Permanent Exhibition Film and Television

The permanent exhibition focuses on its two defining media – film and television – from their origins to the present. In keeping, the exhibition on the history of film ranges from an 1895 newspaper advertisement highlighting the Wintergarten’s film program to exhibits representing the most recent recipients of the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Prize). In addition to the evolution of German film history, international relationships – to Hollywood above all – are a further emphasis. The achievements and fate of film professionals who were driven into exile by the National Socialists are paid homage in a room devoting special attention to this subject. In contrast, the display on German television spans from the first experiments with live broadcasts of electronic images to their universal availability in contemporary everyday life. The permanent exhibition establishes relationships between this media’s history to culture and society, as well as to political events. The radical changes in the arc of German history – from the German Empire to the Weimar Republic, from National Socialism to postwar developments in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, and in recent times through German Reunification – has continued to offer both film and television ever-evolving and in part drastically changed or limited artistic, economical and political conditions. Phases of comparatively free development and those of rigid control followed closely one upon the other. Unique exhibits from the rich collections of Deutsche Kinemathek and central film scenes trace the most important of these developments.