![]() | This is not a Wikipedia article: It is an individual user's work-in-progress page, and may be incomplete and/or unreliable. For guidance on developing this draft, see
Wikipedia:So you made a userspace draft. Find sources:
Google (
books ·
news ·
scholar ·
free images ·
WP refs) ·
FENS ·
JSTOR ·
TWL |
Deutsche Bioscop GmbH, (with many alternative confusing spellings), [a] later Decla-Bioscop, was a Berlin-based German film production company of the silent era with its origins in 1897 when Jules Greenbaum started a film company under his own name, Greenbaum-Bioscope. He renamed it as Deutsche Bioskop Gesellschaft in 1899, and incorporated it as Deutsche Bioskope GmbH in 1902. After an injection of share capital in 1908 it became Deutsche Bioscope GmbH with more directors on the board.
These Greenbaum companies produced topical and actualité silent documentary films, along with varieté items: and from 1907 to 1910, early sound films (Tonbilder) incorporating the sound-on-disc format. In competition with Oskar Messter's 'Biophon', [2] which electrically synchronised a gramophone record with a silent film, Greenbaum patented his own invention, the manually-operated Synchroscope (film) and produced hundreds of short sound films of operetta, cabaret, and music-hall routines to show in his own specially-equipped cinemas.
The brief interest in early sound films (originally twice the price of silent films) ended when prices fell substantially and they became uneconomical to make. After a period of financial difficulties Greenbaum sold his interest in the firm completely in 1909 to pursue his own career. The new owners changed the name again to Deutsche Bioscop. [3] From 1911 to 1915 the firm partnered with Paul Davidson's PAGU (Union-Film) to produce many of Asta Nielsen's first films, initially shot at 123 Chausseestraße Berlin; after February 1912 at the specially-built Babelsberg Studio; and for a third series at PAGU's Tempelhof Studios. After WWI it merged in 1920 with Eric Pommer's Decla-Film to become Decla-Bioscop. A final merger occurred the following year (1921) with the giant Ufa conglomerate, again with Pommer as the head of production. Decla-Bioscop continued to release films under its own name until around 1924, after which the Ufa brand assumed its full corporate identity and control over production.
The above companies produced a number of well-known films in the first 30 years of the 20th century, with directors and film stars such as Urban Gad and Asta Nielsen, Otto Rippert, Paul Wegener, Fritz Lang, et al.
The numerous changes of management and company names have led to considerable confusion about which films were produced by which firm or producer. In particular, Greenbaum is often given as producer for Deutsche Bioscop films after he had left the company in September 1909. Greenbaum, a busy man, was concurrently owner of his own separate existing film equipment and cinema theatre businesses Vitascope-Theater Betriebs (1907) and Bioscope-Theater (1908): after leaving Deutsche Bioscope in 1909 he founded another film production company, Deutsche Vitascope (1909), later simply Vitascope (1910), re-constituted as Greenbaum-Film (1915).
Lots at ( Müller 1994), eg p. 288 + search for 'Greenbaum'. Working on this atm.
Beginning in the textile business in his native Germany, Jules Greenbaum spent eight years working in Chicago becoming a naturalised US citzen in WHEN???. On his return to Germany, he started a film company under his own name in 1897, Greenbaum-Bioscop [4] [1] [5], selling Kinematograph equipment (his own Vitascope brand and other film cameras, and later Powers projectors ref pls) and imported [American] films. [6] [b] In 1899 he changed its name to Deutsche Bioskope Gesellschaft (ie Deutsche Bioskope Company). [6] [1] His first release that year was Frühjahrsparade, featuring Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany [6] [c]
The already-experienced cameraman de:Georg Furkel was in Amsterdam, working for nl:Anton Nöggerath at the end of 1899: Greenbaum arrived, wanting to buy a camera. Furkel went back to to Berlin for a month "on loan" to initiate Greenbaum into the secrets of cinematography. But Greenbaum managed to retain his services and in early 1900 Furkel went to Breslau to Liebich's Etablissement (i fink beautiful beyond belief, find refs! in Nollendorf article or related drafts - later leased/owned from 1912/13 by Al. Woods and Godsoll) to film Variety acts. A year later he was in Vienna at the Ronacher Etablissement, blscklisted ref § a popular variety theatre, staying there for a whole year, making variety films and local newsreels. [10] Furkel wrote an article published in 1926 recounting his experiences in the early days:
Greenbaum produced ten topical films in 1901 and eight in 1902. He probably imported a range of films from the USA, France and Great Britain. [11]) He incorporated Deutsche Bioscope GmbH, Berlin, on 18 June 1902 with a capital of 20,000 marks, with himself as managing director. [12] The main offices were at 131d Friedrichstraße, where the firm supplied equipment (including the American 68mm Biograph camera), devised to circumvent Edison's patents, and offered an 8-hour guaranteed film copying service. [6] [d]
His cameramen travelled to Vienna, Munich, Leipzig, Halle, Nuremberg, Kiel, Hamburg, Poznań, Lemberg and Riga to record films to be shown at the end of theatre variety shows. [6] He was also involved in apparatus construction: in 1902, Bioscope successfully launched the first 'Vitascope' camera apparatus in Germany. In the first decade of the 20th century, Greenbaum was probably the second largest film producer in Germany after Oskar Messter. [6]
Corinna Muller notes that for Greenbaum, the actualité film, real-life reportage, was the genuine drama, a kind of service or Dienst. [13] In this respect he was similar to Charles Urban, who also only made reportage and documentaries, and had little aptitude for making standard dramas. [14] The Spielfilm, the drama film, appers to have been less important for Greenbaum until after 1910 when the ability of sound-on-disc technology had failed to keep pace with increasing length of feature films.
Eugene Augustin Lauste, (or Émile Louis Lauste by 1928 per this ref) a cameraman & inventor, joined in 1904 and started Deutsche Bioscope's technical laboratory. [15]
Greenbaum produced acualité and documentary films for two nationalist pressure/lobbying groups, the Navy League or Fleet Association (Deutscher Flottenverein), and the German Colonial Society (Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft, DKG). As early as 1904, Greenbaum's stationery stated: "Supplier to the German Fleet Association": the German Imperial Naval Office had granted "permission to produce cinematographic recordings". Bioscope operators filmed ship launches and fleet parades in Wilhelmshaven and Gdansk.
George Furkel continues his recollections:
The Kaiser had arranged for a presentation of photographs from the life of the fleet in the Neuer Marstall "for first circles", in which primarily films from Deutsche Bioscope were shown. [6] In 1906, Greenbaum concluded a contract with the presidential office to carry out cinematographic presentations for the German Fleet Association. Bioscope cameras filmed Kaiser Wilhelm's Baltic and Mediterranean voyages on the SMY Hohenzollern II and to photograph the Kaiser repeatedly on board. [6]
In 1906 Deutsche Bioscope, previously located at at 131d Friedrichstraße, moved into new offices and loft 'studio' on the upper floors of 123 Chausseestraße. [16] Grunbaum apperently retained a connection with the building until he finally moved to Lindenstraße in October 1912 (see #Greenbaum's other firms and addresses).
Deutsche Bioskope filmed the 1907 New Year parades at the Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin, attended by the German emperor, and by the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph I in Vienna. [17] [18]
Deutsche Bioskope was still the official film production coompany for DKG in 1907, and in February that year Greenbaum's cameraman Georg Furkel went to Togo, Cameroon and German South West Africa (now Namibia) to film the construction of colonial railways and the Herero uprising (Aus dem Kriegsleben in Süd-Westafrika). This African expedition was co-financed by the the colonial and railway construction company Lenz & Co. [19] Furkel and Guido Seeber were behind the camera to shoot the short documentary de:Zeppelin III in Berlin am 29.8.1909.
Main: Synchroscope (film) - copy a few bits from Appendix B
Greenbaum's Deutsche Bioskope expanded rapidly, beyond producing topical and actualité newsreels.
In September 1907, Greenbaum applied for a patent for his Synchroscope (film) invention, an early sound-on-disc application which facilitated the manual synchronization of phonograph records with moving pictures in an early example of sound films. [8] For some years Oskar Messter had been making Tonbilder, Messter's own patented design to project films by electrically synchronising the moving picture with playback of an acoustic gramophone record. Greeenbaum's device, also patented, was a manually-operated version of Messter's original eletrical design. Alfred Duskes was Messter's other main competitor.
Making sound films was twice as expensive as producing silent films. Find ref below, Laemmle section?
In search of more capital, on 12 February 1908 Greenbaum signed a contract to spin off/diversify Deutsche Bioskope as a film manufacturing, copying and sales operation with Carl Moritz Schleussner of the photochemicals firm Dr. C. Schleussner ( AG in Frankfurt on Main as the principal investor/stockholder. Schleussner had been involved since 1896 in producing negative film stock and plates for Röntgen photography soon after its discovery. [20] [e]
On 27 February 1908 Greenbaum re-registered his former Deutsche Bioskope GmbH as Deutsche Bioskop GmbH [f] with new directors, with Carl M. Schleussner AG supplying 140,000 marks (two-thirds of a total share capital of 210,000 marks), and one third (70,000 marks) being provided by Greenbaum and his brother Max, an experienced banker familiarly called "Uncle Max". [6]
Greenbaum retained his existing separate cinema and film rental side of the business as Bioskope Theater-Gesellschaft m.b.H. (ie Bioskope Theater Company Ltd., with the final 'e'). [1] NB Although Greenbaum doesn't say so explicity, Bioskope Theater was definitely [i fink] a subsidiary of Deutsche Bioscop GmbH.[ citation needed]
while concentrating on developing/marketing the Synchroscope through his new Vitascope company, Greenbaum remained at Deutsche Bioskop (based at 123 Chausseestr.? with Erich Zeiske as MD from April) with a seat on the board from February 1908 until September 1909 as perhaps something like 'executive director.
So - Was Deutsche Bioscope from February 1908 after the merger the parent company of Greenbaum's Vitascope-Theater? - Bloody check! I suspect not - it seems Vitascope may have been a wholly separate company controlled by Greenbaum. But you simply don't know... But why would the new directors of Deutsche Bioskop complain that he was spending their money on his own sound film project?
While Greenbaum concentrated on sound films using his patented Synchroscope invention, Deutsche Bioskop's cameramen continued to make topical and actualité films.
Copy bits of Laemmle section from Appendix B here.
Anyway, Greenbaum accompanied by his wife Emma travelled to the USA from Bremen on the Konprinzessin Cecilie arriving 2 June 1908, [21] and sold the Synchroscope idea to Carl Laemmle, and to Warwick Trading in the UK. (Charles Urban had left by this time i fink). I imagine the cost of the trips would have been met by the company thanks to Schleussner's extra capital...
The camera operators of several production companies often filmed particularly important events in direct competition. Thus Deutsche Bioscop, Raleigh & Robert, and Eclipse all filmed the Vienna Jubilee Parade, 12 June 1908, the 60th anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph I. [22]
However, during 1908 Deutsche Bioscope ran into serious financial difficulties, partly because of expenses making sound films. [23] At the shareholders' meeting of Bioscop in December 1908, the representatives of Dr. C. Schleussner AG "criticized the level of expenses and, with the approval of all parties, emphasized the urgent need to work towards reducing general expenses as consistently as possible in the next financial year." [6]
New managers were appointed in May 1909 in order to improve the financial situation : Erich Zeiske was appointed as managing director of Deutsche Bioscope, along with Ernst Mirre as manager of Deutsche Bioskop-Theater, Greenbaum's cinema operation. [24] Ernst Mirre was associated with Mutoscope Theater-Gesellschaft, the German branch of the US Mutoscope and Biograph Company. [25]
However, according to Greenbaum, although both companies were doing well, his business interests had become too constricted, he having only a say in 1/3 of the company's direction. He came to an agreement with Schleusner AG that they would acquire his remaining interest, to free him from a non-competition clause in their agreement, and allow him to work completely independently. [1] In order not to further restrict Greenbaum's expansion plans, his former partners acquired the Greenbaums' remaining shares on 8 September 1909 to reach a mutual happy understanding; both parties were fully satisfied with the new agreement and—according to Greenbaum—parted very amicably. [6] [1] [26]
A compilation film for the 50th birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm II was advertised on the front page of Der Kinematograph, Nr. 107, 13.1.1909. Guido Seeber joined the re-financed Deutsche Bioscope's as their new cameraman in 1908. [27] Georg Furkel and Guido Seeber were behind the cameras to shoot the short documentary de:Zeppelin III in Berlin am 29.8.1909 featuring the Zeppelin LZ3. [28]
There were only 6 employees at Deutsche Bioscop in 1910. [30]
NBB! The p. 463 Berlin Addressbuch for 1911 !!! Link Possibly from Walzertraum youtube vid? !!! with information valid for the previous year (NB This info comes from de:Kottbusser Damm, see [h]), still has an entry for Deutsche Bioskop Gesellschaft mbH [NOTE spelling, with 'k'!] with Zeiske as MD. Main offices, Fabrik = manufactory/copying, and laboratory at 236 Friedrichstr, with recording studio (Aufnahmeatel.) at 123 Chausseestr., director Erich Zeiske.
Deutsche Vitascope GmbH still has offices at 22 Friedrichstrasse, Greenbaum as MD. p. 465 Berlin Addressbuch for 1911, very last entry on page. So does Vitascope Gesellschaft mbh at 22 Friedrichstrasse, Greenbaum as MD: p. 3095 Berlin Addressbuch for 1911, as does his Bioscope Theater GmbH also at 22 Friedrichsstr. p. 216 Berlin Addressbuch for 1911
The Vitascope-Theater "Rollkrug", Berlinerstr. 1. 2. has Inhaber Max Walter. p. 3095 Berlin Addressbuch for 1911
Bollox alert! [27] The offices at 123 Chausseestraße seem NOT to have been enlarged around this time, with the glasshouse studio being built on the roof. Good pic of the studio on the top of 123 (NOT) - almost two storeys high, tho'.
The following table compiled from a number of tables in ( Jung & Loiperdinger 2005, pp. 181–2) shows the releases of acualité/documentary films from 1907 to 1913. The fall-off after the departure of Jules Greenbaum from Deutsche Bioscope in 1909 is very noticeable.
Production firm 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 Total
Deutsche Bioscop 15 24 6 5 5 10 65 Messter 9 11 10 19 12 5 66 Duskes 16 6 6 3 31 Weltkinematograph 18 8 37 48 60 48 219 Edison 3 6 16 15 45 42 127 Pathé 60 70 133 158 149 178 129 877 Gaumont 11 14 48 80 124 115 118 510 Eclipse 28 59 87 92 99 74 54 493 Raleigh & Robert [32] 34 51 29 37 79 9 239
Although the first German film star was Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (see "'Kaiserbilder'. Wilhelm II. als Filmstar" in ( Jung & Loiperdinger 2005, pp. 253-268, esp. 267) it was the German premiere in November 1910 in Düsseldorf of Afgrunden, starring Asta Nielsen and directed by her husband Urban Gad which launched the career of the first international film star. The screenings were organised by Ludwig Gottschalk who owned the German exhibition rights. [33] It was a runaway success, and a competitor Christoph Mülleneisen senior , who owned the rights for Afgrunden in Austro-Hungary and also operated around 15 cinemas in the Rhine and Ruhr regions, determined to sign Nielsen for himself.
