Alt-Moabit 99–103, in the immediate vicinity of the border at Lehrter Stadtbahnhof
• “Aladin & Camera” (1948–1961) with 348 seats, Potsdamer Straße 12, in the immediate vicinity of the border at Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn station

American sector

Kreuzberg district

• "City" (1951–1967) with 281 seats, Friedrichstrasse 209.
• "Lido" (1951–1966) with 521 seats, Schlesische Straße 15, in the immediate vicinity of the border at the Schlesisches Tor underground station
• “Casino-Lichtspiele” (1952–1961) with 716 seats, Schlesische Straße 26, in the immediate vicinity of the border at the Schlesisches Tor underground station
• "WBT-Lichtspiele" (1942–1961) with 245 seats, Schlesische Straße 29, in the immediate vicinity of the border at the Schlesisches Tor underground station

"At that time, Schlesische Strasse was a cinema mile with brisk border traffic from East Berlin cineastes who wanted to watch West German films."

- karreraklub.de

Neukölln district

• “Filmsck Britz” (1932–1961) with 706 seats, Britzer Damm 115, near the border at the Blaschkoallee underground station
• “Orion” (1953–1961) with 375 seats, Neuköllniche Allee 52, near the border at the Köllnische Heide S-Bahn station

history

Emergence

According to sources from former GDR journalists, "border cinemas" have been specially selected for East Berlin cross-border commuters since July 1950 "at the instigation of the film section of the US military government ( HICOG )" and given a special status. Oscar Martay (1920–1995), the initiator of the Berlin International Film Festival , worked as a film officer for the US military government in West Berlin from 1948 and had a significant influence on the operations of West Berlin cinemas. In addition to founding an international film festival, he was particularly interested in founding “border cinemas” on the East Berlin sector border. There films should be shown cheaper, especially for East Berliners.

Special status

Every East Berliner was allowed to go to the cinema at a price of 1: 1 (that means: 1 DM West = 1  Mark East ) on presentation of their identity card  . After the currency reform of 1948 , the GDR mark was not convertible, its black market value was only 25 West Pfennigs. The East Berlin cross-border commuters exchanged their East money in West Berlin exchange offices and paid for their entry with West money . The shortfall in income was offset by the elimination of the entertainment tax. From 1953 this tax exemption is said to have only existed for films shown that were on a list drawn up by HICOG.

In order to accommodate the East Berlin cross-border commuters, the border cinemas were allowed to open in the morning hours and show their programs throughout the day. (Regular times, for example, from 9:30 am, 11:30 am, 1:30 pm, 3:30 pm, 6:00 pm and 8:15 pm) The cinema program usually began with a weekly summary of world events from politics, culture and sport. Well-known examples: Die Neue Deutsche Wochenschau , Blick in die Welt , Fox Tönende Wochenschau , Welt im Bild (from August 1956: Ufa-Wochenschau ). This was followed by the feature film . In the American sector primarily American films were offered , in the British sector British and in the French sector French films were offered in a German-dubbed version, which it was known that they would never or very much later be shown in the cinemas of East Berlin.

The end

The political importance of the border cinemas ended with the construction of the Berlin Wall . The “ideological influence” by the cinemas is said to have been one of the reasons for the construction of the wall.

This led to protests by young people who could no longer visit the border cinemas.

literature

• Peter Dkörper: Construction of the Berlin Wall stops the screening of “ Nothing New in the West ” in the “City” border cinema at Checkpoint Charlie . In: Thomas F. Schneider (Ed.): 110 years of Remarque. 80 years "Nothing new in the West" . Osnabrück 2008. pp. 33-50. ISBN 978-3-89971-508-8 .
• Erika M. Hoerning: Between the fronts. Berlin cross-border commuters and traders 1948–1961 . Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1992, ISBN 978-3-412-08091-4 .
• Karl-Heinz Arnold: Everyday walk across the line. Of cross-border commuters and cross-border transactions . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 3, 2001, ISSN  0944-5560 , p. 26–34 ( luise-berlin.de ).
• Ralf Schenk on the almost forgotten history of West and East Berlin border cinemas . In: Berliner Zeitung , August 11, 2011.

Web links

• All cinemas in Berlin
• Between war and wall . In: From the Rosenthaler Thor to the Gesundbrunnen. The history of Brunnenstrasse
• Flickering on the Iron Curtain - Berlin Border Cinemas 1950–1961 . Project sponsor: WIR e. V. Berlin 2011
• Friedrich Wilhelm Foss: Flickering on the Iron Curtain Berlin Border Cinemas 1950–1961. On berliner- Grenzkinos.de ( Memento from June 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lido Berlin. ( Memento from June 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) karreraklub.de
2. ^ Oscar Martay biography. ( Memento from November 13, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) berlinale.de
3. ↑ August 13th . Illustrated historical booklets , No. 17, Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1979
4. ^ Peter Möbius, Helmut Trotnow: The wall plot. In: Die Zeit , No. 33/1991.