Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz

[n 4] This collective approach resulted in a flexible, dynamic and fluid group of artistically minded, highly creative and even visionary film-makers which produced many of the classic films which are still discussed and referenced in the 21st century.

The overall approach seems to have some stylistic connections with Reformarchitektur [de] and the Deutscher Werkbund, a "cultural-economic association of artists, architects, entrepreneurs/businessmen and experts", founded in 1907.

[de 4] Other contemporary developments in search of "a more modern and useful architecture" for Berlin[8] include: the AEG turbine plant by Peter Behrens (1909); Kaufmann's Volksbühne and the Hebbeltheater [de] introduced new trends in theatre construction (in addition to the Ufa-Pavillon and his 1914 conversion of the Groß-Berlin Theater, later the Ufa-Palast am Zoo; the Pergamon Museum and the capital's first department stores were drafted by Alfred Messel; and Hermann Muthesius designed a new and modern Country House style[9] for Berlin's newly developing suburbs.

[8] Edward B. Kinsila in his book Modern Theater Construction gives a (fulsome, bordering on purple prose) description of the interior of the Nollendorf.

[13] According to one contemporary critic, the building exhibited "the gracefully ironic pathos, the erotically overloaded sacrilege, the rhythmical dissonance of solemnity and dance", which became the key formal elements of the 'Ufa style.

'[14] "Cinema buildings are not, at any rate, slow in arriving, and take interesting forms of great experimental significance, as is the case of Oskar Kaufmann's Cines Theater, inaugurated in 1913.

It was among the first attempts at a sober, modern language of cinema architecture, presenting an austere picture to the world with three looming blank walls ".

[16] With its somewhat detached, intellectual, high-cultural prose, Berliner Architekturwelt briefly referred to the new cinemas in Berlin, singling out the building on the Nollendorfplatz: "An early high point of the grounding phase of the film palaces was the Cines-Theater, opened in 1913, the first "free-standing building conceived solely in the interests of cinema", a "sober, grey, and particularly windowless cube.

They met in Paris in February 1909 to discuss sales and rental methods to get out a crisis of over-production (especially in France) and the supply of film stock (mostly made by Eastman Kodak) to the European manufacturers.

[31] Although its exact origins are slightly unclear, the cinema seems to have been built from mid-1912 by Joe Goldsoll, a millionaire high-class con man and swindler[32] whose Cines-Theater AG company owned the rights to Cines films in Germany.

Goldsoll, "a non-combatant in show-things", with Al. Woods and a "theatrical mob" including A. L. Erlanger, Pat Casey[n 12] and Charles Frohman, sailed on the RMS Mauretania for a 4- to 6-week tour of Europe on 3 April 1912.

"[41] The evening began with a dithyrambic speech in praise of the cinema (the Kintopp) by Hanns Heinz Ewers, one of the most outspoken pro-Autorenfilm literati.

also featured live actors in the auditorium to reinforce some scenes: "special mobs" were organised by Ryszard Ordynski (Richard Ardinski),[34] Max Reinhardt's manager at the Deutsches Theater, who had stage-managed performances of The Miracle (play) in London in 1911–12, and later in Vienna in 1914.

[62] After the success of Quo Vadis?, Woods and Goldsoll opened a large chain of theatres in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, many for Kinovaudeville shows.

[63][64][n 20] They leased fourteen houses in Germany, including six in Berlin;[66] the second of these after the Nollendorf-Theater was the Groß-Berlin Theater (later the Ufa-Palast am Zoo) which was converted into a kino-vaudeville cinema, where the architect was again Oscar Kaufmann.

apparently speculating with Papal funds,[69] was also running dubious bank-owned enterprises in Tripoli and Salonika (and possibly perhaps Mogadishu, Somalia).

[70] Joe Goldsoll seems to have become involved with Cines in around 1912, and if there is any truth in the rumours that the Nollendorf-Theater was "paid for by the Pope's money",[69] they would probably revolve around the fact that a hard-gambling,[71] high-class con man and swindler[72] and the president of a bank which was a quarter owned by the Vatican were both directors of closely linked film and theatre companies.

[n 21] Unfortunately, the bank was in deep trouble by 1914, having suffered severe losses arising out of the Italo-Turkish War (known in Italy as the Libyan War) of 1911–1912[70] A contemporary memoir of pre-war Germany summed up the extravagance accompanying the whole corrupt situation: Goldsoll severed his connection with Cines in February 1914,[75] buying out the interests of Al. Woods and the Società Italian Cines in the Berlin-based Cines-Theater AG: Woods pulled out of Germany altogether.

[n 22] The bank continued to haemorrhage its cash deposits and the value of its shares plummeted, despite an emergency loan arranged by Pacelli from the Banco d'Italia.

[80] The investments made by Pacelli and the Banco di Roma suddenly unravelled as depositors continued to withdraw millions of lire: by November 1915 Cines had collapsed, along with the bank's other enterprises in Tripoli and Salonika.

[85] Along with Messter-Film and Nordisk Film, PAGU was one of the three main companies which formed the nucleus of giant conglomerate Universum-Film AG (Ufa), set up in complete secrecy by the German government as part of its propaganda effort in late 1917.

[88] The cinema was renamed the Ufa-Theater Nollendorfplatz in 1924, but Ufa was bankrupt by 1925, having spent enormous sums on films like Die Nibelungen and Der letzte Mann.

[92] The cinema's exterior was coated all over with a shimmery silver paint, and illuminated by floodlights; the statue over the entrance was covered by a huge replica gong which featured towards the end of the film.

[93][94] Metropolis received its gala première on 10 January 1927 at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo, where the director, film crew and cast were in the audience along with the German President Wilhelm Marx.

"[95][de 12] A review which appeared the following day: "The film "Metropolis", after its premiere yesterday at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo, will be screened from to-day on at the Ufa Pavilion at the Nollendorfplatz.

"[95] Although many critics commented favourably on the film's technical achievements,[96] a significant number were singularly unimpressed by the underlying philosophy of the script: Modern film and the reactionary romantic piffle of Thea von Harbou can have nothing in common.Herbert Ihering summed up the single performance at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo: "A great premiere – much applause by the audience for the director Fritz Lang, for the cameraman Karl Freund, for the actors Alfred Abel, Heinrich George and Brigitte Helm.

(1913), F. W. Murnau's Faust (1926) in a pre-release showing, Ben-Hur (1926), and Metropolis (1927); also two of Emil Jannings's early films, Die Augen der Mumie Ma and The Daughter of Mehemed directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and several more by the same director.