After a short but intense period of negotiations, Mülleneisen made a deal on 27 May 1911 with Gad and Nielsen to produce 10 feature films and 20 shorts produced by the new management team of Deutsche Bioskop (still with Eric Zeiske as managing director) to be distributed by Paul Davidson's PAGU. [34] PAGU owned the Union-Theater (U-T) cinemas, the biggest chain in Germany. [35] (PAGU was the first Aktien-Gesellschaft in German cinema - founded? in 1910 with 500.000 marks, by 1912 had a million marks capital. {sfn Muller p. 48, p. 270 nn108-111} FIX ME!) On 1 June 1911 a holding company, Internationale Films-Vertrieb-Gesellschaft (IFVG) ('International Film Sales Company'), was formed to exploit the contract and registered in Vienna with Davidson as senior partner and MD. [34] [36] [37] [38]
This means that at least some of the early Nielsen films might have been shot at 123 Chausseestrasse. Interesting... HAHA! I was absolutely right. [39] In fact, apart from Der schwarze Traum, made in Denmark by Fotorama, all the first Nielsen series of films made in summer 1911 were made at 123, with Der Totentanz being the first to be made at Babelsberg.
Asta Nielsen was a bit scathing about 123 Chauseestrasse: [40]
"At that time, in 1911, film production was at a surprisingly low level in such a large country as Germany. To that point, only a kind of “living pictures” had been produced in Bioscop’s studios, which consisted of a few primitive [dürftige, 'poor'] attic rooms in the northern part of Berlin. Some of these productions, such as The Island of the Dead, used paintings by [Swiss artist Arnold] Böcklin as their foundation, with white-clothed apparitions moving slowly and aimlessly between black poplar trees.[2] [j] Yet it was still a major technical improvement over the filming conditions for The Abyss in the prison courtyard in Copenhagen Eh?? to find ourselves in an atelier with glass walls and half a dozen spotlights. On the other hand, the artistic aspect, as far as the casting of my fellow actors was concerned, was catastrophically inferior to The Abyss."
Move to Sources! *Allen, Julie K., ed. (2022). The Silent Muse: The Memoirs of Asta Nielsen. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781800105829.
"Ultimately, it is thanks to the Danish diva that Babelsberg became a film city. The 'Bioscop' was already building a large studio in Neu-Babelsberg for the recording of my films," Asta Nielsen recalled in her autobiography "The Silent Muse" and was in no way exaggerating. Previously, Deutsche Bioscop GmbH only had “a few meager attic rooms in the north of Berlin” – to be precise: at Chausseestrasse 123. The makeshift recording studio had long since reached its limits, the rooms were dark, and because of the large lamps there was constant trouble with the fire police." ("...gab es ständig Ärger mit der Feuerpolizei.") [46]
However, looking at the photo of 123, then only some 15 years old and built in the popular Jugendstil in 1896 i fink, it's difficult to see how it could be described as 'poor' or 'dark' - the whole building is mostly windows. Morons.
Well, well, lolissimo: "1911: The fire department evicted the Bioscop film company from their loft studio in Berlin. Guido Seeber, cameraman and technical director, discovered a vacant factory building surrounded by a large area of waste land in Babelsberg." [47]
This would tend to explain why Continental-Kunstfilm's 1912 film In Nacht und Eis was shot in a small glasshouse studio in the courtyard/garden and not in the loft: - filming inside the building was forbidden by the Fire Dept because of the risk from the high-wattage carbon arc lamps.
At any rate, Davidson's Vienna-based Internationale Films-Vertrieb-Gesellschaft (IFVG) oversaw the making of nearly 30 Nielsen/Gad films, two-thirds produced by Deutsche Bioskop for PAGU, and the remainder produced by PAGU alone. A number of these are non-extant. Guido Seeber was the cameraman for about half of these films. [48]
Before the Nielsen/Gad contract, Deutsche Bioscop only had 6 employees in 1910, a figure which had grown to 150 by 1913. [30]
There were three "Asta Nielsen series" of Monopolfilm feature/drama/comedy films:
In Germany the film production firms used various different methods of distributing films to cinemas: the Staffelmieten-System and the Terminfilm, superseded by the Monopolfilm of which Afgrunden (1910) was an early example.
The production companies replaced this by the Terminfilm system: single films with limited release dates were heavily advertised in the trade press in advance. However, the film producers were unable to make enough films in the short time available, and this marketing ploy was abandoned fairly soon. However, it marked the change from selling films to renting them; and the number of specialised distribution firms increased to 22 by 1910. [52] Asta Nielsen's Heißes Blut (although it was made shortly after Afgrunden} is an example of the relatively short-lived Terminfilm method, with multiple copies bought by major distributors from the producers, advertised in trade journals like de:Lichtbild-Bühne (LBB) and then rented out to individual cinema owners who were guaranteed to receive the film on the advertised release date. Film production companies judged a film's profitability by the number of copies they sold. [53] This also opened up a lucrative second-hand market where multiple copies of films from the big distributors were sold on to lesser buyers, for viewing in smaller cinemas away from the increasing number of premium venues like those of Paul Davidson's Union-Theater (U-T) chain. [54] From the production companies' point of view, this practice reduced the length of time new films could be shown (and thus profits) before they appeared in 'room upstairs' picture houses through the second-hand market. This had depressed the price of films generally, and led theoretically to lower quality films.
The Monopolfilm ('exclusive film') concept was the next way of selling films to cinemas through a single distributor usually the production firm or a sole appointed agent. [55] Ludwig Gottschalk introduced it with Afgrunden, and Davidson's PAGU (and Deutsche Bioscop) followed suit with the rest of the "Asta Nielsen" series. [56] Film-buyers for the major distributors were prevented from purchasing physical copies of films, but instead had to buy the rights to exhibit a film for a given period and in a given region (i.e. it was only possible to rent the films under restrictive conditions, rather than buy them outright.) [57] Cinema owners were often obliged to buy the rights a number of films sight unseen (possibly before they had even been made), in order to access the most desirable ones. This approach had a great impact on Nielsen's rise to stardom. [58] The 'Monopolfilm system 'worked' for the bigger companies by driving the small cinema owners out of business and into bankruptcy, since the latter couldn't afford the higher prices, thus benefiting the production firms and the larger movie theatres/chains. PAGU also owned the Union-Theater (U-T) chain of cinemas where the Nielsen films were shown - an excellent example of capitalist vertical distribution, where the film production companies also owned the cinemas.
Deutsche Biscop's first Nielsen eight releases using the Monopolfilm system were advertised as: Der schwarze Traum; Im Grossen Augenblick; Zigeunerblut (Gypsy Blood NB not Heißes Blut); Der fremde Vogel; Die Verräterin (script by Erich Zeiske); Die Macht des Goldes; and Die arme Jenny [59] Several of these are considered lost.
According to Julie Allen, "Historian Andreas Hansert documents that Nielsen agreed, in exchange for an annual salary of 80,000 German marks, 33.3% of the revenues generated by her films, full artistic freedom in choosing her screenplays, costumes, and supporting actors, and, perhaps most importantly, the right to be directed exclusively by her soon-to-be husband Gad." [60] For the film makers, the contract meant almost guaranteed success from Nielsen's films for nearly three years from June 1911.
"Working closely with Gad on each year’s Asta Nielsen Series, a collection of eight to ten films that had been pre-sold to distributors around the globe, Nielsen exercised a degree of control over her work on an artistic, technical, and economic level that was extraordinary for a woman at the time." [61]
Films made by Deutsche Bioscope at 123 Chauseestrasse with release dates:
Apart from Afgrunden, all the Dt.Bio films were shot in spring-summer of 1911
And if they got evicted from 123 because the arc lamps were a fire risk, they would have had to get a move on.
With the success of the Nielsen/Gad series, Deutsche Bioscop started looking for much larger studio premises. Guido Seeber, as technical director of Deutsche Bioscop since 1909, was put in charge of finding a site, and of designing and supervising the building of the new studio and film factory. [62]
In the south-west Berlin suburb of Neubabelsberg Seeber found a semi-derelict 3-floor factory built in 1898 by a company which made artificial plants, flowers and leaves. According to Seeber,
Deutsche Bioskop started construction of its new Babelsberg Studio (otherwise known as Bioscop-Atelier Neubabelsberg) from November 1911. [63] The new studio had a floor area of 300 m2 (15 x 20 m, x 9m high). [63] It was one of the first glass-house studios in Germany. [65] [m]
On 12 February 1912 the studio was inaugurated with the first shot of the Asta Nielsen film Der Totentanz. [63] This is also the exact same date that the newly-formed Continental-Kunstfilm moved into the old premises of Deutsche Bioskop at 123 Chausseestraße which Jules Greenbaum had occupied since 1906. [67] Greenbaum appears to have maintained a presence at 123 until he moved out to Weissensee in 1913/1914. A second glasshouse (Großes Glashaus) with a floor area of 450 m2 was built in 1913. [63] With 4 hectares (9.9 acres) of land available, there was plenty of room for the construction of outdoor sets.
Jugend und Tollheit, Lost Films
Paul Davidson appears to have understood very clearly the fundamental change for the film industry which Asta Nielsen's groundbreaking Afgrunden represented. He claimed that he built the Tempelhof studio for her, and transformed her into an international star. [68]
After Deutsche Bioskop's success in making the first two Nielsen series for Union-Film, PAGU produced and made the third series at Tempelhof themselves, swiftly becoming German's primary production company. Greenbaum would make a brief merger with PAGU in early 1914 as Union-Vitascope which lasted until the start of World War I.
Hanns Heinz Ewers joined as a staff writer, leading to The Student of Prague (1913). [70]
Shortly after the move to Babelsberg, probably as a result of an economic crisis at his Frankfurt company before the start of the First World War, Carl Moritz Schleussner (who had bought Deutsche Bioscop in 1909) nevertheless wanted to get out of the film business. He was only able to sell his shares in Bioscop at a high loss in 1917. The issue was only finally settled in 1922, when inflation had already set in. [71]
Nielsen and Gad went back to Denmark, and all her films that had been shot in 1914 were released (by PAGU?) during the war in Germany in 1915/16.
The 6-part serial Homunculus directed by Otto Rippert was released in 1916 and 1917, later edited and re-released in 1920 by Decla-Bioscop. See also other stuff from Filmography.
The establishment of Ufa in December 1917 as a film propaganda outlet provoked reactions from the film industry.
In late 1917 a number of film production and rental firms (including Deutsche Kinematographen-Gesellschaft GmbH (Kölner Dekage FilmVertrieb), [72] came together to form the Bioscop-Konzern (Bioscop Group), with its headquarters at 58 Breite Straße, Cologne. The managing director was Peter Heuser. [73] Heuser was MD of Harmonie-Film, Köln, which made de:Der fliegende Holländer (1918), filmed in May 1918 at the Bioscop-Atelier in Neubabelsberg.
A 1918 advertisement for a series of Dagny Servaes films lists the partners of the Bioskop-Konzern: "In Deutschland verleihen wir selbst durch unsere Filialen: Bioscop, Berlin; Bioscop, Munich; [Johann Paul] Wolfram, Dresden; [75] Wolfram, Leipzig; Mitteldeutsche, Frankfurt; Dekage, Cologne; [72] Schlesische, Breslau. Generaldirektion des Bioscop-Konzerns Köln, Bioscophaus." [76]
In Der Kinematograph for 24 April 1918, Bioscophaus had an advertisement spread over four full pages, including the release of Harrison and Barrison directed by a young Alexander Korda. The illustration of the Bioscophaus building in Cologne incorporates the letters DBG (Deutsche Bioscop Gesellschaft) and the logo of a bear holding a shield. [77]
Similar layout for Kinematograph, issue 593, 15 May 1918? [pdf 104], Der letzte Dollmond and on [pdf 114] Pique Dame with Alexander Moissi. Also, "Aus der Praxis", [pdf 129], Decla ends a lease on Friedrichstrasse 23.
Haha lol, excellent pic of Greenbaum-Film's studios in 5-7 Franz Joseph Strasse, Weissensee: Lichtbild-Bühne Vol 11, No. 14, 6 April 1918 [pdf 77] - and good drawing of Neubabelsberg in an ad for Deutsche Bioscop, back cover, [pdf 98]. (saved in My Docs)
In Februry or April 1918, Heuser converted the Bioskop-Konzern into a stock corporation, Rheinische Lichtbild AG. The second major German film company came into being as a kind of 'counter-Ufa', incorporating Deutsche Bioscop and its studio premises in Babelsberg as its core. [78] [n]
Well-known bankers and lawyers from Cologne, Mönchengladbach and Berlin were among the co-founders of the joint-stock company. [73]
Peter Heuser remained general director and also brought in his Harmonie-Film-Gesellschaft, which in April 1918, after a much-vaunted world premiere in Cologne, launched the Beethoven biopic Martyr of His Heart starring Fritz Kortner with 26 copies in the cinemas. The repertoire of the Rheinische Lichtbild mainly consisted of film adaptations of fairy tales, but above all "works that stood up for national ideas" and "for Germany's greatness". [73]
Rear outside cover of Der Kinematograph, 2 May 1918 [pdf 74] ("Bioscop Konzern - unsere Produktion 1918/19") has a full-page ad graphically depicting 12 series of forthcoming films as stars over the cities where the member firms were located: Köln - Dekage; Berlin - Bioscop; Frankfurt - Mitteldeutsche; Leipzig and Dresden - Wolfram; Breslau - Schlesich; and Munich.
Der Kinematograph, 12 June 1918, Front cover, [pdf 29], lists all the forthcoming Bioscop-Konzern films by 10 stars (mostly 6 apiece) & 2 prod. companies, Harmonie (Peter Heuser) and Corvin (Alexander Korda).
The writer de:Alfred Rosenthal developed into a busy multi-functionary in the field of film. He worked as a delegate for the Rhenish-Westphalian film distributors' association in Berlin and as press spokesman for Bioscop-Concerns and then Rheinische Lichtbild AG. [85] Rosenthal was chief editor of Der Kinematograph from 1923 to 1933.
When the Bioskop Group, Cologne's largest film production and distribution company, moved its offices to Berlin in November 1918, Cologne lost its status as the "film trading city of the West". [73]
April 1918: " de:Heinrich Lautensack (Schriftsteller), the successful film script writer and dramaturg of Bioscop-Gesellschaft in Berlin has gone insane and had to be taken to the psychiatric clinic. He had come to Munich from Berlin to take part in the funeral of Frank Wedekind, with whom he had joined the eleven executors at the time. When the coffin was lowered into the grave, Lautensack threw himself on the ground and cried out in heartbreaking tones: "I am your most unworthy, your last student. Keep still, it's being filmed..." In the evening he discussed this quite seriously with Principal Stollberg from the Munich Schauspielhaus and a few other gentlemen, a repetition of the funeral service in order to record it for the film. The well-known comedy director Carl Rößler took pity on the poor man and took him by car to the psychiatric clinic, where he is still." [86]
June 1918: (Directly after full-page ads by Bioscophaus for Der lachende Tod, Der fluch alten Mühle and Der Taktstock Richard Wagners):
Big fire accident at the Bioscop film distribution company, Berlin.
11 employees and 5 business visitors lost their lives.
Although Germany had been physically almost untouched by the war, the immediate years after WW1 were very precarious. The Allied naval blockade still carried on in 1919 until the Treaty of Versailles was signed in late June. There had been a swift, genuine revolution: the old German Empire had been overthrown and the Weimar Republic had been established.
The trend towards operational concentration and expansion, and the transition to even bigger films continued apace after the war. The financial structure of the German film industry in the late 1910s and early 1920s changed from limited liability companies ( GmbH) to stock corporations ( AG), with the stock corporations successively increasing their capital and 'swallowing up' other companies and groups. [78]
In the summer of 1919, Rheinische Lichtbild AG published a few issues of its own illustrated house magazine, Der schwarze Bär, edited by Alfred Rosenthal from Neubabelsberg. It included articles on forthcoming films, stars, and other film-related items. Three issues seem to have been included in Kinema, published in Zurich, Switzerland, in Volume IX: Heft 1 in No. 25, 21 June 1919: Heft 2 in No. 26, 28 June: Heft 3 in No. 27, 5 July 1919: and Heft 2 (again, mistakenly) in No. 28, 12 July.
