UFA (Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft)

     Headquartered in Berlin, UFA (Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft), was a German motion picture production company. Renown for its experimentation in the age of silent film, it employed famous directors and writers, like Ernst Lubitsch and G.W. Pabst. UFA was created in 1917 when the German government wanted to unite the nation's best studios in efforts to promote German culture. Once World War I started, it became even more important for the company to represent Germany internationally through excellence in film. In the beginning, UFA produced many historical and costume dramas. Then with the successful premiere of Lubitsch's Madame Durberry in 1919, other nations began to show German films. Another internationally renown German filmmaker, Eric Pommer, was at the forefront of the golden age of Weimar film as the head of production at UFA. By 1919, he was the sole owner of Decla, a film company which produced The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

    In 1923, UFA merged with the film company Decla Bioscop. However, Hollywood films also gained popularity in Germany at this time, causing UFA a financial crisis. Due to this financial stress, UFA produced low-budget documentaries until the company was bought by Alfred Hugenberg, a powerful German financier. Hugenberg demanded that the company dedicate itself to promoting German nationalism. Hugenberg would go on to be a Hitler supporter. With the National Socialist's rise to power in 1933, the company was coerced to make Nazi films and propaganda. However, these films had large production costs and an increasingly smaller audience due to Nazi policies, so the Nazi government bought UFA in 1937 and firmly controlled the content thereafter. The company ceased to exist after the end of World War II in 1945.