Weimar Berlin: Cinemas in Weimar Berlin

In the 1920s, Berlin was covered with hundreds of cinemas that dominated main streets and squares. The “film palaces” built in the capital during the Weimar era, seating up to 2.500 spectators, rivalled with each other in magnificence. Names like Universum, Titania-Palast, Gloria-Palast, Mercedes-Palast, Capitol, were echoed in cinemas built across Germany. These movie palaces, with ticket prices three times higher than the smaller theaters, turned the simple act of going to see a movie into a festive, glamorous experience. Uniformed ushers, 60-instrument orchestras, auditoriums decorated in purple and gold, multicolored spotlights, atomizers spraying eau de Cologne over the audience. Not to speak of the imposing building themselves, first designed in pseudo-classic fashion and towards the end of the twenties in more modern styles (Art Deco, functionalism).

The elite of Berlin cinemas consisted of premiere theaters, premieres often attended by high dignitaries and other celebrities. Those elite cinemas built a cluster in West Berlin, around the Gedächtniskirche and the Kurfürstendamm : Ufa-palast am Zoo, Gloria-Palast, Capitol am Zoo, Marmorhaus. But there were premiere cinemas outside that central hub too: around 1927, Universum and Titania-Palast opened, the former at the end of the Kurfürstendamm, the later three miles to the southwest. Films could also be premiered at Primus-Palast by the Potsdamer Platz, at Beba-Palast in Wilmersdorf, at Ufa-Pavillon or Mozartsaal in Nollendorfplatz. Rarely though in East Berlin.

Exactly where were all those cinemas? Take a look at the map below.

1. Ufa palast am Zoo, 2. Gloria-Palast 3. Capitol am Zoo, 4. Marmorhaus, 5.Filmbühne Wien, 6. Ufa Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz, 7. Mozartsaal,YY 8. Tauentzienpalast, 9. Prinzess, 10. Primus-Palast, 11. Kammerlichtspiele in Haus Vaterland, 12. Universum, 13. Phoebus-Palast, 14. Union-Theater Unter den Linden, 15. Piccadilly, 16. Mercedes-Palast, 17. U.T. Lichtspiele Theater am Alexanderplatz, 18. Ufa-Theater Turmstrasse, 19. Lichtburg, 20. Beba-Palast (Atrium), 21. Titania-Palast

Below, the more centrally located cinemas:

1. Ufa-Palast am Zoo, 2. Gloria-Palast, 3. Marmorhaus, 4. Capitol am Zoo, 5. Filmbühne Wien, 6. Prinzess, 7. Tauentzienpalast, 8. Mozartsaal, 9. Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz, 10. Ufa-Universum, 11. Beba Palast (Atrium), 12. Piccadilly

Below, the "cluster" around the Gedächtniskirche and Ku'damm.