In November 1919 Bioscop (or Rheinische Lichtbild AG) merged with Richard Oswald's production firm, which brought in an increased capital of 30,000 million marks. [88] Bioscop had an excellent distribution system and a large cinema chain.
According to a December 1919 report in the US trade journal Camera! ("The Digest of the Motion Picture Industry"), Rheinische Lichtbild AG had made no money since it was formed:
Thus, Rheinische Lichtbild AG was re-incorporated as Deutsche Bioscop AG in 1919. [78] However, the name Bioscop-Konzern continued to be used.
The report cited above also contains a summary of Decla Film's business up to the end of 1919:
To counter Ufa's rapid rise to prominence, a number of the remaining independent production studios and exhibitors joined together to form Decla-Bioscop.
To properly compete with Ufa, Decla needed Bioscop's theatres and distribution: and, conversely, Bioscop (allegedly suffering from lack of management, discipline and even competence) needed Erich Pommer's management ability. [90] So in around April 1920 Deutsche Bioscop AG merged with Decla-Film [91] to form Decla-Bioscop AG, increasing the capital to 50 million marks. [78] [92] Rudolf Meinert was the first head of production, having recently merged his production firm with Decla in November 1919.
At a celebration in Treptow, Berlin, for the 10th anniversary of Agfa Rohrfilmfabrik in July 1920, Ufa Generaldirektor Bratz was present, and for Decla-Bioscop Pommer and Oliver. Managing director Paul Davidson, on behalf of Ufa, the 'Decla-Bioscop Konzern', and for the Firma Karl Geyer, made a congratulatory speech about the positive relations between Afga and the whole film industry. [93]
Decla-Bioscop made an offer for the Zirkus Schumann in Frankfurt (de), intending to turn it into a 5,000 seat cinema, [94] [95] [96]
Verlag Ullstein & Co. made a deal with Decla-Bioscop in July 1920, forming Uco-Film Gesellschaft. [97] This allowed Pommer's company exclusive access to Ullstein's literary publications. [98] Uco-Film's productions include F.W. Murnau's Schloß Vogelöd, 1921 and Phantom (1922 film); and Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse the Gambler of 1922, based on Norbert Jacques' novel serialised in Ullstein's Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung.
Another subsidiary company, Russo-Film, produced quality drama films based on world literature, such as Dostoievsky's Irrende Seelen of 1921, directed by Carl Froelich and starring Asta Nielsen, Alfred Abel, and Walter Janssen.
Although the two production companies had merged financially, Decla and Bioscop films were distributed separately by Decla-Verleih and Bioscop-Verleih, including foreign films. [99] Under the terms of an August 1921 contract between Decla-Verleih and Goldwyn Films, Decla purchased distribution rights to eight Goldwyn pictures for 150,000 marks each, plus 50% of the net box office exceeding that figure.(Saunders, page needed)
By the summer of 1921 the first signs of hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic were beginning to appear, and Germany's banking system came under severe pressure.
Ufa had been set up by the German government during World War I in 1917, and Deutsche Bank had purchased the state's 30% share in 1919 to become a major stockholder. [100]
Before its 1920 merger with Deutsche Bioscop, Decla had improved its finances in 1919 through a share purchase by the Deutsche Nationalbank in Bremen (founded in 1871). [101] [s] In 1920 Deutsche Nationalbank in Bremen was absorbed by the the similarly-named but unconnected Berlin-based Nationalbank für Deutschland, which also had interests in Ufa. [101] [t] However, within a year or so of the merger Decla-Bioscop's finances had again become precarious. [101] National-Film, who had previously offered to make a merger with Pommer's company, made another informal bid to the directors on 26 August 1921 for Decla-Bioscop. NB! Who was backing National-Film? New managers from National-Film had already moved into Decla's premises. [103]
Decla-Bioscop's stockholders rejected this bid and accepted a matching offer from Ufa. This was hardly surprising, since Nationalbank had shares and directorships in both firms. The day before Decla's next stockholders' meeting on 20 September when it was expected to have the merger confirmed, National increased its bid: but since Nationalbank für Deutschland now had interests in both Ufa and Decla-Bioscop, [101] the merger became something of a fait accompli. [104] [u] Thus, effectively compelled by their joint backer, Nationalbank für Deutschland, Decla-Bioscop merged with Ufa in October 1921. The merger was authorised by stockholders on 11 October 1921, contracts signed 10 and 11 November 1921. [106]
According to Hardt, Decla-Bioscop wasn't liquidated, but instead its assets were transferred to Ufa. It wasn't simply swallowed up, but treated by Ufa as an artistic and technical collaborator. Productions remained individualised and decentralised. Their films were distributed separately by Decla-Verleih and Bioscop-Verleih. [99] Decla-Bioscop was changed from a corporation (AG) to a joint stock company (GmbH) by May 1922. Pommer's company operated as one of Ufa's departments until 1 June 1924, when it merged with Ufa's central administration. [107]
At the same time the two separate distribution companies were merged as Decla-Bioscop-Verleih GmbH. [108] Thus the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek is perhaps correct when it says Decla-Bioscop-Verleih was active from 1924-1928, previously they were separate companies with their own identities within the Ufa fold. BUT! see Kinematograph year book (1929) p. 44 (pdf 50) which states the firm still existed as Decla-Bioscop-Verleih AG in Kochstraße 6/8. The previous Decla-Verleih association with Goldwyn continued with MGM and Parufamet. Hollywood in Berlin: American Cinema and Weimar Germany has a German film poster for Erich von Stroheim's 1924 Greed (Gier nach Geld), stating "Metro-Goldwyn-Film der UFA / Decla-Bioscop-Verleih GmbH / Verleihbetrieb der Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft" which wasn't released in Germany until May 1926 (to huge whistling and foot-stamping protests at the newly-refurbished Ufa-Palast am Zoo), so this would be while Parufamet was in operation. (Saunders p. 167)
Hollywood in Berlin: American Cinema and Weimar Germany Volume 6 of Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism Author Thomas J. Saunders Publisher University of California Press, 2023 ISBN 0520914163, 9780520914162 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=e0_hEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT171
See #Filmography.
Guido Seeber was head of the technical department at Deutsche Bioscop from 1909, [62] he oversaw the building of the Babelsberg studios in 1911–1912 and was principal cameraman for some 16 of Bioscop’s 30 Asta Nielsen series (1911–1913). [109] Cameraman for The Student of Prague (1913 film) - NB fix WL links to Decla-Film...! and The Golem (1915 film) where he distinguished himself as an early pioneer of trick cinematography.
de:Heinrich Lautensack was employed by Deutsche Bioscop until May 1912, when he became script editor and public relations manager at the newly founded Continental-Kunstfilm. [110]
Stellan Rye. Student von Prag "He directed for Eiko Film first and then he moved to Deutsche Bioscop where he exclusively worked for the Künstler-Filmserie, film series for the renowned stage actors, which closely linked to so-called Autorenfilm movement." [111] Lucie Höflich in Rye's Gendarm Möbius while still appearing on stage (Lichtbild-Bühne, No. 28, July 1913, p. 42)
Paul Wegener, Evinrude, der Verfuhrte; Alexander Moissi Bajazzo's Liebe und Ende
Conrad Veidt's first and third films The Path of Death and When the Dead Speak, both with Maria Carmi and Carl de Vogt were shot at at Babelsberg in 1916/17 (both lost). Veidt, who died aged around 50 from a heart attack, made many of his films with Richard Oswald.
NB Someone (wonder who?) has failed to identify the actual studio used for Veidt's Evening – Night – Morning, but since it was distributed by Decla-Bioscop it was probably the Lixie-Atelier of C-K. Yep, Conrad Veidt on Screen: A Comprehensive Illustrated Filmography by John T. Soister p. 113 identifies it correctly, but says it was made by variously Helios-Film, Schneider-Film (never heard of them) or Decla-Bioscop, but distributed by Decla-Film. Yech. Abend - Nacht - Morgen at Filmportal.de confirms it.
In general, the name of each newly-registered company is spelled slightly differently, with either a 'c' or a 'k', and with or without a final 'e'.
The spelling of 'Bioscope' or 'Bioskope' with a final 'e' (the US and British spelling) may be due to the fact that Greenbaum lived and worked in Chicago for over five years before returning to Germany and becoming involved in the film business. German spelling conventions tend to indicate that the word is spelled without an 'e', 'Bioscop' or 'Bioskop'.
See also #Addresses: from the 1911 Berliner Addressbuch
The various stages of Deutsche Bioscope's existence from 1899 to 1924 can be summarised as:
NB When was the last film released with just Deutsche Bioscop as production company?
Otherwise, almost any combination of Greenbaum, Pommer or other producers, Deutsche Bioscope, Decla-Film, Decla-Bioscop, or any of their studios/ateliers can be encountered in various mis-informed WP articles and external websites about these companies and their films.
All sorts - lots & lots of the Kaiser and other royal personages
Also, "Das Präsidium [des Deutschen Flottenvereins] nahm dennoch von der bisher praktizierten Vorfinanzierung der Film-propaganda Abstand, und beauftragte für die Saison 1906/07 die Deutsche Bioscope-Gesellschaft mit der Durchführung von kinematographischen Projektionen." [124]
Translated from Jung & Loiperdinger:
And the DKG (German Colonial Company)
Also, Leben und Treiben in Tanga (Deutsch-Ost-Afrika), non-extant, Der Kinematograph, Nr. 150, 10.11.1909.
NB! Move to sources Jung, Uli; Loiperdinger, Martin, eds. (2005). Geschichte des dokumentarischen Films in Deutschland. Band 1: Kaiserreich (1895-1918) (PDF) (in German). Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam. doi: 10.25969/mediarep/14035.
Stunning sound films - Made 115 years ago, many are still extant on Youtube - search results and Playlist
Some of the singers appear to have been from the de:Metropol-Theater (Berlin-Mitte) [aa] (Not to be confused with the Metropol Theatre on Nollendorfplatz).
Some Dt.Bio films were shown at at the 2014 Pordenone film festival. review
So: are the actors in the films the same people as the singers who made the records? They are obviously singing, and certainly know the words and music. I mean, how many people would actually know the sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor? (Well actually, Caruso sang it in Berlin in October 1907, along with Rigoletto and Aida, possibly the reason for the film...) [131] [132] And in fact it was made by actual members of the Berlin Royal Opera company. [133] Obviously they are miming to a record, and sometimes (eg in the Pagliacci duet) the actors are certainly not singing the same words as on the recording. The some of the rather basic sets look very much like this one: de:Datei:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H26728, Berlin, Fritzi Massary im Metropoltheater.jpg
Well, if 'Roland und Viktoria' was sung by Leonhard Haskel and Anna Müller-Lincke, who both appeared at the Metropol, then it seems possible that some or all the other films were made by the actual singers at the Metropol and elsewhere. Other singers at the Metropol theatre company include Fritzi Massary, Joseph Giampietro [134], Josef Josephi, Lizzi Waldmüller, Richard Tauber et al.
Hmm, perhaps sometimes the singers did the miming/acting, but more often they were different. Lots of research needed... lol The film with Tetrazzini on disc and an established German singer ?Isabelle L’Huillier? was perhaps typical...?
In September 1908 Deutsche Bioscope-Gesellschaft mbH was advertising both actualités and Tonfilms in two full-page advertisements in the trade press: [148]
The highly popular operetta Ein Walzertraum by Oscar Straus premiered on March 2, 1907 at the Carl Theater in Vienna.
"Rising to the challenge, Davidson [of PAGU] countered with another qualitative innovation when he presented a real sound film premiere to the public: 'From 1 January the Union Theatre at 74 Kaiserstrasse [Frankfurt] will bring out an entirely new hit and 8 themes from Der Walzertraum, the latest operetta by Oscar Strauss, with the original cast from the Vienna Carltheater." [160] [161]
Other related recordings:
Huge list of tonfilms, nos. 1233 - 1271 Der Kinematograph, 3 March 1909, rear outside cover.
Apart from a few Christmas/New Year 1910 sound films, apparently made by the new Dt.Bio without Greenbaum, [156] or maybe they showed Greenbaum's films...? nah, maybe just saying "we can do this too." And that's the end of Tonfilms from Deutsche Bioscope.
Haha Sumurun, the Max Reinhardt one lol, but NOT Sumurun, the 1920 Lubitsch one. [162]
Gad and Nielsen began by making the short Heißes Blut ( Gipsy Blood and Nachtfalter ( The Moth) (both non-extant) with Deutsche Bioscop around May 1911. There was heavy publicity in the trade press from March 1911. The latter was released by Aktien-Gesellschaft fur Kinemafotographie und Filmverleih, Strasbourg. [53] These were apparently made before the big contract for the three major series signed in June 1911 - the others were made in the summer of 1911.
Extant Asta Nielsen/Urban Gad films produced by Deutsche Bioscop:(Source:
[163])
(P) indicates films produced by PAGU alone.
Non-extant Asta Nielsen/Urban Gad films: (Source:
[164])
(Either Deutsche Bioscope or PAGU or others - check!)
Heisses Blut, 1911; Nachtfalter, 1911; Zigeunerblut, 1911; Die Macht des Goldes, 1912; Zu Tode gehetzt, 1912; Die Kinder des Generals, 1912; Jugend und Tollheit, 1913; Der Tod in Sevilla, 1913; Das Kind ruft, 1914; Das Feuer, 1914; Die Tochter der Landstrasse, 1915; Die falsche Asta Nielsen, 1915; Engeleins Hochzeit, 1916; Aschenbrödel, 1916; Die weissen Rosen, 1916;
At any rate, they were incredibly successful, and by November 1911 Guido Seeber had found new premises at Babelsberg. They moved in on February 12, 1912, the very same date when Continental-Kunstfilm moved into 123 Chausseestr.
When Hindenburg became German C-in-C in summer 1916 the previous negative attitude towards films was replaced with a flurry of propaganda and promotional films. The German Naval League started producing films again (previously the sole province of Greenbaum) such as de:Stolz weht die Flagge schwarz-weiss-rot. - Also lyrics to a flag-song. Premiere 23. August 1916 in Berlins Mozartsaal. Deutsche Bioscop showed anti-French and anti-Russian films such as
The merger with Decla Film happened in around March/April 1920. [92]
Incomplete list of films made after the merger with Ufa. As shown elswhere #Merger with Ufa?, I'm fairly sure that after the merger Ufa treated Decla and Deutsche Bioscope as two separate film production companies, and formed two separate firms, Decla-Verleih and Bioscop-Verleih, to handle their distribution. [99]
Decla-Bioscop productions like Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen (1924) and Murnau's Der letzte Mann (1924) were released. But be VERY CAREFUL about which company made the films, and who handled the distribution!
From November 1921 until June 1924 it seems that Ufa provided the finance, but the films were still made and distributed by the individual film companies. Find some more film posters: aha! see Der Mude Tod by Bioscope and Der Roman der Christine von Herre by Decla, Der Kinematograph, 7 & 14 August 1921, just before the Ufa merger. See Filmportal.de list below.
Ufa centralised all its production in June 1924. [107] The constituent film companies, which had been separate departments (at least Decla and Deutsche Bioscop), lost their ability to decide what films they wanted to make. It seems fairly clear that Decla-Bioscop-Verleih, also formed in 1924, was the rental/distribution company for Decla and Bioscop's back catalogue and also acted as Ufa's rental/distribution arm for new major foreign films (Großfilmen) such as Buster Keaton's Seven Chances.
The following list from Filmportal.de Decla-Bioscop-Verleih GmbH (Berlin) runs from 1920 to 1926, and includes earlier films made separately by Decla (?and Deutsche Bioscop?), starting with Caligari and Parts 1 & 2 of Die Spinnen (1919/1920) all made and released by Decla alone by the end of February 1920 before the Decla-Bioscop merger in April that year. This is confirmed by a full-page ad in Der Kinematograph (June 1925), (pdf 145) "Verbilligen Sie Ihre Sommerprogramme indem Sie die erprobten Filme des Erfolges spielen! Diese Filme sind in neuen Kopien erschienen". ("Reduce the cost of your Summer programme by showing well-tried successful films! These films are released in new copies"). It includes Der müde Tod, Die Nibelungen, and Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler. Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek says Decla-Bioscop-Verleih GmbH was active from 1924-1928, although its existence appears to have carried on into 1929, see See Kinematograph (UK) Year Book (1929). ( Consolidate refs!!!)
