Ufa Palast am Zoo

Originally built in 1905-06 as an exhibition hall and arena for the adjoining Berlin Zoo, it was designed by Carl Gause. Arthur Biberfeld converted the hall into a theatre in 1912, but this was short lived and in 1913 cinema architect Oskar Kauffmann transformed the building into the Cines Palast Theater that had a seating capacity of 1,740 with 1,150-seats in the orchestra and 590-seats in the balcony. On September 18, 1919 it screened Ernst Lubitsch’s “Madame DuBarry” operated by Ufa as the Palast Theatre. In 1925 it was enlarged to a seating capacity of 2,165 with 1,410 seats in the orchestra and 775-seats in the balcony, and it was renamed Ufa Palast am Zoo. World Premieres of famous German films were held here: Fritz Lang’s “Die Nibelungen”(1924), Ewald Andre Dupont’s “Variete”(1925), Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”(1926), Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s “Faust-German Folktale”(1926).

In 1936 architect Albert Speer (Hitler’s architect) modernised the building by giving it an Art Deco styled Streamlined Moderne look. The cinema was destroyed by Allied bombs on 23rd November 1943. The ruins were removed in 1955.

In 1957 the current Zoo Palast twin cinema was built on the site (it has its own page on Cinema Treasures).

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