UFA pavilion on Nollendorfplatz
The UFA pavilion on Nollendorfplatz was a movie theater in Berlin-Schöneberg .
history
In 1913, the German Cines Society had Berlin's first independent new cinema built on Nollendorfplatz in what was then the city of Charlottenburg . The monumental building by the architect Oskar Kaufmann had a windowless facade and thus set an urban accent. A large circular skylight was built into the roof , which could be opened completely so that presentations in the open air were also possible.
Der Kinematograph , a film magazine of the time, wrote at the opening, which took place on March 19, 1913:
“Opposite the ' Mozart Hall ', a peculiar building has been created, which already from the outside attracts the attention of passers-by with its windowless and yet elegant, original-looking facade. The stained glass, illuminated from the inside, which are the only decoration of the entrance, reveal the importance of the house through their symbolic figures: a cinema theater.
The interior looks almost overwhelming at first. Who does not know that it is made up according to the American pattern, could think that you are facing a completely new style. It is really new for Berlin and you have to give the architect Oskar Kaufmann that he understood how to create something excellent and, above all, useful. The ivory-colored room is completely covered with gray plush, from which the purple folding armchairs stand out favorably. Magnificent, brightly colored relief arabesques run down from the ceilings and the lighting fixtures are particularly beautiful.
The theater has 850 seats, the prices of which are between 1 and 3 Marks and which are spread over the stalls, tier and boxes. The stairs to the tier do not - as is usual in German theaters - lead up outside the auditorium, but to both sides of the parquet and, with their arch-like vaulting into the gallery, form a very peculiar decoration of the house. Everything is strictly modern, simple and elegant. "
In 1916 the cinema was adapted to the name of the new operator Union Theater Lichtspiele and was henceforth called Union . However, as early as 1925, when it was integrated into the UFA film company, it was renamed Theater am Nollendorfplatz , only to be finally renamed the Ufa Pavilion just two years later . The addition on Nollendorfplatz was retained. From 1956, another cinema in Berlin was named Ufa Pavillon (at Kurfürstendamm 225, later Film Palast , today Astor ).
This last renaming took place on the occasion of the screening of the film Metropolis by Fritz Lang . However, the film was a commercial fiasco: After its premiere on January 10th in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo, it was shown in just one Berlin cinema - the UFA-Pavilion on Nollendorfplatz - and moved there until May 13th, 1927, the black one Friday in Berlin , only 15,000 spectators. However, to this day it was the only place where this film was shown in its original length of two and a half hours.
But films were also premiered in the UFA pavilion on Nollendorfplatz . For example, on November 12, 1928, the German-Italian silent film Villa Falconieri , on March 20, 1928, the Winter Olympics documentary The White Stadium and on October 3, 1937, the animated film Reineke Fuchs . However, the Nazi propaganda strip also fell victim to the past on April 14, 1937.
The area around Nollendorfplatz with the UFA Pavilion in 1938 from the Charlottenburg district in the district of Schöneberg reclassified. In 1943, due to war damage caused by the Allied air raids, operations ceased and the cinema was closed. In the 1960s, a twelve-story high-rise residential building was built on the site of the former cinema ( postal address: Nollendorfplatz 3/4 ).
Series of images
The theater building des Cines (1913)
Cines Hall and Stage (1913)
Ascent from the hall to the boxes, Cines Theater 1913
Balcony in the Cines (1913)
Entrance to Ben Hur in 1926
Entrance page with Metropolis advertisement (1927)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Ufa pavilion at cinematreasures.org
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 58 ″ N , 13 ° 21 ′ 9 ″ E