Filmportal.de list: (incomplete)
de:Decla-Bioskop#Decla- bzw. Decla-Bioscop-Filme (Auswahl) has a rather different list from Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari onwards, including Die Finanzen des Großherzogs which Filmportal says was produced by Ufa and distributed by Decla-Bioscop-Verleih[?]. Click on "Alle Credits". [181] Blimey, people just come up with a load of bollocks, don't they? Die Finanzen des Großherzogs, Murnau's only comedy, appears in the June 1925 ad in Kinematograph, having been made by Ufa in mid-1923 and premiered in January 1924 and in this list it is distributed by Ufa's own Universum-Film Verleih, not Decla-Bioscop-Verleih, but you would need to do some checking to unearth its actual history...
If I go through the above German WP list and check the entries against Filmportal, I will probably find many with Decla-Bioscop-Verleih. Decla-Bioscop-Verleih is the later distribution company under Ufa, they7 may have been previously distributed by other firms - depends which company actually made them in the first place...
Almost all of the following quasi-nonsense is explained in #Greenbaum's other firms and addresses, some refs are duplicated, others need to be transferred.
Vitascope-Theater-Betriebs was incoporated in March 1907. It cost 20,000 marks to form a GmbH at the time, and cinema companies needed little more: thus Vitascope-Theater-Betriebs Ges. mbH was founded with 21.000 marks as capital. Operation of Vitascope-Theaters at home and abroad. Other directors: theater director Ludwig Rosenfeld, and director Otto Heinemann, Charlottenberg. [182] See also Judische Pionere by Christoph Wirth.
The Lindström company continued to make Beka records through its London agency in Hertfordshire from 1913, but in 1916 it was forcibly reorganised as a British company through the Trading with the Enemy Act, and it was taken over by Columbia Graphophone Company who put up the capital. [184] Columbia had only just been registered as a British company, although the shares were held by the US parent company.
At the time of the merger with Schleussner in 1909, Greenbaum also registered his own new company, Bioskop-Theater GmbH, which became Vitascope-Theater on 8 September 1909, [6] and then later Deutsche Vitascope. Aargh Frühe deutsche Kinematographie: Formale, wirtschaftliche und kulturelle... p. 288
WELL, WHICH? Cross-check vv CAREFULLY with Jules Greenbaum - when was Bioscope-Theater formed, and then Vitascope-Theater, and then Deutsche Vitascope? 8 September 1909, or later? See Hampicke 2015 and interview (below) with Greenbaum in September 1909. [1]
+ Ur-text from kinematograph03-1909-09_p 80 §
Here you go:
On 17 August 1909 Greenbaum definitely changed Vitascope Theater Betriebsgesellschaft into Deutsche Vitascope GmbH, [ai] with offices at Friedrichstr. 20. [1] He appears to have started advertising the new company from around 8 September 1909, with a full-page ad in Kinematograph, Deutsche Vitascope in large letters, also advertising the latest Vitaphone Model 1910 ("Newest, most perfect simultaneous sound apparatus for singing, speaking, musical photography" [116]Outside rear cover [pdf p.42]
Greenbaum's old company Deutsche Bioskop GmbH, sold to Schelussner, was also renamed as Deutsche Bioscop GmbH in September 1909, according to a company listing in Der Kinematograph. [185] It would keep this name until the 1920 merger with Decla Film to become Decla-Biocsop.
Well, it appears that Vitascope may have been a subsidiary of Bioscope, and not a completely independent company. This would tend to explain why Greenbaum's expenditure on Tonbilder made with Synchroscope equipment was questioned in December 1908 and led to his departure.
Kinematograph03-1909-09 ad:
Deutsche Bioscop Gesellschaft mbH - Address: Friedrichstrasse 236 Vitascop-Projections-Apparat, Royal-Synchroscop, actuelle, stumme und künstleriche Tonfilms.
Full-page ad:
Deutsche Vitascope Berlin SW. 48., Friedrichstrasse 22 Telephon: IV., No. 3261. Telegr.-Adr.: Phonofilm-Berlin. Geschaftsführer: Jules Greenbaum
Vitascope, Mod. 1910 die flimmerfreie, perfecte Kinematograph
Vitaphone Neuester, vollkommenster Gleichlauf - Apparat für singende, sprechende, musizierende Photographien.
Georg Furkel, who Greenbaum had recruited in Amsterdam in 1899 his first cameraman, became technical director in 1912. [6]
Ein Interview von Max Olitzki.
[1]
MO: Vor wenigen Wochen wurde es bekannt, dass in der Leitung der renommierten Deutschen Bioskop G.m.b.H. eine Aenderung vorgenommen wurde, die mit einer Persönlichkeit verknüpft ist, welche seit Jahren in der gesamten Filmindustrie sich der grössten Hochachtung erfreut, nämlich mit Herrn Ju1es Greenbaum , dem Begründer der Deutschen Bioskope G.m.b.H. Da wir annehmen, dass es unsere Leser interessieren wird, die Gründe dieses plötzlichen Entschlusses zu erfahren, nahmen wir Gelegenheit, Herrn Greenbaum hierüber zu interpellieren. Das Wort "Bioskop" oder "Bioskope", also mit oder ohne "e" hat seit Jahren grosse Verwirrung angerichtet. Sind Sie nun, verehrter Herr Greenbaum der Begründer der G.m.b.H. mit "e" oder ohne "e"?
JG: "Ich bin Ihnen sehr dankbar, dass Sie mir gestatten hierüber Aufklärung zu geben, damit nun endlich mal der Wirrwarr aufhört."
"Im Jahre 1897 gründete ich unter der Firma meines Namens ein Verkaufsgeschäft in Kinematographen und Films, welches nach zwei Jahren in eine Gesellschaft umgewandelt wurde und zwar in die Deutsche Bioskope. Jedoch erwies sich das Geschäft als zu klein und es entstand die noch heute im Lustspielhaus befindliche Deutsche Bioskop G.m.b.H. Abermals waren wir gezwungen — infolge des günstigen Absatzes — eine Vergrößerung vorzunehmen. Es gelang mir 1908 die Firma Dr. C. Schleusner Akt.-Ges. in Frankfurt a. M. in der Deutschen Bioskope
zu interessieren und zwar derart, dass die Schleusner Akt.-Ges. die Fabrikations- und Verkaufsgeschäfte von mir gegen eine Summe von 210 000 Mk. übernahm und mich darin mit 1/3 beteiligte. Es entstand daraufhin eine neue Firma, die sich abermals Deutsche Bioskop G.m.b.H. nannte, jedoch ohne "e", während die alte mit einem "e", die nur die Theater- und Filmverleihgeschäfte betrieb, mir allein verblieb und noch heute unter dem Namen Bioskope Theater-Ges.m.b.H. besteht".
MO: "Diese Geschäfte gehen doch aber gut und werden, wie ich weiss, stark in Anspruch genommen. Warum wollen Sie denn so unerwartet die Bioskop G.m.b.H. aufgeben? Erfordern beide soviel Kraftentfal?ung, [illegible, Kraftentfalsung?] dass Sie sich entlasten müssen?"
JG: "Nein, absolut nicht! Im Gegenteil, Verehrtester, ich habe viele neue Pläne, die ich aber in der ersteren Gesellschaft nicht ausführen kamt, da ich mich dort in meinem Geschäftssinn zu beengt fühle. Sie wollen doch gütigst bedenken, dass die Dr. C. Schleusner Akt.-Ges. darin mit
2/3 ist, während ich nur mit 1/3."
MO: „Aha!" erlaubte ich mir zu interjezieren. "Sie wollten mithin nur Ihre 1/3 Pflicht tun!"
JG: "Sie sind noch immer der unverbesserliche Witzling!" Hören Sie bitte, weiter! Ich kam schliesslich mit der Schleusner Akt.-Ges. dahin überein, dass sie meinen 1/3 Anteil käuflich erwirbt, mich von meiner Konkurrenzklausel befreit, damit ich von ihr ganz unabhängig weiter arbeiten kann."
MO: "Ist Ihnen dies bewilligt worden?"
JG: "Mit grösster Freude! Beide Teile, sind somit vollauf befriedigt und haben wir uns in gütigstem Einverständnis voneinander getrennt."
MO: "Und nun?"
JG: "Jetzt habe ich eine andere G.m.b.H. gegründet und zwar die Deutsche Vitaskope, die in der Friedrichstr. 20 bereits eröffnet ist." [NB His full-page ad in the previous issue says in big letters Deutsche Vitascope]
MO: "Werden Sie uns mit Neuheiten überraschen?"
JG: "Ich glaube annehmen zu dürfen, dass mein neuer Vitaskop allen willkommen sein wird. Ganz besonderes Interesse dürfte mein neuer Synchronapparat erregen schon wegen seiner Billigkeit, Güte und minutiöser Präzision. Ferner bringe ich einen neuen Dauerfilm auf den Markt, der wie der Name andeutet, fortlaufende Handlungen ohne Unterbrechungen zeigen wird. Man ist durch ihn in der Lage eine ganze Oper aufzuführen und zwar aktweise, wie in einem Opernhause."
MO: „Sie haben sich da ein schönes Pensum reserviert das noch viel Arbeit kosten wird Hoffentlich gelingen Ihre neuen Pläne im selben Masse wie die alten".
Indem ich mich durch kräftigen Händedruck von dem kleinen, runden, vielseitig gewandten Herrn Greenbaum dankend verabschiedete, kam der Telegraphenbote mit der Nachricht, dass ihn in Paris dringende Geschäfte erwarten.
September 1909: Vitascope advertisement for the "Protectophon", Der Kinematograph, No. 157, 29 December 1909, back cover, and also inside rear cover, No. 162, 2 February 1910, [pdf 31]. Apparently for sound films. No further information.
19 May 1909: Another article by Olitski about Dt.Bio joining forces with Ludwig Hupfeld A.-G of Leipzig to make sound films with his 'Phonola' reproducing pianos, similar to the pianola.
Unsere Anregungen in No. 111 "Die Kinobühne als Konzertsaal" und die sich daran schliessenden Artikel in Nos. 116 & 118 halten das erfreuliche Resultat gezeitigt, dass unsere Worte nicht ungcliört blieben, sondern auf fruchtbaren Boden gefallen sind. Wie erinnerlich sein wird, bezweckten wir eine Kombination von Reproduktionsklavier und Filmaufnahme, also die Möglichkeit, unsere bedeutenden Klaviermeister wie d’Albert. Busoni, Godowsky usw. den Kinotheaterbesuchern zu repräsentieren und zwar nicht nur deren Person, sondern ihr ganzes Gehaben vor dem Flügel. Wir behaupteten ferner, dass diese neuen Films zur künstlerischen Hebung des Kinotheaters beitragen und den Theaterbesitzern eine erhebliche Einnahmebequelle sichern würden. Und schliesslich bemerken wir dass sich die Filmfahrikanten einen unauslöschlischen Namen in der Kulturgeschichte machen würden, denn es wäre doch, so meinten wir am Ende, äusserst interessant und für das gesamte musikliebende Publikum, das bekanntlich kein kleines ist, wichtig und erfreulich, könnte es heute sehen und hören, wie ein Liszt oder Rubinstein einstens gespielt, wie sie sich beim Spielen bewegt hallen. Diese beiden Momente richtig erfasst, erkannt zu halten und zu dem Entschluss gekommen zu sein, diese Kulturaufgabe zu lösen und auszuführen, ist das Verdienst der Deutschen Bioskope-Gesellschaft in Berlin und der Ludwig Hupfeld-A.-G. in Leipzig.
Letztere ist seit langer Zeit in der glücklichen Lage. die ,, Kunstlernotenrollen" zu besitzen, über die wir in einem Artikel bereits sprachen, und die für den gedachten Zweck einzig und allein in Betracht kommen, weil diese Noten von den bedeutendsten und begehresten Konzertkünstlern eigenhändig gespielt und für die Reproduktionsklaviere "Phonola" und "Dea" gestanzt sind. War mithin das Originalspiel unserer Klaviergrössen durch die Hupfeldschcn Fabrikate gegeben und gesichert, so ticstand nur n«x*h die Krwägung, wie die zeitliche Ubereinstimmung mit der Filmaufnahme zu bewerkstelligen wäre. Und dieses Problem ist nun nach gegenseitigem Gedankenaustausch der beiden renommierten Gesellschaften gefunden und gelöst. Schon in wenigen Wochen werden die Tlieaterbesitzer durch die Konzertfilms oder 'Phonolafilms' in den Stand gesetzt sein, ihr Repertoire zu vergrössern und dem Publikum mit einer Sensation aufzuwarten. Die Abmachungen mit den Künstlern für die Filmaufnahme sind derart getroffen, dass diese sich einzig und allein, der Deutschen Bioskope-Gesellschaft auf mehrere Jahre verpflichten, sodass die Ludwig Hupfeld-A.-G. zusammen mit der Deutschen Bioskope-Gesellschaft die ersten und vorläufig die alleinigen Fabrikanten dieser Konzertfilms sind und bleiben werden. Da es sich in diesem Falle nicht um momentan aktuelle, sensationelle Films handelt, sondern um ein Dauerfabrikat, kann man ungefähr eine Vorstellung erhalten, in welch lohnender Weise der schnelle Entschluss der beiden Gesellschaften sich bezahlt machen wird."
So, these are sound films, but with live pianola playback via a pre-recorded music roll. Were any even made? Easy, just find the titles of piano music...
Although Greenbaum's Vitascope (separate from Deutsche Bioscope's actualité business) first concentrated on sound films using his own patented Synchroscope apparatus, Tonbilder became increasingly unprofitable by 1909, although Deutsche Bioscop (freed from a non-competition agreement) was advertising both actualités and sound films in 1910 Check!
Most sound film production folded before the end 1910. It wasn't until around 1920 when sound-on-film first became possible that interest in sound films started again, and its development took until 1929 to become a commercial reality.
Source: [190] Much longer list of non-sound films from 1910 at The Concise Cinegraph: [191]
Personen- Verzeichnis: Philine . . Frl. Gaetes Lotharin. . Herr Neudamm Mignon. . . Frl. Wiggraf (Mitglieder der Kgl. Hofoper) Kgl. Hofopern-Chor, Kgl. Ballett. [193]
Greenbaum's Deutsche Vitascope joined up with PAGU in early 1914, perhaps to fight the French of invasion of Pathé and Gaumont - there seems to have been a huge general anti-foreigner feeling, certainly in the film and cinema trade: even the German branches of Pathé and Cines joined in the general sentiment, trumpeting their German-ness. See Lichtbild-Buhne issues from c1913? This means that Greenbaum and Deutsche Bioscop (with PAGU since the Nielsen films of 1911 until the outbreak of war) may have been briefly re-united under the same umbrella.
