Berlin is a major center in the European and German film industry. It is home to more than 1000 film and television production companies and 270 movie theaters. Three hundred national and international co-productions are filmed in the region every year. Babelsberg Studios and the production company UFA are located outside Berlin in Potsdam.
The city is also home of the European Film Academy and the German Film Academy, and hosts the annual Berlin International Film Festival which is considered to be the largest publicly attended film festival in the world.European Film Academy, www.europeanfilmacademy.org, Accessed 19 December 2006. See also: Berlin Film Festival, www.berlinale.de. Retrieved 12 November 2006. This is a list of films whose setting is Berlin.
1920s 1922 Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler), 1922 – first (silent) film about the character Doctor Mabuse from the novels of Norbert Jacques, by Fritz Lang.
1924 The Last Laugh (Der Letzte Mann), 1924 – the aging doorman at a Berlin hotel is demoted to washroom attendant but gets the last laugh, by F.W. Murnau.
1925 Slums of Berlin (Die Verrufenen), 1925 – an engineer in Berlin is released from prison, but his father throws him out, his fiancée left him and there is no chance to find work. Directed by Gerhard Lamprecht. Variety (Varieté), 1925 – circus melodrama set in Berlin, with the circus scenes in the Berlin Wintergarten, by Ewald André Dupont.
1926 The Last Horse Carriage in Berlin (Die letzte Droschke von Berlin), 1926 – showing the life of an old coachman in Berlin still driving the droshky during the time when the automobile arises. Directed by Carl Boese. People to Each Other (Menschen untereinander), 1926 – in a typical Berlin town house the residents manifold lives from different social backgrounds are shown. Directed by Gerhard Lamprecht.
1927 Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt), 1927 – expressionist documentary film of 1920s Berlin by Walter Ruttmann. Metropolis, 1927 – Berlin-inspired futuristic classic by Fritz Lang.
1928 Refuge (Zuflucht), 1928 – a lonely and tired man comes home after several years abroad, lives with a market-woman in Berlin and starts working for the Berlin U-Bahn. Directed by Carl Froelich.
1929 Asphalt, 1929 – the Berlin underworld touches a policeman's life, film noir classic by Joe May. Mother Krause's Journey to Happiness (Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück), 1929 – depicts the cruelty of poverty in Wedding district and Communism as a rescuing force that reaches a mother and a child too late. Directed by Phil Jutzi.
1930s 1930 Cyanide (Cyankali), 1930 – a poor female office employee in Berlin gets pregnant, but abortion is not allowed in the Weimar Republic. So she goes to a quack doctor who applies toxic potassium cyanide to her. Directed by Hans Tintner. People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag), 1930 – avant-garde look at daily life in Berlin, screenplay by Billy Wilder and Curt Siodmak. The Three from the Filling Station (Die drei von der Tankstelle), 1930 – three friends are broke, so they sell their car and open a filling station in Berlin. Then they all fall in love with the same girl. Directed by Wilhelm Thiele.
1931 1914 (1914, die letzten Tage vor dem Weltbrand), 1931 – after the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria – during the July Crisis – Wilhelm II in Berlin, Nicholas II in Russia and the Sovereigns and diplomats of other Great powers unsuccessfully try to prevent World War I. Directed by Richard Oswald. Berlin-Alexanderplatz, 1931 – first film adaption of the novel Berlin Alexanderplatz from Alfred Döblin, directed by Phil Jutzi. The Captain from Köpenick (Der Hauptmann von Köpenick), 1931 – directed by Richard Oswald and based upon the play The Captain of Köpenick by Carl Zuckmayer. The play was based on the true story of Wilhelm Voigt. Emil and the Detectives (Emil und die Detektive), 1931 – adventure film based on the novel Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner. Director: Gerhard Lamprecht. M, 1931 – Berlin thriller by Fritz Lang; beginnings of film noir and the endings of expressionism. The Man in Search of His Murderer (Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht), 1931 – a man in Berlin plunged in debt makes a suicide attempt and has to hire a murderer to kill him within twelve hours. But in the same night he falls in love with a girl who wants to stop the appointed killer. Directed by Robert Siodmak.
1932 Grand Hotel, 1932 – nothing ever happens at the Grand Hotel. Directed by Edmund Goulding. Academy Award for Best Picture (1931–1932). Filmed in Hollywood. Kuhle Wampe, 1932 – about a working-class family in Berlin in 1931 where survival is difficult during the Great Depression. Directed by Slatan Dudow.
1933 Hitlerjunge Quex, 1933 – Hans Steinhoff propaganda drama about a boy in the Hitler Youth. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse), 1933 – Berlin thriller by Fritz Lang. Tugboat M 17 (Schleppzug M 17), 1933 – the skipper of a tugboat on the river Havel falls for a female thief in Berlin and leaves his family for her. Directed by Heinrich George and Werner Hochbaum.
1936 The Violet of Potsdamer Platz (Das Veilchen vom Potsdamer Platz), 1936 – a flower girl working at Potsdamer Platz can resolve a financial deception. Directed by Johann Alexander Hübler-Kahla.
1937 Charlie Chan at the Olympics, 1937 – Charlie Chan trails spies to Berlin during the 1936 Summer Olympics. Starring Warner Oland. Dangerous Crossing (Gleisdreieck), 1937 – at Gleisdreieck station a woman wants to throw herself under a subway train but is saved by a railway official. By Robert A. Stemmle. The Divine Jetta (Die göttliche Jette), 1937 – a typical Berlin revue singer gets celebrated at the Königsstädtisches Theater when a young Earl wants to marry her and take her to his home in Tyrol. Directed by Erich Waschneck. His Best Friend (Sein bester Freund), 1937 – a policeman in Berlin finds a German Shepherd, buys it from its owner and trains it to become a police dog. During one operation though, their collaboration gets challenged. Directed by Harry Piel.
