The story
History
Establishment from 1917
An early step towards the founding of UFA was taken on 13 January 1917, with the creation of the Bild- und Filmamt (Bufa) by Germany's Supreme Army Command. Formed as a reaction to the perceived advantage of Germany's enemies in the realm of film propaganda, Bufa's task was to use film for psychological warfare.
The plans envisaged by the German General Staff – especially those of Erich Ludendorff – went far beyond the creation of Bufa. Ludendorff foresaw a large-scale, state-controlled film corporation that would serve national interests. In this spirit, Universum-Film AG (UFA) was founded as a consolidation of private film companies on 18 December 1917 in Berlin. The company's starting capital was 25 million Reichsmark (equivalent to €62 million in 2021): among the contributors were the German government, the War Ministry and Deutsche Bank. The board chairman of the new company was Deutsche Bank director Emil Georg von Stauß.
Prior to establishing the company, the General Staff had considered taking over the Deutsche Lichtbild-Gesellschaft e. V. (DLG), which had been founded in 1916. This agency was too much under the influence of heavy industry and, in particular, of Alfred Hugenberg, chairman of Krupp. Hugenberg would later take over UFA in 1927.
Three main film companies formed the nucleus of UFA from the end of 1917:
Messter Film, owned by Oskar Messter, a dominant German producer
PAGU (Projektions Union), originally formed by Paul Davidson in Frankfurt, with the Templehof Studios in Oberlandstraße in Berlin-Tempelhof and in Weissensee; and the Union-Theater (U.T. or U.T- Lichtspiele) chain of some 50 cinemas
The entire German operation of Nordisk Film (founded in 1906 by Ole Olsen) including Nordische Films, the production company Oliver-Film of David Oliver, cinemas, and a distribution company, was bought by UFA in 1918
More companies joined UFA not long after:
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Joe May's May-Film company, with film duplicating plant and glass-house studios at Weissensee Studios (next door to PAGU). The studios were previously owned by Continental-Kunstfilm, whose production had slowed since 1915 and didn't join UFA.
Greenbaum-Film (previously Vitascope before its brief merger with PAGU in January 1914) joined in 1919, but the deal was disastrous for Jules Greenbaum who died in a mental institution in 1924.
Decla-Bioscop. Originally founded by Jules Greenbaum in 1902 as Deutsche Bioskop AG, sold to Carl Moritz Schleussner in 1908 and moved to Neubabelsberg); merged in March 1920 with Erich Pommer's Decla-Film which had been formed in 1915 out of the confiscated assets of the German branch of the French Éclair (Deutsche Éclair, thus Decla) to form Decla-Bioskop: Taken over by UFA in October 1921.
UFA continued to sign production agreements with various independent producers:
Deulig from October 1920, previously Deutsche Lichtbild-Gesellschaft (DLG)
Cserépy Film, founded by Arzén von Cserépy, merged with UFA in 1922
Gloria-Film AG, founded by Hanns Lippmann
Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers' BB-Film
Rex-Film, founded in 1917 by Lupu Pick
Fern-Andra Vertriebsgesellschaft, the film production company of Fern Andra
Ossi-Oswalda-Film contracted to UFA from 1925
The distributor Hansa-Film
Silent era (1918–1930)
Given that Germany had been – and continued to be – largely cut off from film imports due to World War I, the new company had ideal conditions for their conquest of the German market.
The mission of UFA at the time of its founding was the production of films – feature films, documentaries, cultural films and weekly headline (newsreel) films – designed to function as propaganda for Germany abroad. However, after mounting tensions between the company's founding members, Deutsche Bank was able to prevail and implement their approach to film production as a business rather than for military objectives. Instead of propaganda films, UFA now produced elaborate entertainment films such as Sumurun (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).
UFA was already in 1921 producing the lion's share of German feature films, and in that year it was privatized. Starting in 1922, large ateliers in Neubabelsberg (today's Babelsberg Studio) and on Oberlandstraße in Berlin-Tempelhof were made available for film production. In 1926, the facilities were expanded by means of the construction of the largest studio hall in Europe at the time. In 1923, after Decla-Bioscop AG and others were taken over, Erich Pommer became head of all production operations and discovered and fostered many stars, including Emil Jannings, Pola Negri, Conrad Veidt and Lya de Putti. During this era UFA was a leader in the time of the German Expressionism, experienced a further boom, and emerged as a direct competitor to Hollywood with films such as Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), Die Nibelungen (1924), Variety (1925) and Faust (1926).
Hugenberg (1927–1933)
In 1927, UFA found itself in serious financial trouble. After the stabilization of the German currency starting in November 1924, the German film industry in general entered a period of crisis: foreign sales stalled due to low profit margins, and the German market became profitable once again for American film giants. The resulting concentration on a few large German film companies, which came together to unite production, distribution and presentation under one UFA's managers made severe miscalculations with regard to two large-scale productions, Nibelungen and Metropolis in 1924-1926. This situation was made even worse as the result of a gag contract (the Parufamet agreement) they had entered into in 1925 with the American companies Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In March 1927, with the company facing bankruptcy, Alfred Hugenberg – Chairman of the German National People's Party and owner of the Scherl-Gruppe, a powerful media corporation – bought the company. The new general director was Ludwig Klitzsch; Hugenberg himself took over the chairmanship of the supervisory board; his deputy was banker Emil Georg von Stauß.