On 12 or 22 January 1915, Deutsche Vitascope [formed on 17 August 1909] restructures itself as Greenbaum-Film GmbH. [6] [196]
From 1907 Greenbaum's Deutsche Bioskope expanded rapidly in various directions. Apart from producing topical and actualité newsreels, Greenbaum had patented and was marketing the Synchroscope, a pioneering sound-on-disc system which used manual adjustment to synchronise phonograph records with moving pictures to create a working sound and vision system. [197]
Operating the Synchroscope involved the projectionist noting the position of two dial indicators like the hands of a clock, one (connected by a long cable) showing the speed of the remote clockwork-operated phonograph located near the screen, and one the speed of the hand-cranked projector at the other end of the projection hall. The projectionist had to alter the cranking speed of the projector (by turning the handle faster or slower) to keep the dials together, to synchronise the moving image with the sound. Various coloured lights glowed if the film was running too slow or too fast. [198] Greenbaum's device was an imitator of Oskar Messter's similar 'Biophon' system, and along with similar inventions, Germany soon had around twelve incompatible competing sound-on-disk film processes. None of these lasted very long. [199] [am]
Greenbaum produced a number of short sound films (Tonbilder) of vocal classical and light music including opera and operetta: [6] for example, Anna Müller-Lincke made some Tonbilder of operetta songs in 1907. [203] Guido Seeber, the head of the technical department at Deutsche Bioscop, had previously developed his own Seeberophon and was familiar with Messter's Synchrophon; he devised a number ingenious trick shots for the Synchroscope. [204]
Greenbaum also planned to "take up the eminently important production of the so-called silent films on a modest scale and to enable regular production." In this field of silent feature films, the company had suffered significant financial losses in the past due to lack of experience. [6]
Guido Seeber is also credited with the Synchroscope [205]{McMahan|2014|p=68) - Seeber was Greenbaum's very first employee from 1899. [206] If Seeber is properly credited with it, it must have been a development of Greenbaum's orginal device.
Lots more on Greenbaum and competitors at Catalogo Giornate del Cinema Muto 2015, pp. 177-9
Furthermore, Messter's Biophon appears to have been a direct plagiarisation of a very similar device by Léon Gaumont's Chronophone.(McMahan pp 66-67). Messter threatened legal action against the makers and owners of competing sound-film equipment in Germany, including the Synchroscope, but became willing to make an agreement. Gaumont and Messter combined forces and marketed the 'Gaumont-Messter Chronophon-Biophon'.(McMahan p. 68-69) [207]
Title Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema Women make cinema Author Alison McMahan Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2014 ISBN 1501302698, 9781501302695 url= https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mqIMBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA68
In 1907 Gaumont entered into an agreement with George Kleine to distribute Chronophone and normal Gaumont silent films in the United States.{McMahan|2014|p=70-71), similar to Greenbaum's partnership with Carl Laemmle, see next.. Gaumont and Kleine fell out in 1912 over membership of the MPPC, Gaumont deciding to become an 'Independent'.(McMahan pp. xx-xxi)
In search of international sales, Greenbaum entered into contracts in 1908 to supply Synchroscope to Carl Laemmle's Movie Service Company in Chicago and to another American, Charles Urban, in Britain. [6] [208] [209]
According to Greenbaum, "The existing workshop would, with only a few additional staff, be sufficient for the manufacture of the machines to be delivered under the contracts, especially synchroscopes, but a separate recording studio would absolutely have to be set up in America. Laemmle's Film Service Company is ready to meet the costs for setting up this studio." [6]
The Synchroscope was heavily advertised by Laemmle:
Laemmle had opened offices in 7 cities: Chicago; Omaha, Nebraska; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Salt Lake City, Utah; Evansville, Ind.; Portland, Oregon; and Memphis, Tenn. Synchroscopes were installed in eg Omaha, Nebraska, [211] Denver, Colorado (Theatorium), Portland, Oregon (Star) [212]
Laemmle sold the system to a number of cinemas in or near these cities, showing Deutsche Bioscope's films, mostly arias from German operas, operettas, or vaudeville revue numbers. He hired Greenbaum's son George to install every Synchroscope he sold. [211] [an]
From 7 to 14 July 1908 the Star Theatre, Portland, Oregon [213] showed a bill consisting of a pair of Synchroscope films. [214] In another advertisement around this time, Laemmle asserted: "Sometime you'll have to have a Synchroscope in order to stay in business." [215] [ao]
Laemmle rented the Majestic Theatre [216] in Evansville, Indiana during the summer months when it was closed as a vaudeville house, and there he used the new machine, of which he held the American agency from its German manufacturers. Twenty years afterwards, in 1929, an old employee wrote in a letter:
Henny Porten: see From cinema to sound film. A piece of experienced film history. Dresden: Carl Reisner 1932, p. 46; Henny Porten mainly worked at M&B during her audiovisual career. Messter had already recorded English audio images for the US market in 1904 (cf. Mein Weg, p. 66) . Jossé: The emergence of the sound film, p. 92, reports that Carl Laemmle took over the US marketing of Jules Greenbaum's sound-image system in the USA in 1908 and imported sound images produced in Berlin for this purpose; Jossé says that's why the recordings were in German (which is why the project failed), which is somewhat unlikely since Greenbaum had been in the USA longer and was familiar with the conditions there. Unfortunately, there are no concrete references to sound image exports (by individual companies) (Muller, p. 292, n427), chapter "Kinogrundungskonjunktur und deren Auswirkungen"
In the end Synchroscope largely petered out in the USA because not enough sound films were made to meet demand, and because it could only last for two or three reels while the standard length of films was increasingly four or five reels long. [211] In addition, cheaper knock-off sound films were made by less experienced artists miming to an inexpensive commercial record. Costs for sound films dropped to those of ordinary silent ones by 1908, at around 1.00 mark per metre, which made them wholly unprofitable. [199] Messter had been concentrating almost exclusively on sound films for several years, contributing to 90% of his turnover in 1908: but in 1909 he declared a loss. [199] Deutsche Bioscop was still producing sound films in 1910, such as the tenor solo Liebesfrühlings im Dachstübchen (lit. 'Spring love in the attic') and the carol Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht with choir, church bells, organ and wind band. [156]
Other devices such as the Chronophonograph, the Cameraphone and the Cinephone were temporarily more successful in the US at the time: [223] a Cameraphone Theater opened in Portland, Oregon in February 1909. [224]
Similarly, Greenbaum's costs had soared by the end of 1908: the Synchroscope equipment was expensive, being originally priced at $750 (around $20,000 in 2015) although Laemmle struck a deal for $395 for low-end cinemas and $550 for the bigger theaters; [211] and each short film required new theatre-style sets and historical costumes. [6] At their peak in around 1908, the costs for sound films at 2.50 marks per metre (3 feet), apart from the cost of the record, were double those for silent films, from 60 pfennigs to 1.20 marks per metre. [225] By December 1909 Vitascop-Gesellschaft was selling copies of Zum Jahreswechsel, "Ein allegoriches Tonbild" for one mark per metre. [226]
A complete second-hand Synchroscope with a Victor talking machine, two indicator dials with cable plus instructions and two used films was being offered for sale for $110 in July 1909. [227] [211]
The shareholders complained at a meeting in December 1908 about the extra capital outlay, and looked forward to a general reduction in costs, not further expenditure. To free up the Greenbaum's commercial interests, Schleussner bought out their remaining share in 1909, and ended a no-competition agreement; after which Jules Greenbaum seems to have had no further involvement with his old company. [6]
Commercially viable movies using sound-on-film techniques only became widely available at the end of the 1920s with the German Tri-Ergon system used by Tobis-Klang in Europe, and e.g. Fox Corporation's Movietone apparatus in the USA.
A-S Filmfabriken "Danmark", Kopenhagen. Agent (Vertreter) for Deutschland und die Schweiz: Max Stambulki, Friedrichstrasse 243." [43] [i]
Die Toteninsel pops up for rental in Der Kinematograph for January 1915 Nr. 419, [pdf 20] by Frankfurter Film-Comp. GmbH states: "Die Toteninsel - Liebesroman - Nach Böcklinschen Motiven. 4 Akte." Lol, immediately above is "Der Excentricclub - von Misu - Schiffsdrama in 4 Akte" and we know
all about Herr Misu, don't we? And also further, an ad for Deutsche Bioscop-Gesellschaft mbH, Friedrichstr. 236, has "Telegram-Adresse: Bioscope" with an 'e'. So there. Also, Lichtbild-Bühne for November 1915 Nr. 14, [pdf 67] by Günther & Co., states: "Die Toteninsel (nach BöcklinMotiven), 4 Akte" but with no further info.
Well, well, wellety well. Looked up "The Isle of the Dead" in Danish, and found this:
Furkel, Georg (November 1926). "Film vor 30 Jahren". Der Kinematograph (in German). Part I: 7 November 1926, issue 1029, pp. 15-16 • Part 2: 14 November, issue 1030, pp. 11-12 • Part 3: 21 November, issue 1031, pp. 15-16
![]() | This is not a Wikipedia article: It is an individual user's work-in-progress page, and may be incomplete and/or unreliable. For guidance on developing this draft, see
Wikipedia:So you made a userspace draft. Find sources:
Google (
books ·
news ·
scholar ·
free images ·
WP refs) ·
FENS ·
JSTOR ·
TWL |
Deutsche Bioscop GmbH, (with many alternative confusing spellings), [a] later Decla-Bioscop, was a Berlin-based German film production company of the silent era with its origins in 1897 when Jules Greenbaum started a film company under his own name, Greenbaum-Bioscope. He renamed it as Deutsche Bioskop Gesellschaft in 1899, and incorporated it as Deutsche Bioskope GmbH in 1902. After an injection of share capital in 1908 it became Deutsche Bioscope GmbH with more directors on the board.
These Greenbaum companies produced topical and actualité silent documentary films, along with varieté items: and from 1907 to 1910, early sound films (Tonbilder) incorporating the sound-on-disc format. In competition with Oskar Messter's 'Biophon', [2] which electrically synchronised a gramophone record with a silent film, Greenbaum patented his own invention, the manually-operated Synchroscope (film) and produced hundreds of short sound films of operetta, cabaret, and music-hall routines to show in his own specially-equipped cinemas.
The brief interest in early sound films (originally twice the price of silent films) ended when prices fell substantially and they became uneconomical to make. After a period of financial difficulties Greenbaum sold his interest in the firm completely in 1909 to pursue his own career. The new owners changed the name again to Deutsche Bioscop. [3] From 1911 to 1915 the firm partnered with Paul Davidson's PAGU (Union-Film) to produce many of Asta Nielsen's first films, initially shot at 123 Chausseestraße Berlin; after February 1912 at the specially-built Babelsberg Studio; and for a third series at PAGU's Tempelhof Studios. After WWI it merged in 1920 with Eric Pommer's Decla-Film to become Decla-Bioscop. A final merger occurred the following year (1921) with the giant Ufa conglomerate, again with Pommer as the head of production. Decla-Bioscop continued to release films under its own name until around 1924, after which the Ufa brand assumed its full corporate identity and control over production.
The above companies produced a number of well-known films in the first 30 years of the 20th century, with directors and film stars such as Urban Gad and Asta Nielsen, Otto Rippert, Paul Wegener, Fritz Lang, et al.
The numerous changes of management and company names have led to considerable confusion about which films were produced by which firm or producer. In particular, Greenbaum is often given as producer for Deutsche Bioscop films after he had left the company in September 1909. Greenbaum, a busy man, was concurrently owner of his own separate existing film equipment and cinema theatre businesses Vitascope-Theater Betriebs (1907) and Bioscope-Theater (1908): after leaving Deutsche Bioscope in 1909 he founded another film production company, Deutsche Vitascope (1909), later simply Vitascope (1910), re-constituted as Greenbaum-Film (1915).
Lots at ( Müller 1994), eg p. 288 + search for 'Greenbaum'. Working on this atm.
Beginning in the textile business in his native Germany, Jules Greenbaum spent eight years working in Chicago becoming a naturalised US citzen in WHEN???. On his return to Germany, he started a film company under his own name in 1897, Greenbaum-Bioscop [4] [1] [5], selling Kinematograph equipment (his own Vitascope brand and other film cameras, and later Powers projectors ref pls) and imported [American] films. [6] [b] In 1899 he changed its name to Deutsche Bioskope Gesellschaft (ie Deutsche Bioskope Company). [6] [1] His first release that year was Frühjahrsparade, featuring Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany [6] [c]
The already-experienced cameraman de:Georg Furkel was in Amsterdam, working for nl:Anton Nöggerath at the end of 1899: Greenbaum arrived, wanting to buy a camera. Furkel went back to to Berlin for a month "on loan" to initiate Greenbaum into the secrets of cinematography. But Greenbaum managed to retain his services and in early 1900 Furkel went to Breslau to Liebich's Etablissement (i fink beautiful beyond belief, find refs! in Nollendorf article or related drafts - later leased/owned from 1912/13 by Al. Woods and Godsoll) to film Variety acts. A year later he was in Vienna at the Ronacher Etablissement, blscklisted ref § a popular variety theatre, staying there for a whole year, making variety films and local newsreels. [10] Furkel wrote an article published in 1926 recounting his experiences in the early days:
Greenbaum produced ten topical films in 1901 and eight in 1902. He probably imported a range of films from the USA, France and Great Britain. [11]) He incorporated Deutsche Bioscope GmbH, Berlin, on 18 June 1902 with a capital of 20,000 marks, with himself as managing director. [12] The main offices were at 131d Friedrichstraße, where the firm supplied equipment (including the American 68mm Biograph camera), devised to circumvent Edison's patents, and offered an 8-hour guaranteed film copying service. [6] [d]
His cameramen travelled to Vienna, Munich, Leipzig, Halle, Nuremberg, Kiel, Hamburg, Poznań, Lemberg and Riga to record films to be shown at the end of theatre variety shows. [6] He was also involved in apparatus construction: in 1902, Bioscope successfully launched the first 'Vitascope' camera apparatus in Germany. In the first decade of the 20th century, Greenbaum was probably the second largest film producer in Germany after Oskar Messter. [6]
Corinna Muller notes that for Greenbaum, the actualité film, real-life reportage, was the genuine drama, a kind of service or Dienst. [13] In this respect he was similar to Charles Urban, who also only made reportage and documentaries, and had little aptitude for making standard dramas. [14] The Spielfilm, the drama film, appers to have been less important for Greenbaum until after 1910 when the ability of sound-on-disc technology had failed to keep pace with increasing length of feature films.
Eugene Augustin Lauste, (or Émile Louis Lauste by 1928 per this ref) a cameraman & inventor, joined in 1904 and started Deutsche Bioscope's technical laboratory. [15]
Greenbaum produced acualité and documentary films for two nationalist pressure/lobbying groups, the Navy League or Fleet Association (Deutscher Flottenverein), and the German Colonial Society (Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft, DKG). As early as 1904, Greenbaum's stationery stated: "Supplier to the German Fleet Association": the German Imperial Naval Office had granted "permission to produce cinematographic recordings". Bioscope operators filmed ship launches and fleet parades in Wilhelmshaven and Gdansk.
George Furkel continues his recollections:
The Kaiser had arranged for a presentation of photographs from the life of the fleet in the Neuer Marstall "for first circles", in which primarily films from Deutsche Bioscope were shown. [6] In 1906, Greenbaum concluded a contract with the presidential office to carry out cinematographic presentations for the German Fleet Association. Bioscope cameras filmed Kaiser Wilhelm's Baltic and Mediterranean voyages on the SMY Hohenzollern II and to photograph the Kaiser repeatedly on board. [6]
In 1906 Deutsche Bioscope, previously located at at 131d Friedrichstraße, moved into new offices and loft 'studio' on the upper floors of 123 Chausseestraße. [16] Grunbaum apperently retained a connection with the building until he finally moved to Lindenstraße in October 1912 (see #Greenbaum's other firms and addresses).
Deutsche Bioskope filmed the 1907 New Year parades at the Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin, attended by the German emperor, and by the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph I in Vienna. [17] [18]
Deutsche Bioskope was still the official film production coompany for DKG in 1907, and in February that year Greenbaum's cameraman Georg Furkel went to Togo, Cameroon and German South West Africa (now Namibia) to film the construction of colonial railways and the Herero uprising (Aus dem Kriegsleben in Süd-Westafrika). This African expedition was co-financed by the the colonial and railway construction company Lenz & Co. [19] Furkel and Guido Seeber were behind the camera to shoot the short documentary de:Zeppelin III in Berlin am 29.8.1909.
