The Staatliches Filmarchiv der DDR (SFA) ("State Film Archive of the GDR") was the central

film archive An archive is an accumulation of Historical document, historical records or Historical source, materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated ove ...

of the GDR (

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

). The archive, founded on 1 October 1955, was commissioned to collect, secure and make publicly accessible the results of the national film production. The first director was Rudolf Bernstein, previously director of the film distribution company Progress Film. The initial collection consisted of copies of films given to the East German government in 1954 by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, comprising the remains of the collections of the former '' Reichsfilmarchiv'', the originals of which had been acquired by the Soviet army when it advanced into Berlin in 1945. Additionally the new film archive received copies of all films made in East Germany. For the better conservation and restoration of its film collections the archive possessed, among other facilities, a copying studio. After the reunification of Germany the ''Staatliches Filmarchiv der DDR'' was incorporated on 3 October 1990 into the film collections of the ''

Bundesarchiv The German Federal Archives or Bundesarchiv (BArch) (, lit. "Federal Archive") are the national archives of Germany. They were established at the current location in Koblenz in 1952. They are subordinated to the Federal Commissioner for Culture ...

'' ("German Federal Archives").Cold War International History Project.
Bulletin
', Issue 2 (Fall). United States, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 1992. 25.

References

Film archives in Germany Film organisations in Germany Government organisations in East Germany 1955 establishments in East Germany 1990 disestablishments in East Germany Government agencies established in 1955 Government agencies disestablished in 1990 {{film-org-stub

See also

References