Rosenhügel film studios

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Main hall of the Vita-Film-Ateliers on Rosenhügel, completed in 1923 .

The Rosenhügel film studios were built between 1919 and 1923 by Vita-Film on Rosenhügel in the south of Vienna . The entrance to the studios is located at today's Speisinger Straße 121 in the 23rd district of Liesing in Vienna . When they opened, they were considered the largest and most modern studios in Austria, ahead of the studios of the competing Sascha-Film in Sievering . Large parts of the studios have been under monument protection since 2011 .

history

Memorial plaque to the founder of the studios, Anton Kolm .

Even before the studios opened, filming began on the site from 1921 onwards. For example, the monumental film Samson and Delila was completed as early as 1922 , which cost the Vita film 12 million crowns . When Vita-Film went bankrupt during the European film crisis, triggered by a flood of cheap but high-quality American films in 1924, the studios were almost completely empty until 1933. Then they were taken over by the former Austrian Tobis Sascha film industry , which survived the crisis of previous years only by selling it to the German Tobis Tonbild Syndicate . Equipped with the fresh capital of the new owner, the studios could be modernized and adapted for the sound film. The figurehead of the “Viennese film” of the 1930s, Masquerade with Paula Wessely , was shot there in 1934.

After 1934 Tobis-Sascha stopped making films. The studios were now rented exclusively to other producers. The interior shots for the well-known comedy Hotel Sacher were shot in the Rosenhügel studios, but the producer was Mondial-Film .

With the annexation of Austria to Germany, the National Socialists quickly brought the entire German-speaking film industry under their control. The owner company of the Rosenhügel Studios, Tobis-Sascha, was also dissolved and re-established as Wien-Film . From 1939 to 1941, a synchronous hall complex with a large and a small synchronization hall, cutting rooms and offices was built next to the Rosenhügel studios. During the National Socialism, Wien-Film and its studios, including the Rosenhügel Studios, were one of the largest film producers in the German Empire .

Shortly before the end of the Second World War , the Vienna Film personnel officer, a certain Dr. Prohaska, ordered to blow up the studios in order not to let them fall into the hands of the Red Army . The production manager of the studios, Karl Hartl , was able to prevent this with a few other employees according to his own statements. After the end of the Second World War, Vienna was divided into zones of occupation by the four Allied powers. Until then, "German property" was confiscated. While the studios in Sievering and the headquarters in Siebensterngasse were subordinate to the Americans, the Rosenhügel studios fell to the Soviets . They continued to run the studio under the name “Wien-Film am Rosenhügel” under the USIA until 1955.

After the Allies withdrew and Austria's sovereignty was regained, the Rosenhügel studios became the property of the now state-owned Wien-Film. However, this showed no interest in continuing the film production. Personnel were terminated and negotiations began with the ORF about a sale. In 1966 he also received all the studios of Wien-Film, with the exception of those in Sievering. The film studios were rented to other producers until they were sold to ORF. No films were made on the Rosenhügel between 1965 and 1976.

In 1990 the studio facilities threatened to be demolished because a shopping center was planned at that point . With the support of the City of Vienna and the federal government, this was prevented by the signing of a lease agreement with the newly founded Filmstadt Wien StudioGesmbH , a company consisting of four film producers and one entrepreneur. Kurt Mrkwicka , who owns 35% and is the company's managing director, is one of these shareholders, each with a 10 to 35% stake . The new operator had the studios renovated and reopened in 1996 as a four-wall studio with a film business park. The studios have since been rented to film and television companies. As of 2008, around 300 people were employed there in around two dozen companies.

Awarding of the Austrian Film Prize 2012 in the great hall

At the beginning of October 2008, the ORF confirmed rumors that the sale of the Rosenhügel studio facilities was planned. The minimum purchase price should be 14 million euros. Filmstadt Wien-GmbH plans to move to the newly built Media Quarter Marx after the lease, which was extended from 2009 to 2014 by using an option, expires .

The Rosenhügel film studio area has been an urban development area of ​​the City of Vienna since 2014. An architecture competition was held to redesign the area, won by the architects Berger + Parkinnen & Christoph Lechner and the Paris office of Beckmann / N'Thepe. By the end of 2017, 204 condominiums on seven residential buildings, a kindergarten and a supermarket will be built here under the project name Der Rosenhügel . Parts of the former film studios such as the two listed halls 1 (first artificial light recording hall , which is now used as a training facility for rhythmic gymnastics , operated by ANPO Sporthalle GmbH) and 6 (“Synchronhalle” for recording sound recordings for international film productions under the name “ Synchron Stage Vienna ", Operated by Synchron Stage OG) will be retained.

Architecture and technology

View of the main hall in 2007
Demolished in 2015

The largest of the steel and concrete halls, some with glass facades, the main hall, which was demolished in 2015, was 24 meters wide, almost twice as high and 90 meters long. There was a three meter deep basin for underwater photography . For the power supply of the 260 lamps and 60 headlights, among other things, there was a separate electricity system, which could generate electricity of up to 4800 amps with over 1000 hp .

Outside the building there was an 8000 m² open-air stage on the 25,000 m² area, which included a 25 meter diameter turntable in order to be able to align the structures according to the current position of the sun.

Movies

A selection of the films shot in the Rosenhügel studios:

literature

  • Bettina Fibich: The “Filmstadt Wien” project: the historical development of the Vienna Rosenhügel studios (1919-1999) . Diploma thesis, University of Vienna 2000
  • Gertraud Steiner: Traumfabrik Rosenhügel: Filmstadt Wien: Wien-Film, Tobis-Sascha, Vita-Film . Compress, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3900607362

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Authority places Rosenhügel under monument protection in Wiener Zeitung (accessed on October 16)
  2. ^ Film history (s) from Austria . Production: ORF , 1970 - 1972, 10 parts of 55 min each, director: Willi Forst
  3. ↑ Harald Fidler : ORF wants to sell Rosenhügel. Der Standard , September 15, 2008 (accessed October 3, 2008)
  4. ↑ Harald Fidler: Filmstadt zu Rosenhügel: 'What keeps me there?' Der Standard, September 16, 2008 (accessed October 3)
  5. ↑ Rosenhügel studios in Vienna are sold , APA / Der Standard, October 2, 2008 (accessed October 3, 2008)
  6. ^ " Rosenhügel urban development project " City of Vienna / wien.gv.at (accessed on November 15, 2016)
  7. ↑ " Start of construction for apartments on Rosenhügel " ORF Vienna, September 25, 2016 (accessed on November 15, 2016)
  8. ^ Downhill: Location Austria - The national film commission. In: locationaustria.at. January 31, 2020, accessed August 15, 2020 .

Web links

Commons : Rosenhügel Film Studios  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 9 ′ 39.8 ″  N , 16 ° 16 ′ 44.7 ″  E