Main: Synchroscope (film) - copy a few bits from Appendix B
Greenbaum's Deutsche Bioskope expanded rapidly, beyond producing topical and actualité newsreels.
In September 1907, Greenbaum applied for a patent for his Synchroscope (film) invention, an early sound-on-disc application which facilitated the manual synchronization of phonograph records with moving pictures in an early example of sound films. [8] For some years Oskar Messter had been making Tonbilder, Messter's own patented design to project films by electrically synchronising the moving picture with playback of an acoustic gramophone record. Greeenbaum's device, also patented, was a manually-operated version of Messter's original eletrical design. Alfred Duskes was Messter's other main competitor.
Making sound films was twice as expensive as producing silent films. Find ref below, Laemmle section?
In search of more capital, on 12 February 1908 Greenbaum signed a contract to spin off/diversify Deutsche Bioskope as a film manufacturing, copying and sales operation with Carl Moritz Schleussner of the photochemicals firm Dr. C. Schleussner ( AG in Frankfurt on Main as the principal investor/stockholder. Schleussner had been involved since 1896 in producing negative film stock and plates for Röntgen photography soon after its discovery. [20] [e]
On 27 February 1908 Greenbaum re-registered his former Deutsche Bioskope GmbH as Deutsche Bioskop GmbH [f] with new directors, with Carl M. Schleussner AG supplying 140,000 marks (two-thirds of a total share capital of 210,000 marks), and one third (70,000 marks) being provided by Greenbaum and his brother Max, an experienced banker familiarly called "Uncle Max". [6]
Greenbaum retained his existing separate cinema and film rental side of the business as Bioskope Theater-Gesellschaft m.b.H. (ie Bioskope Theater Company Ltd., with the final 'e'). [1] NB Although Greenbaum doesn't say so explicity, Bioskope Theater was definitely [i fink] a subsidiary of Deutsche Bioscop GmbH.[ citation needed]
while concentrating on developing/marketing the Synchroscope through his new Vitascope company, Greenbaum remained at Deutsche Bioskop (based at 123 Chausseestr.? with Erich Zeiske as MD from April) with a seat on the board from February 1908 until September 1909 as perhaps something like 'executive director.
So - Was Deutsche Bioscope from February 1908 after the merger the parent company of Greenbaum's Vitascope-Theater? - Bloody check! I suspect not - it seems Vitascope may have been a wholly separate company controlled by Greenbaum. But you simply don't know... But why would the new directors of Deutsche Bioskop complain that he was spending their money on his own sound film project?
While Greenbaum concentrated on sound films using his patented Synchroscope invention, Deutsche Bioskop's cameramen continued to make topical and actualité films.
Copy bits of Laemmle section from Appendix B here.
Anyway, Greenbaum accompanied by his wife Emma travelled to the USA from Bremen on the Konprinzessin Cecilie arriving 2 June 1908, [21] and sold the Synchroscope idea to Carl Laemmle, and to Warwick Trading in the UK. (Charles Urban had left by this time i fink). I imagine the cost of the trips would have been met by the company thanks to Schleussner's extra capital...
The camera operators of several production companies often filmed particularly important events in direct competition. Thus Deutsche Bioscop, Raleigh & Robert, and Eclipse all filmed the Vienna Jubilee Parade, 12 June 1908, the 60th anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph I. [22]
However, during 1908 Deutsche Bioscope ran into serious financial difficulties, partly because of expenses making sound films. [23] At the shareholders' meeting of Bioscop in December 1908, the representatives of Dr. C. Schleussner AG "criticized the level of expenses and, with the approval of all parties, emphasized the urgent need to work towards reducing general expenses as consistently as possible in the next financial year." [6]
New managers were appointed in May 1909 in order to improve the financial situation : Erich Zeiske was appointed as managing director of Deutsche Bioscope, along with Ernst Mirre as manager of Deutsche Bioskop-Theater, Greenbaum's cinema operation. [24] Ernst Mirre was associated with Mutoscope Theater-Gesellschaft, the German branch of the US Mutoscope and Biograph Company. [25]
However, according to Greenbaum, although both companies were doing well, his business interests had become too constricted, he having only a say in 1/3 of the company's direction. He came to an agreement with Schleusner AG that they would acquire his remaining interest, to free him from a non-competition clause in their agreement, and allow him to work completely independently. [1] In order not to further restrict Greenbaum's expansion plans, his former partners acquired the Greenbaums' remaining shares on 8 September 1909 to reach a mutual happy understanding; both parties were fully satisfied with the new agreement and—according to Greenbaum—parted very amicably. [6] [1] [26]
A compilation film for the 50th birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm II was advertised on the front page of Der Kinematograph, Nr. 107, 13.1.1909. Guido Seeber joined the re-financed Deutsche Bioscope's as their new cameraman in 1908. [27] Georg Furkel and Guido Seeber were behind the cameras to shoot the short documentary de:Zeppelin III in Berlin am 29.8.1909 featuring the Zeppelin LZ3. [28]
There were only 6 employees at Deutsche Bioscop in 1910. [30]
NBB! The p. 463 Berlin Addressbuch for 1911 !!! Link Possibly from Walzertraum youtube vid? !!! with information valid for the previous year (NB This info comes from de:Kottbusser Damm, see [h]), still has an entry for Deutsche Bioskop Gesellschaft mbH [NOTE spelling, with 'k'!] with Zeiske as MD. Main offices, Fabrik = manufactory/copying, and laboratory at 236 Friedrichstr, with recording studio (Aufnahmeatel.) at 123 Chausseestr., director Erich Zeiske.
Deutsche Vitascope GmbH still has offices at 22 Friedrichstrasse, Greenbaum as MD. p. 465 Berlin Addressbuch for 1911, very last entry on page. So does Vitascope Gesellschaft mbh at 22 Friedrichstrasse, Greenbaum as MD: p. 3095 Berlin Addressbuch for 1911, as does his Bioscope Theater GmbH also at 22 Friedrichsstr. p. 216 Berlin Addressbuch for 1911
The Vitascope-Theater "Rollkrug", Berlinerstr. 1. 2. has Inhaber Max Walter. p. 3095 Berlin Addressbuch for 1911
Bollox alert! [27] The offices at 123 Chausseestraße seem NOT to have been enlarged around this time, with the glasshouse studio being built on the roof. Good pic of the studio on the top of 123 (NOT) - almost two storeys high, tho'.
The following table compiled from a number of tables in ( Jung & Loiperdinger 2005, pp. 181–2) shows the releases of acualité/documentary films from 1907 to 1913. The fall-off after the departure of Jules Greenbaum from Deutsche Bioscope in 1909 is very noticeable.
Production firm 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 Total
Deutsche Bioscop 15 24 6 5 5 10 65 Messter 9 11 10 19 12 5 66 Duskes 16 6 6 3 31 Weltkinematograph 18 8 37 48 60 48 219 Edison 3 6 16 15 45 42 127 Pathé 60 70 133 158 149 178 129 877 Gaumont 11 14 48 80 124 115 118 510 Eclipse 28 59 87 92 99 74 54 493 Raleigh & Robert [32] 34 51 29 37 79 9 239
Although the first German film star was Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (see "'Kaiserbilder'. Wilhelm II. als Filmstar" in ( Jung & Loiperdinger 2005, pp. 253-268, esp. 267) it was the German premiere in November 1910 in Düsseldorf of Afgrunden, starring Asta Nielsen and directed by her husband Urban Gad which launched the career of the first international film star. The screenings were organised by Ludwig Gottschalk who owned the German exhibition rights. [33] It was a runaway success, and a competitor Christoph Mülleneisen senior , who owned the rights for Afgrunden in Austro-Hungary and also operated around 15 cinemas in the Rhine and Ruhr regions, determined to sign Nielsen for himself.
After a short but intense period of negotiations, Mülleneisen made a deal on 27 May 1911 with Gad and Nielsen to produce 10 feature films and 20 shorts produced by the new management team of Deutsche Bioskop (still with Eric Zeiske as managing director) to be distributed by Paul Davidson's PAGU. [34] PAGU owned the Union-Theater (U-T) cinemas, the biggest chain in Germany. [35] (PAGU was the first Aktien-Gesellschaft in German cinema - founded? in 1910 with 500.000 marks, by 1912 had a million marks capital. {sfn Muller p. 48, p. 270 nn108-111} FIX ME!) On 1 June 1911 a holding company, Internationale Films-Vertrieb-Gesellschaft (IFVG) ('International Film Sales Company'), was formed to exploit the contract and registered in Vienna with Davidson as senior partner and MD. [34] [36] [37] [38]
This means that at least some of the early Nielsen films might have been shot at 123 Chausseestrasse. Interesting... HAHA! I was absolutely right. [39] In fact, apart from Der schwarze Traum, made in Denmark by Fotorama, all the first Nielsen series of films made in summer 1911 were made at 123, with Der Totentanz being the first to be made at Babelsberg.
Asta Nielsen was a bit scathing about 123 Chauseestrasse: [40]
"At that time, in 1911, film production was at a surprisingly low level in such a large country as Germany. To that point, only a kind of “living pictures” had been produced in Bioscop’s studios, which consisted of a few primitive [dürftige, 'poor'] attic rooms in the northern part of Berlin. Some of these productions, such as The Island of the Dead, used paintings by [Swiss artist Arnold] Böcklin as their foundation, with white-clothed apparitions moving slowly and aimlessly between black poplar trees.[2] [j] Yet it was still a major technical improvement over the filming conditions for The Abyss in the prison courtyard in Copenhagen Eh?? to find ourselves in an atelier with glass walls and half a dozen spotlights. On the other hand, the artistic aspect, as far as the casting of my fellow actors was concerned, was catastrophically inferior to The Abyss."
Move to Sources! *Allen, Julie K., ed. (2022). The Silent Muse: The Memoirs of Asta Nielsen. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781800105829.
"Ultimately, it is thanks to the Danish diva that Babelsberg became a film city. The 'Bioscop' was already building a large studio in Neu-Babelsberg for the recording of my films," Asta Nielsen recalled in her autobiography "The Silent Muse" and was in no way exaggerating. Previously, Deutsche Bioscop GmbH only had “a few meager attic rooms in the north of Berlin” – to be precise: at Chausseestrasse 123. The makeshift recording studio had long since reached its limits, the rooms were dark, and because of the large lamps there was constant trouble with the fire police." ("...gab es ständig Ärger mit der Feuerpolizei.") [46]
However, looking at the photo of 123, then only some 15 years old and built in the popular Jugendstil in 1896 i fink, it's difficult to see how it could be described as 'poor' or 'dark' - the whole building is mostly windows. Morons.
Well, well, lolissimo: "1911: The fire department evicted the Bioscop film company from their loft studio in Berlin. Guido Seeber, cameraman and technical director, discovered a vacant factory building surrounded by a large area of waste land in Babelsberg." [47]
This would tend to explain why Continental-Kunstfilm's 1912 film In Nacht und Eis was shot in a small glasshouse studio in the courtyard/garden and not in the loft: - filming inside the building was forbidden by the Fire Dept because of the risk from the high-wattage carbon arc lamps.
At any rate, Davidson's Vienna-based Internationale Films-Vertrieb-Gesellschaft (IFVG) oversaw the making of nearly 30 Nielsen/Gad films, two-thirds produced by Deutsche Bioskop for PAGU, and the remainder produced by PAGU alone. A number of these are non-extant. Guido Seeber was the cameraman for about half of these films. [48]
Before the Nielsen/Gad contract, Deutsche Bioscop only had 6 employees in 1910, a figure which had grown to 150 by 1913. [30]
There were three "Asta Nielsen series" of Monopolfilm feature/drama/comedy films:
In Germany the film production firms used various different methods of distributing films to cinemas: the Staffelmieten-System and the Terminfilm, superseded by the Monopolfilm of which Afgrunden (1910) was an early example.
The production companies replaced this by the Terminfilm system: single films with limited release dates were heavily advertised in the trade press in advance. However, the film producers were unable to make enough films in the short time available, and this marketing ploy was abandoned fairly soon. However, it marked the change from selling films to renting them; and the number of specialised distribution firms increased to 22 by 1910. [52] Asta Nielsen's Heißes Blut (although it was made shortly after Afgrunden} is an example of the relatively short-lived Terminfilm method, with multiple copies bought by major distributors from the producers, advertised in trade journals like de:Lichtbild-Bühne (LBB) and then rented out to individual cinema owners who were guaranteed to receive the film on the advertised release date. Film production companies judged a film's profitability by the number of copies they sold. [53] This also opened up a lucrative second-hand market where multiple copies of films from the big distributors were sold on to lesser buyers, for viewing in smaller cinemas away from the increasing number of premium venues like those of Paul Davidson's Union-Theater (U-T) chain. [54] From the production companies' point of view, this practice reduced the length of time new films could be shown (and thus profits) before they appeared in 'room upstairs' picture houses through the second-hand market. This had depressed the price of films generally, and led theoretically to lower quality films.
The Monopolfilm ('exclusive film') concept was the next way of selling films to cinemas through a single distributor usually the production firm or a sole appointed agent. [55] Ludwig Gottschalk introduced it with Afgrunden, and Davidson's PAGU (and Deutsche Bioscop) followed suit with the rest of the "Asta Nielsen" series. [56] Film-buyers for the major distributors were prevented from purchasing physical copies of films, but instead had to buy the rights to exhibit a film for a given period and in a given region (i.e. it was only possible to rent the films under restrictive conditions, rather than buy them outright.) [57] Cinema owners were often obliged to buy the rights a number of films sight unseen (possibly before they had even been made), in order to access the most desirable ones. This approach had a great impact on Nielsen's rise to stardom. [58] The 'Monopolfilm system 'worked' for the bigger companies by driving the small cinema owners out of business and into bankruptcy, since the latter couldn't afford the higher prices, thus benefiting the production firms and the larger movie theatres/chains. PAGU also owned the Union-Theater (U-T) chain of cinemas where the Nielsen films were shown - an excellent example of capitalist vertical distribution, where the film production companies also owned the cinemas.
Deutsche Biscop's first Nielsen eight releases using the Monopolfilm system were advertised as: Der schwarze Traum; Im Grossen Augenblick; Zigeunerblut (Gypsy Blood NB not Heißes Blut); Der fremde Vogel; Die Verräterin (script by Erich Zeiske); Die Macht des Goldes; and Die arme Jenny [59] Several of these are considered lost.
According to Julie Allen, "Historian Andreas Hansert documents that Nielsen agreed, in exchange for an annual salary of 80,000 German marks, 33.3% of the revenues generated by her films, full artistic freedom in choosing her screenplays, costumes, and supporting actors, and, perhaps most importantly, the right to be directed exclusively by her soon-to-be husband Gad." [60] For the film makers, the contract meant almost guaranteed success from Nielsen's films for nearly three years from June 1911.
"Working closely with Gad on each year’s Asta Nielsen Series, a collection of eight to ten films that had been pre-sold to distributors around the globe, Nielsen exercised a degree of control over her work on an artistic, technical, and economic level that was extraordinary for a woman at the time." [61]
Films made by Deutsche Bioscope at 123 Chauseestrasse with release dates:
Apart from Afgrunden, all the Dt.Bio films were shot in spring-summer of 1911
And if they got evicted from 123 because the arc lamps were a fire risk, they would have had to get a move on.
