Ever wonder where silver screen dreams are manufactured? Welcome to Studio Babelsberg. This isn’t just any film studio. It is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world.
Since 1912, Studio Babelsberg has been a hub for cinematic innovation. Its sprawling grounds cover about 460000 square metres. The studio area alone spans approximately 25000 square metres. This makes it one of Europe’s largest film studios.
Deutsche Bioscope laid the first stone here in 1911. They built a glasshouse film studio to harness natural light. This marked the beginning of an incredible journey.
Many iconic films have been shot within these walls. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is one. Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel is another. More recent productions include V for Vendetta and Captain America: Civil War. Also filmed here were Æon Flux and The Bourne Ultimatum. Valkyrie, Inglourious Basterds, and Cloud Atlas were all Babelsberg projects. The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Hunger Games, Isle of Dogs, and The Matrix Resurrections have all used this space.
Studio Babelsberg was at the forefront of German Expressionism. Karl Freund invented the unchained camera technique here. He was working on The Last Laugh. Marlene Dietrich and Alfred Hitchcock honed their skills at Babelsberg. They launched their careers here.
Fritz Lang’s Woman in the Moon pioneered the countdown. It was a tense moment before the rocket launch. This technique was born in Babelsberg.
Europe’s first sound stage was built here in 1929. It was called the Tonkreuz. Ufa used the Tri-Ergon sound-on-film process. The first successful full-sound film was Melody of the Heart. Soon after The Blue Angel premiered. Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings starred in it.
During the 1930s and 40s, Studio Babelsberg produced music and revue films. Congress Dances and La Habanera were hits. The Woman of My Dreams was another success. Under Joseph Goebbels’ direction, propaganda films were also made here. These included Triumph of the Will and the anti-Semitic Jud Süss.
In 1946, DEFA became the state-owned film production company in East Germany. Studio Babelsberg became its headquarters. DEFA produced over 800 feature films. About 150 were children’s films.
After the Berlin Wall fell, the Treuhandanstalt privatised DEFA. The French group Compagnie Générale des Eaux bought Studio Babelsberg in 1992. They invested around €500 million in upgrades. In 2004, Vivendi sold the studio to FBB.
2007 was very profitable. Twelve feature films were shot here. Valkyrie with Tom Cruise was one of them. The International with Clive Owen was another.
In 2008, Studio Babelsberg partnered with Joel Silver. They produced films from the Dark Castle production slate.
Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds was filmed here. So was Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer.
Studio Babelsberg continues to innovate. In 2021, the largest permanent virtual production stage in Europe was set up. It was used for the Netflix series 1899.
Today, Studio Babelsberg thrives as a center for film production. It co-produces international projects. Its legacy as a pioneer in filmmaking remains strong.