Ufa-Palast am Zoo

The Neo-Romanesque building at Hardenbergstraße was designed as an exhibition hall by architect Carl Gause (1851–1907), an alumnus of the Bauakademie who had also drawn plans for the Hotel Adlon.

Like the Romanisches Haus nearby, the design followed the model of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Auguste-Viktoria-Platz (present-day Breitscheidplatz), built in 1891–1895 according to plans by Franz Schwechten.

[1] Construction work took place from 1905 to 1906; the building complex initially hosted the Ausstellungshallen am Zoologischen Garten exhibition halls, named after the adjacent Berlin Zoo.

In 1913–15, projection facilities were installed by Oskar Kaufmann for the première of the film Quo Vadis, produced by the Italian Cines company, and from 1913 to 1914, the theatre was called the Cines-Palast.

[2] Siegfried Kracauer praised the sightlines from the amphitheatre-style seating and the "discreet" and "tasteful" colour scheme;[6] the décor was simple, with faïence panels around the screen.

[17][18][19][20] Under the Nazis, for important occasions like the 1935 première of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph des Willens and the March 1943 celebration of Ufa's own 25th anniversary, Albert Speer modified the façade[21] and it was dressed with large numbers of swastika flags spotlighted from below and with a huge eagle.