With the success of the Nielsen/Gad series, Deutsche Bioscop started looking for much larger studio premises. Guido Seeber, as technical director of Deutsche Bioscop since 1909, was put in charge of finding a site, and of designing and supervising the building of the new studio and film factory. [62]
In the south-west Berlin suburb of Neubabelsberg Seeber found a semi-derelict 3-floor factory built in 1898 by a company which made artificial plants, flowers and leaves. According to Seeber,
Deutsche Bioskop started construction of its new Babelsberg Studio (otherwise known as Bioscop-Atelier Neubabelsberg) from November 1911. [63] The new studio had a floor area of 300 m2 (15 x 20 m, x 9m high). [63] It was one of the first glass-house studios in Germany. [65] [m]
On 12 February 1912 the studio was inaugurated with the first shot of the Asta Nielsen film Der Totentanz. [63] This is also the exact same date that the newly-formed Continental-Kunstfilm moved into the old premises of Deutsche Bioskop at 123 Chausseestraße which Jules Greenbaum had occupied since 1906. [67] Greenbaum appears to have maintained a presence at 123 until he moved out to Weissensee in 1913/1914. A second glasshouse (Großes Glashaus) with a floor area of 450 m2 was built in 1913. [63] With 4 hectares (9.9 acres) of land available, there was plenty of room for the construction of outdoor sets.
Jugend und Tollheit, Lost Films
Paul Davidson appears to have understood very clearly the fundamental change for the film industry which Asta Nielsen's groundbreaking Afgrunden represented. He claimed that he built the Tempelhof studio for her, and transformed her into an international star. [68]
After Deutsche Bioskop's success in making the first two Nielsen series for Union-Film, PAGU produced and made the third series at Tempelhof themselves, swiftly becoming German's primary production company. Greenbaum would make a brief merger with PAGU in early 1914 as Union-Vitascope which lasted until the start of World War I.
Hanns Heinz Ewers joined as a staff writer, leading to The Student of Prague (1913). [70]
Shortly after the move to Babelsberg, probably as a result of an economic crisis at his Frankfurt company before the start of the First World War, Carl Moritz Schleussner (who had bought Deutsche Bioscop in 1909) nevertheless wanted to get out of the film business. He was only able to sell his shares in Bioscop at a high loss in 1917. The issue was only finally settled in 1922, when inflation had already set in. [71]
Nielsen and Gad went back to Denmark, and all her films that had been shot in 1914 were released (by PAGU?) during the war in Germany in 1915/16.
The 6-part serial Homunculus directed by Otto Rippert was released in 1916 and 1917, later edited and re-released in 1920 by Decla-Bioscop. See also other stuff from Filmography.
The establishment of Ufa in December 1917 as a film propaganda outlet provoked reactions from the film industry.
In late 1917 a number of film production and rental firms (including Deutsche Kinematographen-Gesellschaft GmbH (Kölner Dekage FilmVertrieb), [72] came together to form the Bioscop-Konzern (Bioscop Group), with its headquarters at 58 Breite Straße, Cologne. The managing director was Peter Heuser. [73] Heuser was MD of Harmonie-Film, Köln, which made de:Der fliegende Holländer (1918), filmed in May 1918 at the Bioscop-Atelier in Neubabelsberg.
A 1918 advertisement for a series of Dagny Servaes films lists the partners of the Bioskop-Konzern: "In Deutschland verleihen wir selbst durch unsere Filialen: Bioscop, Berlin; Bioscop, Munich; [Johann Paul] Wolfram, Dresden; [75] Wolfram, Leipzig; Mitteldeutsche, Frankfurt; Dekage, Cologne; [72] Schlesische, Breslau. Generaldirektion des Bioscop-Konzerns Köln, Bioscophaus." [76]
In Der Kinematograph for 24 April 1918, Bioscophaus had an advertisement spread over four full pages, including the release of Harrison and Barrison directed by a young Alexander Korda. The illustration of the Bioscophaus building in Cologne incorporates the letters DBG (Deutsche Bioscop Gesellschaft) and the logo of a bear holding a shield. [77]
Similar layout for Kinematograph, issue 593, 15 May 1918? [pdf 104], Der letzte Dollmond and on [pdf 114] Pique Dame with Alexander Moissi. Also, "Aus der Praxis", [pdf 129], Decla ends a lease on Friedrichstrasse 23.
Haha lol, excellent pic of Greenbaum-Film's studios in 5-7 Franz Joseph Strasse, Weissensee: Lichtbild-Bühne Vol 11, No. 14, 6 April 1918 [pdf 77] - and good drawing of Neubabelsberg in an ad for Deutsche Bioscop, back cover, [pdf 98]. (saved in My Docs)
In Februry or April 1918, Heuser converted the Bioskop-Konzern into a stock corporation, Rheinische Lichtbild AG. The second major German film company came into being as a kind of 'counter-Ufa', incorporating Deutsche Bioscop and its studio premises in Babelsberg as its core. [78] [n]
Well-known bankers and lawyers from Cologne, Mönchengladbach and Berlin were among the co-founders of the joint-stock company. [73]
Peter Heuser remained general director and also brought in his Harmonie-Film-Gesellschaft, which in April 1918, after a much-vaunted world premiere in Cologne, launched the Beethoven biopic Martyr of His Heart starring Fritz Kortner with 26 copies in the cinemas. The repertoire of the Rheinische Lichtbild mainly consisted of film adaptations of fairy tales, but above all "works that stood up for national ideas" and "for Germany's greatness". [73]
Rear outside cover of Der Kinematograph, 2 May 1918 [pdf 74] ("Bioscop Konzern - unsere Produktion 1918/19") has a full-page ad graphically depicting 12 series of forthcoming films as stars over the cities where the member firms were located: Köln - Dekage; Berlin - Bioscop; Frankfurt - Mitteldeutsche; Leipzig and Dresden - Wolfram; Breslau - Schlesich; and Munich.
Der Kinematograph, 12 June 1918, Front cover, [pdf 29], lists all the forthcoming Bioscop-Konzern films by 10 stars (mostly 6 apiece) & 2 prod. companies, Harmonie (Peter Heuser) and Corvin (Alexander Korda).
The writer de:Alfred Rosenthal developed into a busy multi-functionary in the field of film. He worked as a delegate for the Rhenish-Westphalian film distributors' association in Berlin and as press spokesman for Bioscop-Concerns and then Rheinische Lichtbild AG. [85] Rosenthal was chief editor of Der Kinematograph from 1923 to 1933.
When the Bioskop Group, Cologne's largest film production and distribution company, moved its offices to Berlin in November 1918, Cologne lost its status as the "film trading city of the West". [73]
April 1918: " de:Heinrich Lautensack (Schriftsteller), the successful film script writer and dramaturg of Bioscop-Gesellschaft in Berlin has gone insane and had to be taken to the psychiatric clinic. He had come to Munich from Berlin to take part in the funeral of Frank Wedekind, with whom he had joined the eleven executors at the time. When the coffin was lowered into the grave, Lautensack threw himself on the ground and cried out in heartbreaking tones: "I am your most unworthy, your last student. Keep still, it's being filmed..." In the evening he discussed this quite seriously with Principal Stollberg from the Munich Schauspielhaus and a few other gentlemen, a repetition of the funeral service in order to record it for the film. The well-known comedy director Carl Rößler took pity on the poor man and took him by car to the psychiatric clinic, where he is still." [86]
June 1918: (Directly after full-page ads by Bioscophaus for Der lachende Tod, Der fluch alten Mühle and Der Taktstock Richard Wagners):
Big fire accident at the Bioscop film distribution company, Berlin.
11 employees and 5 business visitors lost their lives.
Although Germany had been physically almost untouched by the war, the immediate years after WW1 were very precarious. The Allied naval blockade still carried on in 1919 until the Treaty of Versailles was signed in late June. There had been a swift, genuine revolution: the old German Empire had been overthrown and the Weimar Republic had been established.
The trend towards operational concentration and expansion, and the transition to even bigger films continued apace after the war. The financial structure of the German film industry in the late 1910s and early 1920s changed from limited liability companies ( GmbH) to stock corporations ( AG), with the stock corporations successively increasing their capital and 'swallowing up' other companies and groups. [78]
In the summer of 1919, Rheinische Lichtbild AG published a few issues of its own illustrated house magazine, Der schwarze Bär, edited by Alfred Rosenthal from Neubabelsberg. It included articles on forthcoming films, stars, and other film-related items. Three issues seem to have been included in Kinema, published in Zurich, Switzerland, in Volume IX: Heft 1 in No. 25, 21 June 1919: Heft 2 in No. 26, 28 June: Heft 3 in No. 27, 5 July 1919: and Heft 2 (again, mistakenly) in No. 28, 12 July.
In November 1919 Bioscop (or Rheinische Lichtbild AG) merged with Richard Oswald's production firm, which brought in an increased capital of 30,000 million marks. [88] Bioscop had an excellent distribution system and a large cinema chain.
According to a December 1919 report in the US trade journal Camera! ("The Digest of the Motion Picture Industry"), Rheinische Lichtbild AG had made no money since it was formed:
Thus, Rheinische Lichtbild AG was re-incorporated as Deutsche Bioscop AG in 1919. [78] However, the name Bioscop-Konzern continued to be used.
The report cited above also contains a summary of Decla Film's business up to the end of 1919:
To counter Ufa's rapid rise to prominence, a number of the remaining independent production studios and exhibitors joined together to form Decla-Bioscop.
To properly compete with Ufa, Decla needed Bioscop's theatres and distribution: and, conversely, Bioscop (allegedly suffering from lack of management, discipline and even competence) needed Erich Pommer's management ability. [90] So in around April 1920 Deutsche Bioscop AG merged with Decla-Film [91] to form Decla-Bioscop AG, increasing the capital to 50 million marks. [78] [92] Rudolf Meinert was the first head of production, having recently merged his production firm with Decla in November 1919.
At a celebration in Treptow, Berlin, for the 10th anniversary of Agfa Rohrfilmfabrik in July 1920, Ufa Generaldirektor Bratz was present, and for Decla-Bioscop Pommer and Oliver. Managing director Paul Davidson, on behalf of Ufa, the 'Decla-Bioscop Konzern', and for the Firma Karl Geyer, made a congratulatory speech about the positive relations between Afga and the whole film industry. [93]
Decla-Bioscop made an offer for the Zirkus Schumann in Frankfurt (de), intending to turn it into a 5,000 seat cinema, [94] [95] [96]
Verlag Ullstein & Co. made a deal with Decla-Bioscop in July 1920, forming Uco-Film Gesellschaft. [97] This allowed Pommer's company exclusive access to Ullstein's literary publications. [98] Uco-Film's productions include F.W. Murnau's Schloß Vogelöd, 1921 and Phantom (1922 film); and Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse the Gambler of 1922, based on Norbert Jacques' novel serialised in Ullstein's Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung.
Another subsidiary company, Russo-Film, produced quality drama films based on world literature, such as Dostoievsky's Irrende Seelen of 1921, directed by Carl Froelich and starring Asta Nielsen, Alfred Abel, and Walter Janssen.
Although the two production companies had merged financially, Decla and Bioscop films were distributed separately by Decla-Verleih and Bioscop-Verleih, including foreign films. [99] Under the terms of an August 1921 contract between Decla-Verleih and Goldwyn Films, Decla purchased distribution rights to eight Goldwyn pictures for 150,000 marks each, plus 50% of the net box office exceeding that figure.(Saunders, page needed)
By the summer of 1921 the first signs of hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic were beginning to appear, and Germany's banking system came under severe pressure.
Ufa had been set up by the German government during World War I in 1917, and Deutsche Bank had purchased the state's 30% share in 1919 to become a major stockholder. [100]
Before its 1920 merger with Deutsche Bioscop, Decla had improved its finances in 1919 through a share purchase by the Deutsche Nationalbank in Bremen (founded in 1871). [101] [s] In 1920 Deutsche Nationalbank in Bremen was absorbed by the the similarly-named but unconnected Berlin-based Nationalbank für Deutschland, which also had interests in Ufa. [101] [t] However, within a year or so of the merger Decla-Bioscop's finances had again become precarious. [101] National-Film, who had previously offered to make a merger with Pommer's company, made another informal bid to the directors on 26 August 1921 for Decla-Bioscop. NB! Who was backing National-Film? New managers from National-Film had already moved into Decla's premises. [103]
Decla-Bioscop's stockholders rejected this bid and accepted a matching offer from Ufa. This was hardly surprising, since Nationalbank had shares and directorships in both firms. The day before Decla's next stockholders' meeting on 20 September when it was expected to have the merger confirmed, National increased its bid: but since Nationalbank für Deutschland now had interests in both Ufa and Decla-Bioscop, [101] the merger became something of a fait accompli. [104] [u] Thus, effectively compelled by their joint backer, Nationalbank für Deutschland, Decla-Bioscop merged with Ufa in October 1921. The merger was authorised by stockholders on 11 October 1921, contracts signed 10 and 11 November 1921. [106]
According to Hardt, Decla-Bioscop wasn't liquidated, but instead its assets were transferred to Ufa. It wasn't simply swallowed up, but treated by Ufa as an artistic and technical collaborator. Productions remained individualised and decentralised. Their films were distributed separately by Decla-Verleih and Bioscop-Verleih. [99] Decla-Bioscop was changed from a corporation (AG) to a joint stock company (GmbH) by May 1922. Pommer's company operated as one of Ufa's departments until 1 June 1924, when it merged with Ufa's central administration. [107]
At the same time the two separate distribution companies were merged as Decla-Bioscop-Verleih GmbH. [108] Thus the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek is perhaps correct when it says Decla-Bioscop-Verleih was active from 1924-1928, previously they were separate companies with their own identities within the Ufa fold. BUT! see Kinematograph year book (1929) p. 44 (pdf 50) which states the firm still existed as Decla-Bioscop-Verleih AG in Kochstraße 6/8. The previous Decla-Verleih association with Goldwyn continued with MGM and Parufamet. Hollywood in Berlin: American Cinema and Weimar Germany has a German film poster for Erich von Stroheim's 1924 Greed (Gier nach Geld), stating "Metro-Goldwyn-Film der UFA / Decla-Bioscop-Verleih GmbH / Verleihbetrieb der Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft" which wasn't released in Germany until May 1926 (to huge whistling and foot-stamping protests at the newly-refurbished Ufa-Palast am Zoo), so this would be while Parufamet was in operation. (Saunders p. 167)
Hollywood in Berlin: American Cinema and Weimar Germany Volume 6 of Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism Author Thomas J. Saunders Publisher University of California Press, 2023 ISBN 0520914163, 9780520914162 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=e0_hEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT171
See #Filmography.
Guido Seeber was head of the technical department at Deutsche Bioscop from 1909, [62] he oversaw the building of the Babelsberg studios in 1911–1912 and was principal cameraman for some 16 of Bioscop’s 30 Asta Nielsen series (1911–1913). [109] Cameraman for The Student of Prague (1913 film) - NB fix WL links to Decla-Film...! and The Golem (1915 film) where he distinguished himself as an early pioneer of trick cinematography.
de:Heinrich Lautensack was employed by Deutsche Bioscop until May 1912, when he became script editor and public relations manager at the newly founded Continental-Kunstfilm. [110]
Stellan Rye. Student von Prag "He directed for Eiko Film first and then he moved to Deutsche Bioscop where he exclusively worked for the Künstler-Filmserie, film series for the renowned stage actors, which closely linked to so-called Autorenfilm movement." [111] Lucie Höflich in Rye's Gendarm Möbius while still appearing on stage (Lichtbild-Bühne, No. 28, July 1913, p. 42)
Paul Wegener, Evinrude, der Verfuhrte; Alexander Moissi Bajazzo's Liebe und Ende
Conrad Veidt's first and third films The Path of Death and When the Dead Speak, both with Maria Carmi and Carl de Vogt were shot at at Babelsberg in 1916/17 (both lost). Veidt, who died aged around 50 from a heart attack, made many of his films with Richard Oswald.
NB Someone (wonder who?) has failed to identify the actual studio used for Veidt's Evening – Night – Morning, but since it was distributed by Decla-Bioscop it was probably the Lixie-Atelier of C-K. Yep, Conrad Veidt on Screen: A Comprehensive Illustrated Filmography by John T. Soister p. 113 identifies it correctly, but says it was made by variously Helios-Film, Schneider-Film (never heard of them) or Decla-Bioscop, but distributed by Decla-Film. Yech. Abend - Nacht - Morgen at Filmportal.de confirms it.
