UFA

(Universum Film A.G.)

   premier German film* company during the Re-public. Around 1910 three luxurious cinemas were built in Berlin*: the Theater im Admiralspalast, the Kammerspiele am Potsdamer Platz, and the Kammer-spiele am Nollendorfplatz. Equipped with orchestra pits and loge seating, they soon merged as the Union Theater Gesellschaft. By 1914 Union had grown to nine cinemas, including buildings on Unter den Linden and Kurfürstendamm. During the war Erich Ludendorff* founded a film office (the Bild- und Filmamt or Bufa), which, in turn, formed a relationship with Union. By 1917 a production firm emerged from the venture, Universum Film A.G. UFA's task was to produce quality propaganda to inspire both troops and home-front audiences.

   With support from Deutsche Bank, not only did UFA survive defeat, but the "Ufa" sign soon appeared above cinema names in every major German city; indeed, to overcome postwar hostility to German productions, it acquired cin-emas in much of Europe. While it was not the Republic's only film company (competitors included Emelka, AAFA, Süd-Film, and Phoebus), UFA was the largest and best known, and every significant actor and director worked for it at some time. Producing news and sports programs, it became part of German cultural life. By the mid-1920s, with the spacious Ufa-Palast am Zoo as its premier cinema, UFA was an umbrella group for several smaller production firms (Sascha-Film, Nordisk, and Decla-Bioscop). Its Neubabelsberg studios, acquired when Decla-Bioscop merged with UFA in 1921, generated numerous outstanding films, including Dr. Mabuse (1922), Faust (1926), Metropolis (1927), and The Blue Angel (1930). UFA also fed a demand for history with Madame du Barry (1919), Anna Boleyn (1920), Danton (1921), and Fridericus Rex (1922).

   The post-1923 decline of Germany's film industry, a result of Hollywood's ascent and the tight economic policies following Germany's inflation,* severely damaged UFA. No longer able to afford feature-length extravaganzas, it focused on low-budget short subjects and documentaries (Kulturfilme). Rescued in 1925 by Hollywood's Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it made some of its best films in the next two years (e.g., Faust and Metropolis). But in 1927, again nearing collapse, it was purchased by Alfred Hugenberg,* the right-wing owner of Deulig (Deutsche Lichtbildgesellschaft) and Scherl Verlag, and soon chairman of the DNVP. Although Hugenberg rarely intruded in production, he ensured that UFA's newsreels (about four-fifths of all newsreels made in Germany) were markedly nationalistic. Under Hugenberg UFA-Deulig abstained from the ex-perimentation that had marked its early life. By 1931 it was drawn to themes of war and patriotism; indeed, when the NSDAP "synchronized" UFA in 1933, Goebbels* found it ready-made for Nazi propaganda. In 1946 the Neubabelsberg studios, situated in Soviet-held territory, were renamed Deutsche Film A.G. (DEFA).

   REFERENCES:Kiaulehn, Berlin; Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler; Kreimeier, Ufa Story; Manvell and Fraenkel, German Cinema; Saunders, Hollywood in Berlin.