1938 The Four Companions (Die vier Gesellen), 1938 – after graduation, four female art students in Berlin attempt to set up their own advertising agency. They swear an oath to concentrate on business, but then each of them finds secretly a husband to marry. Directed by Carl Froelich. A Night in May (Eine Nacht im Mai), 1938 – a young woman in Berlin had to turn in her driver's license and gets involved in an accident when she drives anyway. A young man convinces her to flee with him onto a bus tour to Wannsee. Directed by Georg Jacoby. Olympia (Parts 1 & 2), 1938 – strikingly aesthetic propaganda by Leni Riefenstahl. The Roundabouts of Handsome Karl (Die Umwege des schönen Karl), 1938 – a young waiter comes to Berlin in 1930 to serve at the best wine restaurant, and he tries unsuccessfully to get into high society. Directed by Carl Froelich. The Stars Shine (Es leuchten die Sterne), 1938 – musical revue about a young secretary who leaves the country and travels to Berlin to seek work as an actress. Directed by Hans H. Zerlett. Urlaub auf Ehrenwort, 1938 – four soldiers have a brief furlough in Berlin late in 1918, on their promise to return to their troop train in time. Propaganda film by Karl Ritter
1940s 1940 Night Train to Munich, 1940 Wunschkonzert, 1940 – during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin a young girl and a Luftwaffe Fliegerleutnant meet and fall in love. They want to marry, but he receives orders to go to the Condor Legion. Three years later they meet again during World War II via the popular radio music show Wunschkonzert für die Wehrmacht. Directed by Eduard von Borsody.
1941 Friedemann Bach, 1941 – Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, is shown as a gifted son trying to escape his father's shadow. After Friedemann was rejected as a musician in several cities, he lives a miserable life in Berlin where he died in 1784. Directed by Traugott Müller. The Gasman (Der Gasmann), 1941 – a gas meter reader in Berlin during World War II is suspected of being a foreign spy. Directed by Carl Froelich. (Berlin – Wie es war), late 1930s documentary view of Berlin by Leo de Laforgue. First shown in 1950.
1942 Andreas Schlüter, 1942 – biopic on famous architect Andreas Schlüter who built the Berlin Stadtschloss for Frederick I of Prussia during the 18th century. Directed by Herbert Maisch. Berlin Correspondent, 1942 – an American radio correspondent is hunted for sending coded messages out on the airwaves from Berlin. Directed by Eugene Forde. Die Entlassung, 1942 – showing the growing estrangement between Emperor Wilhelm II and Reichskanzler Otto von Bismarck, Bismark's dismissal in Berlin in March 1890 and the intrigues by Geheimrat von Holstein from Auswärtiges Amt. Directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner. The Great Love (Die große Liebe), 1942 – a Wehrmacht Oberleutnant is stationed in North Africa as a fighter pilot. While in Berlin to deliver a report he sees a popular Danish singer on the stage of a cabaret theatre and starts a painful relationship with her. It was Germany's most successful motion picture produced during the second world war. Directed by Rolf Hansen. Two in a Big City (Zwei in einer großen Stadt), 1942 – a sergeant from the Wehrmacht and a nurse (working at the local Red Cross station) meet accidentally at Friedrichstraße station and spend one day together in Berlin. Directed by Volker von Collande.
1943 I Entrust My Wife to You (Ich vertraue dir meine Frau an), 1943 – a man asks a friend to keep a jealous watch over his wife in Berlin during a business trip with his secretary, what causes several adventures for the caring friend. Directed by Kurt Hoffmann. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, 1943 – in 1902, a British Lieutenant is on leave from the Boer War and travels to Berlin to work against anti-British propaganda. After a duel with a German officer the two recover near Stölpchensee and become friends for the next 40 years. Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Melody of a Great City (Großstadtmelodie), 1943 – a young and talented female photographer from a provincial Bavarian town comes to Berlin and falls in love with a very busy journalist. Directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner.
1944 The Buchholz Family (Familie Buchholz), 1944 – based on the novels by Julius Stinde. During the German Empire the resolute mother of a Berlin middle-class family wants to get her two daughters married befitting their social rank, and she writes her first novel about her experiences. Directed by Carl Froelich. Es lebe die Liebe, 1944 – a famous operetta star wants to engage a Spanish dancer for his Apollo Theater in Berlin, but she gets ill for one year. After her mandatory break she comes to Berlin and creeps into his theatre and his life under a different name. Directed by Erich Engel. Marriage of Affection (Neigungsehe), 1944 – following Familie Buchholz, the resolute mother Buchholz tries unsuccessfully to marry her remaining daughter via a marriage advertisement in the newspaper, but the daughter celebrates a secret wedding with a painter on Heligoland island. Directed by Carl Froelich. Philharmoniker, 1944 – in late 1920s Berlin the financial situation of Berlin Philharmonic orchestra is precarious. One of the violinists leaves the orchestra to play in a light music ensemble, but returns after Nazi Machtergreifung. Directed by Paul Verhoeven. Under the Bridges (Unter den Brücken), 1944/45 – two men and a woman shipping on the river Havel shortly before Berlin gets totally destroyed. Directed by Helmut Käutner.
1945