List of films set in Berlin

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The Blue Angel (1930). Berlin is the setting and filming location of numerous movies, and has been since the beginnings of the silent film era.

Berlin is a major center in the European and German film industry.[1] It is home to more than 1000 film and television production companies and 270 movie theaters. Three hundred national and international co-productions are filmed in the region every year. Babelsberg Studios and the production company UFA are located outside Berlin in Potsdam.

The city is also home of the European Film Academy and the German Film Academy, and hosts the annual Berlin International Film Festival which is considered to be the largest publicly attended film festival in the world.[2] This is a list of films whose setting is Berlin.

1920s[edit]

1922[edit]

1924[edit]

  • The Last Laugh (Der Letzte Mann), 1924 – the aging doorman at a Berlin hotel is demoted to washroom attendant but gets the last laugh, by F.W. Murnau.

1925[edit]

1926[edit]

1927[edit]

1928[edit]

  • Refuge (Zuflucht), 1928 – a lonely and tired man comes home after several years abroad, lives with a market-woman in Berlin and starts working for the Berlin U-Bahn. Directed by Carl Froelich.

1929[edit]

1930s[edit]

1930[edit]

1931[edit]

1932[edit]

1933[edit]

1936[edit]

1937[edit]

1938[edit]

1940s[edit]

1940[edit]

1941[edit]

1942[edit]

1943[edit]

1944[edit]

  • The Buchholz Family (Familie Buchholz), 1944 – based on the novels by Julius Stinde. During the German Empire the resolute mother of a Berlin middle-class family wants to get her two daughters married befitting their social rank, and she writes her first novel about her experiences. Directed by Carl Froelich.
  • Es lebe die Liebe, 1944 – a famous operetta star wants to engage a Spanish dancer for his Apollo Theater in Berlin, but she gets ill for one year. After her mandatory break she comes to Berlin and creeps into his theatre and his life under a different name. Directed by Erich Engel.
  • Marriage of Affection (Neigungsehe), 1944 – following Familie Buchholz, the resolute mother Buchholz tries unsuccessfully to marry her remaining daughter via a marriage advertisement in the newspaper, but the daughter celebrates a secret wedding with a painter on Heligoland island. Directed by Carl Froelich.
  • Philharmoniker, 1944 – in late 1920s Berlin the financial situation of Berlin Philharmonic orchestra is precarious. One of the violinists leaves the orchestra to play in a light music ensemble, but returns after Nazi Machtergreifung. Directed by Paul Verhoeven.
  • Under the Bridges (Unter den Brücken), 1944/45 – two men and a woman shipping on the river Havel shortly before Berlin gets totally destroyed. Directed by Helmut Käutner.

1945[edit]

1946[edit]

1947[edit]

1948[edit]

1949[edit]

  • The Cuckoos (Die Kuckucks), 1949 – five orphaned siblings in destroyed Berlin cannot find a domicile for longer periods. So they refurbish with high personal contribution a villa in Grunewald district, though the legal position concerning property is not clear. Directed by Hans Deppe.
  • Girls in Gingham (Die Buntkarierten), 1949 – the fate of a typical working-class family in Berlin between 1883 and 1949 facing child labour, trade union engagement, war, depression, unemployment and the rise and fall of Nazism. Directed by Kurt Maetzig.
  • Our Daily Bread (Unser täglich Brot), 1949 – about the difficult life of an extended family in destroyed Berlin in 1946. Directed by Slatan Dudow.
  • Rotation, 1949 – showing the life of a mechanic in Berlin between 1920 and 1945. During the Third Reich, as a member of the Nazi Party, he aids a resistance group in printing anti-war propaganda and is finally turned into the authorities by his own son who is a frenetic member of the Hitler Youth. Directed by Wolfgang Staudte.

