About us

Collecting, preserving, developing, presenting and mediating our audiovisual heritage – these have been tasks of the Deutsche Kinemathek since its opening in 1963. Everything related to film and television history are artifacts: Marlene Dietrich’s estate, donations by Werner Herzog or the TV documentary filmmaker Georg Stefan Troller, for example, but also important film scripts, which include those ranging from Carl Mayer to Christian Petzold.

In addition, there is a film archive with copies of more than 26,500 films, as well as a viewable inventory of over 25,000 films on video. Scholars and journalists use the various inventories for their research and inquiries. Copies of films are screened on site and loaned to movie theaters.

In the Mediathek Fernsehen more than 9,000 broadcasts spanning seven decades and the two former nations of divided Germany can be viewed. Moreover, one of the largest specialized libraries in Europe is available to visitors at the Filmhaus. Several hundred thousand photographs, 25,000 posters, and approximately 20,000 costumes and architectural sketches are preserved by the Deutsche Kinemathek.

Part of this collection has been exhibited at the Filmhaus on Potsdamer Platz since the fall of 2000. The futuristic set designs for Fritz Lang’s ›Metropolis‹, Marlene Dietrich’s make-up case or the costumes from Wolfgang Petersen’s ›Das Boot‹ in the permanent exhibition recall a fascination with German film history. In 2006, a counterpart for German television history opened alongside that for film – creating a unique combination in Europe of having both media under one roof.

The Deutsche Kinemathek has supervised the annual film history Retrospective and the Homage of the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) since 1977. It has also made a name for itself through numerous publications on both the history and present state of film and television, through its special exhibitions, as well as its high-caliber symposia and other events.