At first, nothing changed in UFA's production policy. In 1928, Erich Pommer was replaced as head of production by Ernst Hugo Correll, who led the company through the transition to talking pictures or "talkies". UFA gained an advantage over smaller companies in the realm of talkie production as a result of a contract with Tobis-Klangfilm, which simplified the licensing situation for UFA.
Nevertheless, UFA has recorded unsurpassed artistic successes with films such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis (inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, the first film thus distinguished) and Woman in the Moon to this day. Asphalt (German Realism) or entertainment movies such as Melody of the Heart or the musical film The Three from the Filling Station are produced by the UFA. In 1930, the company enjoyed worldwide success with the film The Blue Angel, starring Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings, directed by Joseph von Sternberg.
Gleichschaltung (1933–1937)
During the Gleichschaltung (Nazification), UFA experienced a new commercial boom, not least due to the government's protectionist measures, which freed the company from bothersome domestic and foreign competition, sometimes even incorporating their production facilities and staff (see also: National Socialist Film Policy). On top of that, by occupying almost all of Europe, the Nazi regime also provided UFA with new sales markets, as well as placing distribution outlets in such "neutral" countries as the United States. By 1938, after taking over foreign film production facilities in France, Belgium and other countries, one third of the company's sales came from abroad. UFA's economic boom made it possible to further expand the so-called "star system," which had already been developed in the silent film era. The highest paid UFA stars in the Nazi era were Hans Albers and Zarah Leander. Veit Harlan was the highest-earning director.
In addition, as a result of the nationalist German spirit that already dominated the company, UFA was perfectly suited to serve the goals of National Socialist propaganda in film. Hugenberg had been named Reich Minister of Economics immediately following the Nazi takeover of 30 January 1933, and made UFA openly available for Joseph Goebbels' propaganda machine, even though Hugenberg was removed from his post shortly thereafter (June 1933) under pressure from Hitler. In an act of anticipatory obedience to the Nazi regime, UFA management fired several Jewish employees on 29 March 1933. In the summer of 1933, the Nazi regime created the Film Chamber of the Reich, which adopted regulations officially excluding Jewish filmmakers from all German studios.
Nationalization (1937–1941)
In 1936, Germany's first film institute was founded in the form of the UFA-Lehrschau set up by Hans Traub at the Babelsberg Film Complex. Goebbels systematically brought UFA and all other media companies under the control of his Propaganda Ministry. On 18 March 1937, the Hugenberg Company was forced to sell all of its UFA shares for 21.25 million Reichsmark (equivalent to €95 million in 2021) to Cautio Treuhand GmbH, a quasi-governmental holding company that answered to Goebbels. This move meant that UFA was effectively nationalized. Emil Georg von Stauß was named Chairman of the Supervisory Committee, Ludwig Klitzsch remained general director, and Carl Opitz was named press officer. In May, an art committee headed by Carl Froelich – but in fact controlled by Goebbels – was founded. This committee proceeded to have a direct influence on UFA's production planning; it also severely curtailed the work of production head Ernst Hugo Correll. In 1939, Correll was fired after refusing to join the Nazi Party.
At the time of its nationalization, among the production facilities belonging to UFA were 27 film studios, nine of which were in Neubabelsberg (Potsdam-Babelsberg), and seven of which were in Berlin-Tempelhof, including three that belonged to Carl Froelich-Film GmbH in name only. UFA also had two dubbing studios, a mixing studio, two animation studios, two ateliers for advertising films, one for cartoons and a small training atelier.
State film monopoly: UFI (1942–1945)
On 10 January 1942, UFA officially became the subsidiary of UFA-Film GmbH (UFI), into which all German film production was merged. Other companies were dissolved or integrated into UFA at the time, including Bavaria Film, Berlin-Film, Terra Film and Tobis AG, which became additional production units. Film production in the captured nations was also brought under its aegis. Profits reached 155 million Reichsmarks in 1942 (equivalent to €649,828,997 in 2021) and ℛℳ 175 million in 1943 (equivalent to €715,085,619 in 2021).
At this point, the UFA staff hierarchy was reorganized according to the Nazi Führer principle. The coordination of individual sub-groups of the UFI Corporation was the job of the newly appointed Reich Film Director-General. The production heads worked for the administrative director general and were responsible for the overall planning of annual programming and content design all the way up to the actual shooting of the film: these heads were also responsible for giving instructions to the film line producers and directors. It was subsequently fully nationalized in mid-1944.
From Wikipedia’s article on UFA GmbH, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5