1950s[edit]

1950[edit]

1951[edit]

1952[edit]

1953[edit]

1954[edit]

1955[edit]

1956[edit]

1957[edit]

1958[edit]

  • Endstation Liebe [de], 1958 – a young factory worker in West Berlin is a lady-killer and does not believe in true love until he meets the love of his life during a bet. Directed by Georg Tressler.
  • Fräulein, 1958 – German woman and American officer caught up in the end of and aftermath of World War II in Berlin. Directed by Henry Koster.
  • Iron Gustav (Der eiserne Gustav), 1958 – based on the novel by Hans Fallada and telling the true story of horse-drawn cabman Gustav Hartmann from Wannsee district who drove sensationally to Paris in 1928 to demonstrate against the rise of the motorcar taxicab. Directed by George Hurdalek.
  • My Wife Makes Music (Meine Frau macht Musik), 1958 – a revue singer in East Berlin paused for several years because of her family when she meets an Italian star who brings her back to theatre. But her husband is not amused about her new career. Directed by Hans Heinrich.
  • Nasser Asphalt, 1958 – a young reporter in West Berlin discovers that his employer, a respected and prosperous journalist, invented a sensational story of German soldiers who supposedly survived for six years in a demolished bunker in Poland. Directed by Frank Wisbar.
  • Solang noch Untern Linden [de], 1958 – biography of famous chanson and operetta composer Walter Kollo working at the Berliner Theater and the Admiralspalast. Directed by his son Willi Kollo; grandson and opera tenor René Kollo played his own grandfather.
  • Sun Seekers (Sonnensucher), 1958, released 1972 – after being arrested in a police raid in 1950 Berlin, two young prostitutes are sent to the mines of Wismut Company. There, Germans and Soviets work together to extract Uranium for the use of the Soviet Union. Directed by Konrad Wolf.
  • Tatort Berlin, 1958 – illustrates the advantage for criminals with the still passable inner German border but also the problems with separate police investigations inside Berlin. In the movie a new jurisdiction is seen to help with the resocialisation of former petty criminals into the system of the GDR. Directed by Joachim Kunert.
  • The Young Lions, 1958 – a German ski instructor is hopeful that Adolf Hitler will bring new prosperity to Germany, so when war breaks out he joins the Wehrmacht and travels to Berlin several times. In another story line two soldiers befriend each other during their U.S. Army draft physical examination and attend basic training together. Directed by Edward Dmytryk.

1959[edit]

1960s[edit]

1960[edit]

1961[edit]

One, Two, Three, 1961

1962[edit]

1963[edit]

1964[edit]

1965[edit]

1966[edit]

1967[edit]

1968[edit]

1969[edit]

1970s[edit]

1970[edit]

1971[edit]

1972[edit]

1973[edit]

1974[edit]

1975[edit]

1976[edit]

1977[edit]

1978[edit]

1979[edit]

1980s[edit]

1980[edit]

  • Backhouse Bliss (Glück im Hinterhaus), 1980 – a fairly well-off librarian in his mid-forties with two children and a boring marriage in Berlin leaves his family for his intern. But the spark doesn't show up in his day-to-day life. Directed by Herrmann Zschoche.
  • Berlin Alexanderplatz, 1980 – 1920s Berlin, film of the novel written by Alfred Döblin. Made for television film (in 14 episodes) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
  • Berlin Chamissoplatz [de], 1980 – love story between an older architect and a young student, set against the backdrop of the housing struggles in West Berlin. Director: Rudolf Thome.
  • Fabian, 1980 – in the late 1920s Berlin a copywriter observes the night life with his friend, gets unemployed during the Great Depression, but meets a new girlfriend. When his friend commits suicide and his girlfriend leaves him for a film career, he loses his livelihood. Based on the novel by Erich Kästner and directed by Wolf Gremm.
  • Put on Ice (Kaltgestellt), 1980 – a teacher in West-Berlin gets neutralized during the time of Anti-Radical Decree and dragnet investigation when he wants to throw light on the death of a spy sent to his school by the Verfassungsschutz. Directed by Bernhard Sinkel.
  • Solo Sunny, 1980 – portraits the life of a girl singing in a band in East Berlin, directed by Konrad Wolf.
  • Ullasa Paravaigal, 1980 – The protagonist visits Berlin and rest of Europe as a part of overseas tour for a change over of his mind due to his tragic past with his friend, who pretends to have mental disorder. The film written by Panchu Arunachalam, produced by S. P. Thamizharasi and directed by C. V. Rajendran.

