Filmmuseum Berlin

The Filmmuseum Berlin, now formally known as the Deutsche Kinemathek, Museum für Film und Fernsehen, is one of Germany's seven film museums and a major institution for the preservation and presentation of German and international film and television heritage. Located in Berlin, it opened in September 2000 as an extension of the Deutsche Kinemathek, a foundation dedicated to conserving, restoring, and making accessible the nation's cinematic patrimony. The museum matters not only as a public exhibition space but as a node within a larger archival and research infrastructure that documents moving image history from the silent era through contemporary television production.

The institution traces its origins to the Deutsche Kinemathek, which was established as a film archive with a mission to document and research film and television history, promote scholarly and educational discourse, and disseminate audiovisual heritage through exhibitions, publications, and events. The museum itself opened on 25 September 2000 when the Deutsche Kinemathek moved into the Filmhaus at Potsdamer Platz, taking the name Filmmuseum Berlin. On 1 June 2006, the museum expanded to include television, at which point it was renamed Deutsche Kinemathek, Museum für Film und Fernsehen. The institution was supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. After the death of long-time director Heinz Rathsack in late 1989, film historian Hans Helmut Prinzler assumed leadership in 1990. Rainer Rother became Artistic Director in 2006. Administrative directors included Paul Klimpel until March 2012, Maximilian Müllner until 2017, and Florian Bolenius from August 2017. Since June 2025, Bolenius has chaired the board jointly with Heleen Gerritsen, former director of the GoEast Film Festival. The museum closed to the public on 31 October 2024, with plans to reopen in the second half of 2025 at reduced scale within the E-Werk on Mauerstraße 79. Long-term plans envision a permanent home in a new Filmhaus adjacent to the Martin-Gropius-Bau, to be completed by 2035.

The Deutsche Kinemathek's holdings encompass approximately one million materials relevant to film history and audiovisual materials on 75,000 film titles. The Film Archive alone contains roughly 26,000 titles spanning German and international silent and sound films across diverse formats, genres, and styles. The collection is especially strong in experimental and documentary cinema, works by signatories of the 1962 Oberhausen Manifesto, and the complete output of the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB), including the explicitly political films of its first generation and works associated with the Berlin School. A distinctive international focus is the documentation of German filmmakers in exile, considered the most comprehensive collection of its kind worldwide. The Personal Papers and Company Archives preserve the pre-mortem bequests and estates of more than 600 filmmakers from all professional groups. The collections also include three-dimensional objects, textiles, film-technical equipment, sound recordings, photographs, scripts, draft sketches, contracts, posters, film programs, censorship documents, and biographical materials. Beyond film, the museum held a library with extensive holdings of film literature and specialist journals, including early publications such as Der Kinematograph, die Lichtbild-Bühne, and the Film-Kurier. This library had previously belonged to the DFFB before moving to the museum.

The permanent exhibition, displayed until late October 2024, presented objects from the entirety of German film history, including the period of exile in Hollywood during National Socialism. Exhibits included film posters, photographs, film costumes, architectural sketches, and props. A particular emphasis was placed on the actress Marlene Dietrich, who herself had assembled an extensive private collection. When the museum expanded to include television in 2006, 14 rooms displayed 1,000 exhibits and 200 film excerpts, while the Television Mediathek offered 13,000 complete broadcasts. The museum's special exhibitions have covered major figures and themes in cinema history, including Fritz Lang, Werner Herzog, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Michael Ballhaus, Romy Schneider, Alfred Hitchcock, and Marlene Dietrich on the occasion of her centenary. Other notable exhibitions addressed Heinz Rühmann, Hildegard Knef, Marika Rökk, Loriot, and the intersection of football and television. The museum also presented exhibitions on production design, storyboards, and psychology and film. During each Berlinale, the museum hosted exhibitions accompanying that year's retrospective. Since 1977, the Deutsche Kinemathek has organized the Berlinale Retrospective, and since 2013 it has curated the Berlinale Classics section, which focuses on digital restoration of classic films. These screenings take place at the Zeughauskino, which moved in 2023 to the Deutsches Historisches Museum at Unter den Linden 2, and at the CinemaxX Potsdamer Platz. The most frequently loaned film from the archive's rental collection is 'Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel' (Three Wishes for Cinderella).

From its opening in 2000 until its closure in October 2024, the museum was housed in the Filmhaus at Potsdamer Platz, a location that situated it within one of Berlin's most prominent cultural and commercial districts. The French Wikipedia source specifies the address as Potsdamer Straße 2, near Potsdamer Platz. Following closure, the institution relocated to a temporary site at E-Werk on Mauerstraße 79, with the reduced-scale reopening scheduled for the second half of 2025. The E-Werk is a converted industrial space in Berlin's Mitte district. Long-term planning envisions a purpose-built new Filmhaus next to the Martin-Gropius-Bau, with a target completion date of 2035.

The museum closed to the public on 31 October 2024 and, as of the sources' cutoff, was preparing to reopen in the second half of 2025 at approximately one-third of its previous exhibition area within the E-Werk at Mauerstraße 79. The institution is owned and operated by the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, which employs between 60 and 100 staff. It is supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The Deutsche Kinemathek holds memberships in FIAF (International Federation of Film Archives), the Kinematheksverbund (Association of German Cinematheques), the Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE), the Arbeitskreis selbständiger Kultur-Institute e. V. (AsKI), the Federal Association of Museum Education, the German Museums Association, ICOM, the Berlin Museum's Association, and the Network of Mediatheks. Cooperation partners include the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts, ARD, ZDF, and the Grimme Institute. The institution maintains a streaming platform and serves as distributor for DFFB productions. Its website is http://www.filmmuseum-berlin.de/.