Graphics Archive

The Graphics Archive of the Deutsche Kinemathek contains tens of thousands of drawings related to costume and set design, as well as more than 25,000 film posters and outstanding storyboards, frames from animated films, matte paintings and caricatures from film and television.

The poster archive at the Deutsche Kinemathek builds upon the collection of Director Gerhard Lamprecht. While the collection started with fewer than 200 posters in the 1960s, it has since grown to over 2,000 posters and drafts from the period up to 1945, and more than 23,000 posters from 1945 to today.

In the field of customers and scenery, the spectrum ranges from costume sketches and animated frames for Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ (GER, 1927) to extensive materials for Tom Tykwer’s, Henk Handloegten’s and Achim von Borries’ series ‘Babylon Berlin’ (GER, 2017). Also notable is the archive of more than 6,000 drawings and sketches from production designer Sir Ken Adam (1921–2016). Berlin-born Ken Adam was responsible for a generation of trend-setting sets, including for director Stanley Kubrick and numerous James Bond films.