1981[edit]

1982[edit]

1983[edit]

1984[edit]

1985[edit]

1986[edit]

1987[edit]

1988[edit]

1989[edit]

1990s[edit]

1990[edit]

1991[edit]

1992[edit]

1993[edit]

1994[edit]

1995[edit]

  • Aus der Mitte, 1995 – documentary about young people in post-wall Berlin by Peter Zach.
  • Gentleman [de], 1995 – the loss of his car and his selected woman drives a yuppie in Berlin into a little massacre among prostitutes. Directed by Oskar Roehler.
  • The Promise (Das Versprechen), 1995 – two young lovers in Berlin are separated when the Berlin wall goes up in 1961, and their stories intertwine during the three decades to German reunification. Directed by Margarethe von Trotta.
  • Silent Night (Stille Nacht – Ein Fest der Liebe), 1995 – sensing their relationship is crumbling, a policeman avoids celebrating Christmas with his girlfriend and travels to Paris. Alone in their Berlin flat, she decides to drop her second lover, but her boyfriend is ringing up her constantly from Paris. Directed by Dani Levy.
  • A Trick of Light (Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky), 1995 – shows the birth of cinema in Berlin where Max Skladanowsky and his brother Emil built a projector. Directed by Wim Wenders.

1996[edit]

1997[edit]

1998[edit]

  • Angel Express, 1998 – about people restlessly seeking for the ultimate experience in late nineties Berlin. Directed by Rolf Peter Kahl.
  • The Berlin Airlift: First Battle of the Cold War, 1998 – documentary containing many personal recollections and eyewitness accounts of the massive humanitarian, military, and political effort known as the Berlin Airlift. Directed by Robert Kirk.
  • Break Even (Plus-minus null), 1998 – a lonely building worker in Berlin falls in love with a Bosnian prostitute and she asks him to marry her for the residence authorisation. Directed by Eoin Moore.
  • The Final Game (Das Finale), 1998 – terrorists cause a mass panic during the final of the DFB Cup at Berlin Olympic Stadium. Directed by Sigi Rothemund.
  • A Letter Without Words, 1998 – reconstructing the life of a wealthy, Jewish amateur filmmaker in Berlin during the 1920s and early 1930s on the basis of authentic filmic material presented by her granddaughter. Directed by Lisa Lewenz.
  • Live Shot (Gehetzt – Der Tod im Sucher), 1998 – a TV reporter and his trainee in Berlin are shooting for scandalous reports. When they investigate the kidnapping of a publisher's stepdaughter, they get hunted themselves. Directed by Joe Coppoletta.
  • Memory of Berlin, 1998 – autobiographical essay film by John Burgan.
  • Run Lola Run (Lola rennt), 1998 – drama with three alternate realities in post-reunification Berlin by Tom Tykwer.
  • Solo for Clarinet [de] (Solo für Klarinette), 1998 – in a Berlin apartment house a man is found ruffianly murdered with a clarinet. A burnt out police inspector follows a suspicious but mysterious woman and falls for her. Directed by Nico Hofmann.

1999[edit]

2000s[edit]

2000[edit]

2001[edit]

2002[edit]

2003[edit]

2004[edit]

2005[edit]

2006[edit]

2007[edit]

2008[edit]

2009[edit]

2010s[edit]

2010[edit]

2011[edit]

2012[edit]

2013[edit]

2014[edit]

2015[edit]

2016[edit]

2017[edit]

  • Babylon Berlin, 2017 – crime-drama television series that takes place in 1929 Berlin during the Weimar Republic. It follows a police inspector on who is on a secret mission to dismantle an extortion ring, and a young stenotypist who is aspiring to work as a police inspector. Co-directed by Tom Tykwer, Hendrik Handloegten, and Achim von Borries.
  • Charité, TV series that takes place in 1888/1889 in Berlin at Charité and between 1943 and 1945 in Berlin at Charité
  • Atomic Blonde
  • Kundschafter des Friedens, 2017 - four former agents of the Stasi from Berlin are hired by the BND to rescue the kidnapped president of a fictional former Soviet Republic. Directed by Robert Thalheim.

2018[edit]

2020s[edit]

2020[edit]

HAGER (2022) A police officer sets out to find a drug that gives its users Visions of hell. Directed by Kevin Kopacka

2022[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Wall-to-wall culture". The Age. Australia. 10 November 2007. Retrieved 30 November 2007.
  2. ^ European Film Academy, www.europeanfilmacademy.org, Accessed 19 December 2006. See also: Berlin Film Festival, www.berlinale.de. Retrieved 12 November 2006.