Filmmuseum Berlin

The Filmhaus, in the Sony Centre at Potsdamer Platz houses Berlin’s Film and Television Museum and the Deutsche Kinematek (German Film Archive). Ideally located a few minutes walk from Marlene Dietrich Platz where Berlin’s International Film Festival takes place every year in February, the Filmmuseum is a full immersion, multimedia experience into German film history.

The permanent exhibition “Film” provides a step by-step guide across the milestones of the cinematic era and the interaction between the moving image and society. 13 halls packed with over 1,000 exhibits ranging from film scripts to costumes and props; depict the historical and technological development of film-making from the silent-era to the special effects of the digital age as well as the careers of film directors who made history with their films. Highlights are the classic German expressionist masterpieces such as ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligari’ and Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’.

Other milestones covered are the culture boom of the Weimar Republic days from 1918-1933, the transformation of culture into ideological propaganda during the Nazi period with masterpieces such as Leni Riefenstahl’s ‘Olympia’ and the exodus of German film talent to Hollywood after 1933. A special section is devoted to the greatest German diva - Marlene Dietrich - with a number of her personal objects and memorabilia on show. A section is also dedicated to Science fiction as a genre and film animation.

Unique in Europe, the whole complex known as Filmhaus also houses a museum shop on the ground floor next to the ticket office, Berlin’s Film School the Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie Berlin, the International Forum programme section of the Berlinale and the two Arsenal repertory cinemas with a bistro. Since 1962 the Stiftung Deutsche Kinematek (German Film Archive) has collected the legacy of German film production such as film copies, cinema, documents, photographic material and memorabilia. The Fernsehmuseum (TV Museum) which opened in May 31 2006, offers a journey across seven decades of German TV and its social cultural legacy from the 1920’s experiments to the popular mainstream audience formats of today.