In general, the name of each newly-registered company is spelled slightly differently, with either a 'c' or a 'k', and with or without a final 'e'.
The spelling of 'Bioscope' or 'Bioskope' with a final 'e' (the US and British spelling) may be due to the fact that Greenbaum lived and worked in Chicago for over five years before returning to Germany and becoming involved in the film business. German spelling conventions tend to indicate that the word is spelled without an 'e', 'Bioscop' or 'Bioskop'.
See also #Addresses: from the 1911 Berliner Addressbuch
The various stages of Deutsche Bioscope's existence from 1899 to 1924 can be summarised as:
NB When was the last film released with just Deutsche Bioscop as production company?
Otherwise, almost any combination of Greenbaum, Pommer or other producers, Deutsche Bioscope, Decla-Film, Decla-Bioscop, or any of their studios/ateliers can be encountered in various mis-informed WP articles and external websites about these companies and their films.
All sorts - lots & lots of the Kaiser and other royal personages
Also, "Das Präsidium [des Deutschen Flottenvereins] nahm dennoch von der bisher praktizierten Vorfinanzierung der Film-propaganda Abstand, und beauftragte für die Saison 1906/07 die Deutsche Bioscope-Gesellschaft mit der Durchführung von kinematographischen Projektionen." [124]
Translated from Jung & Loiperdinger:
And the DKG (German Colonial Company)
Also, Leben und Treiben in Tanga (Deutsch-Ost-Afrika), non-extant, Der Kinematograph, Nr. 150, 10.11.1909.
NB! Move to sources Jung, Uli; Loiperdinger, Martin, eds. (2005). Geschichte des dokumentarischen Films in Deutschland. Band 1: Kaiserreich (1895-1918) (PDF) (in German). Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam. doi: 10.25969/mediarep/14035.
Stunning sound films - Made 115 years ago, many are still extant on Youtube - search results and Playlist
Some of the singers appear to have been from the de:Metropol-Theater (Berlin-Mitte) [aa] (Not to be confused with the Metropol Theatre on Nollendorfplatz).
Some Dt.Bio films were shown at at the 2014 Pordenone film festival. review
So: are the actors in the films the same people as the singers who made the records? They are obviously singing, and certainly know the words and music. I mean, how many people would actually know the sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor? (Well actually, Caruso sang it in Berlin in October 1907, along with Rigoletto and Aida, possibly the reason for the film...) [131] [132] And in fact it was made by actual members of the Berlin Royal Opera company. [133] Obviously they are miming to a record, and sometimes (eg in the Pagliacci duet) the actors are certainly not singing the same words as on the recording. The some of the rather basic sets look very much like this one: de:Datei:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H26728, Berlin, Fritzi Massary im Metropoltheater.jpg
Well, if 'Roland und Viktoria' was sung by Leonhard Haskel and Anna Müller-Lincke, who both appeared at the Metropol, then it seems possible that some or all the other films were made by the actual singers at the Metropol and elsewhere. Other singers at the Metropol theatre company include Fritzi Massary, Joseph Giampietro [134], Josef Josephi, Lizzi Waldmüller, Richard Tauber et al.
Hmm, perhaps sometimes the singers did the miming/acting, but more often they were different. Lots of research needed... lol The film with Tetrazzini on disc and an established German singer ?Isabelle L’Huillier? was perhaps typical...?
In September 1908 Deutsche Bioscope-Gesellschaft mbH was advertising both actualités and Tonfilms in two full-page advertisements in the trade press: [148]
The highly popular operetta Ein Walzertraum by Oscar Straus premiered on March 2, 1907 at the Carl Theater in Vienna.
"Rising to the challenge, Davidson [of PAGU] countered with another qualitative innovation when he presented a real sound film premiere to the public: 'From 1 January the Union Theatre at 74 Kaiserstrasse [Frankfurt] will bring out an entirely new hit and 8 themes from Der Walzertraum, the latest operetta by Oscar Strauss, with the original cast from the Vienna Carltheater." [160] [161]
Other related recordings:
Huge list of tonfilms, nos. 1233 - 1271 Der Kinematograph, 3 March 1909, rear outside cover.
Apart from a few Christmas/New Year 1910 sound films, apparently made by the new Dt.Bio without Greenbaum, [156] or maybe they showed Greenbaum's films...? nah, maybe just saying "we can do this too." And that's the end of Tonfilms from Deutsche Bioscope.
Haha Sumurun, the Max Reinhardt one lol, but NOT Sumurun, the 1920 Lubitsch one. [162]
Gad and Nielsen began by making the short Heißes Blut ( Gipsy Blood and Nachtfalter ( The Moth) (both non-extant) with Deutsche Bioscop around May 1911. There was heavy publicity in the trade press from March 1911. The latter was released by Aktien-Gesellschaft fur Kinemafotographie und Filmverleih, Strasbourg. [53] These were apparently made before the big contract for the three major series signed in June 1911 - the others were made in the summer of 1911.
Extant Asta Nielsen/Urban Gad films produced by Deutsche Bioscop:(Source:
[163])
(P) indicates films produced by PAGU alone.
Non-extant Asta Nielsen/Urban Gad films: (Source:
[164])
(Either Deutsche Bioscope or PAGU or others - check!)
Heisses Blut, 1911; Nachtfalter, 1911; Zigeunerblut, 1911; Die Macht des Goldes, 1912; Zu Tode gehetzt, 1912; Die Kinder des Generals, 1912; Jugend und Tollheit, 1913; Der Tod in Sevilla, 1913; Das Kind ruft, 1914; Das Feuer, 1914; Die Tochter der Landstrasse, 1915; Die falsche Asta Nielsen, 1915; Engeleins Hochzeit, 1916; Aschenbrödel, 1916; Die weissen Rosen, 1916;
At any rate, they were incredibly successful, and by November 1911 Guido Seeber had found new premises at Babelsberg. They moved in on February 12, 1912, the very same date when Continental-Kunstfilm moved into 123 Chausseestr.
When Hindenburg became German C-in-C in summer 1916 the previous negative attitude towards films was replaced with a flurry of propaganda and promotional films. The German Naval League started producing films again (previously the sole province of Greenbaum) such as de:Stolz weht die Flagge schwarz-weiss-rot. - Also lyrics to a flag-song. Premiere 23. August 1916 in Berlins Mozartsaal. Deutsche Bioscop showed anti-French and anti-Russian films such as
The merger with Decla Film happened in around March/April 1920. [92]
Incomplete list of films made after the merger with Ufa. As shown elswhere #Merger with Ufa?, I'm fairly sure that after the merger Ufa treated Decla and Deutsche Bioscope as two separate film production companies, and formed two separate firms, Decla-Verleih and Bioscop-Verleih, to handle their distribution. [99]
Decla-Bioscop productions like Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen (1924) and Murnau's Der letzte Mann (1924) were released. But be VERY CAREFUL about which company made the films, and who handled the distribution!
From November 1921 until June 1924 it seems that Ufa provided the finance, but the films were still made and distributed by the individual film companies. Find some more film posters: aha! see Der Mude Tod by Bioscope and Der Roman der Christine von Herre by Decla, Der Kinematograph, 7 & 14 August 1921, just before the Ufa merger. See Filmportal.de list below.
Ufa centralised all its production in June 1924. [107] The constituent film companies, which had been separate departments (at least Decla and Deutsche Bioscop), lost their ability to decide what films they wanted to make. It seems fairly clear that Decla-Bioscop-Verleih, also formed in 1924, was the rental/distribution company for Decla and Bioscop's back catalogue and also acted as Ufa's rental/distribution arm for new major foreign films (Großfilmen) such as Buster Keaton's Seven Chances.
The following list from Filmportal.de Decla-Bioscop-Verleih GmbH (Berlin) runs from 1920 to 1926, and includes earlier films made separately by Decla (?and Deutsche Bioscop?), starting with Caligari and Parts 1 & 2 of Die Spinnen (1919/1920) all made and released by Decla alone by the end of February 1920 before the Decla-Bioscop merger in April that year. This is confirmed by a full-page ad in Der Kinematograph (June 1925), (pdf 145) "Verbilligen Sie Ihre Sommerprogramme indem Sie die erprobten Filme des Erfolges spielen! Diese Filme sind in neuen Kopien erschienen". ("Reduce the cost of your Summer programme by showing well-tried successful films! These films are released in new copies"). It includes Der müde Tod, Die Nibelungen, and Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler. Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek says Decla-Bioscop-Verleih GmbH was active from 1924-1928, although its existence appears to have carried on into 1929, see See Kinematograph (UK) Year Book (1929). ( Consolidate refs!!!)
Filmportal.de list: (incomplete)
de:Decla-Bioskop#Decla- bzw. Decla-Bioscop-Filme (Auswahl) has a rather different list from Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari onwards, including Die Finanzen des Großherzogs which Filmportal says was produced by Ufa and distributed by Decla-Bioscop-Verleih[?]. Click on "Alle Credits". [181] Blimey, people just come up with a load of bollocks, don't they? Die Finanzen des Großherzogs, Murnau's only comedy, appears in the June 1925 ad in Kinematograph, having been made by Ufa in mid-1923 and premiered in January 1924 and in this list it is distributed by Ufa's own Universum-Film Verleih, not Decla-Bioscop-Verleih, but you would need to do some checking to unearth its actual history...
If I go through the above German WP list and check the entries against Filmportal, I will probably find many with Decla-Bioscop-Verleih. Decla-Bioscop-Verleih is the later distribution company under Ufa, they7 may have been previously distributed by other firms - depends which company actually made them in the first place...
Almost all of the following quasi-nonsense is explained in #Greenbaum's other firms and addresses, some refs are duplicated, others need to be transferred.
Vitascope-Theater-Betriebs was incoporated in March 1907. It cost 20,000 marks to form a GmbH at the time, and cinema companies needed little more: thus Vitascope-Theater-Betriebs Ges. mbH was founded with 21.000 marks as capital. Operation of Vitascope-Theaters at home and abroad. Other directors: theater director Ludwig Rosenfeld, and director Otto Heinemann, Charlottenberg. [182] See also Judische Pionere by Christoph Wirth.
The Lindström company continued to make Beka records through its London agency in Hertfordshire from 1913, but in 1916 it was forcibly reorganised as a British company through the Trading with the Enemy Act, and it was taken over by Columbia Graphophone Company who put up the capital. [184] Columbia had only just been registered as a British company, although the shares were held by the US parent company.
At the time of the merger with Schleussner in 1909, Greenbaum also registered his own new company, Bioskop-Theater GmbH, which became Vitascope-Theater on 8 September 1909, [6] and then later Deutsche Vitascope. Aargh Frühe deutsche Kinematographie: Formale, wirtschaftliche und kulturelle... p. 288
WELL, WHICH? Cross-check vv CAREFULLY with Jules Greenbaum - when was Bioscope-Theater formed, and then Vitascope-Theater, and then Deutsche Vitascope? 8 September 1909, or later? See Hampicke 2015 and interview (below) with Greenbaum in September 1909. [1]
+ Ur-text from kinematograph03-1909-09_p 80 §
Here you go:
On 17 August 1909 Greenbaum definitely changed Vitascope Theater Betriebsgesellschaft into Deutsche Vitascope GmbH, [ai] with offices at Friedrichstr. 20. [1] He appears to have started advertising the new company from around 8 September 1909, with a full-page ad in Kinematograph, Deutsche Vitascope in large letters, also advertising the latest Vitaphone Model 1910 ("Newest, most perfect simultaneous sound apparatus for singing, speaking, musical photography" [116]Outside rear cover [pdf p.42]
Greenbaum's old company Deutsche Bioskop GmbH, sold to Schelussner, was also renamed as Deutsche Bioscop GmbH in September 1909, according to a company listing in Der Kinematograph. [185] It would keep this name until the 1920 merger with Decla Film to become Decla-Biocsop.
Well, it appears that Vitascope may have been a subsidiary of Bioscope, and not a completely independent company. This would tend to explain why Greenbaum's expenditure on Tonbilder made with Synchroscope equipment was questioned in December 1908 and led to his departure.
Kinematograph03-1909-09 ad:
Deutsche Bioscop Gesellschaft mbH - Address: Friedrichstrasse 236 Vitascop-Projections-Apparat, Royal-Synchroscop, actuelle, stumme und künstleriche Tonfilms.
Full-page ad:
Deutsche Vitascope Berlin SW. 48., Friedrichstrasse 22 Telephon: IV., No. 3261. Telegr.-Adr.: Phonofilm-Berlin. Geschaftsführer: Jules Greenbaum
Vitascope, Mod. 1910 die flimmerfreie, perfecte Kinematograph
Vitaphone Neuester, vollkommenster Gleichlauf - Apparat für singende, sprechende, musizierende Photographien.
Georg Furkel, who Greenbaum had recruited in Amsterdam in 1899 his first cameraman, became technical director in 1912. [6]
Ein Interview von Max Olitzki.
[1]
MO: Vor wenigen Wochen wurde es bekannt, dass in der Leitung der renommierten Deutschen Bioskop G.m.b.H. eine Aenderung vorgenommen wurde, die mit einer Persönlichkeit verknüpft ist, welche seit Jahren in der gesamten Filmindustrie sich der grössten Hochachtung erfreut, nämlich mit Herrn Ju1es Greenbaum , dem Begründer der Deutschen Bioskope G.m.b.H. Da wir annehmen, dass es unsere Leser interessieren wird, die Gründe dieses plötzlichen Entschlusses zu erfahren, nahmen wir Gelegenheit, Herrn Greenbaum hierüber zu interpellieren. Das Wort "Bioskop" oder "Bioskope", also mit oder ohne "e" hat seit Jahren grosse Verwirrung angerichtet. Sind Sie nun, verehrter Herr Greenbaum der Begründer der G.m.b.H. mit "e" oder ohne "e"?
JG: "Ich bin Ihnen sehr dankbar, dass Sie mir gestatten hierüber Aufklärung zu geben, damit nun endlich mal der Wirrwarr aufhört."
"Im Jahre 1897 gründete ich unter der Firma meines Namens ein Verkaufsgeschäft in Kinematographen und Films, welches nach zwei Jahren in eine Gesellschaft umgewandelt wurde und zwar in die Deutsche Bioskope. Jedoch erwies sich das Geschäft als zu klein und es entstand die noch heute im Lustspielhaus befindliche Deutsche Bioskop G.m.b.H. Abermals waren wir gezwungen — infolge des günstigen Absatzes — eine Vergrößerung vorzunehmen. Es gelang mir 1908 die Firma Dr. C. Schleusner Akt.-Ges. in Frankfurt a. M. in der Deutschen Bioskope
zu interessieren und zwar derart, dass die Schleusner Akt.-Ges. die Fabrikations- und Verkaufsgeschäfte von mir gegen eine Summe von 210 000 Mk. übernahm und mich darin mit 1/3 beteiligte. Es entstand daraufhin eine neue Firma, die sich abermals Deutsche Bioskop G.m.b.H. nannte, jedoch ohne "e", während die alte mit einem "e", die nur die Theater- und Filmverleihgeschäfte betrieb, mir allein verblieb und noch heute unter dem Namen Bioskope Theater-Ges.m.b.H. besteht".
MO: "Diese Geschäfte gehen doch aber gut und werden, wie ich weiss, stark in Anspruch genommen. Warum wollen Sie denn so unerwartet die Bioskop G.m.b.H. aufgeben? Erfordern beide soviel Kraftentfal?ung, [illegible, Kraftentfalsung?] dass Sie sich entlasten müssen?"
JG: "Nein, absolut nicht! Im Gegenteil, Verehrtester, ich habe viele neue Pläne, die ich aber in der ersteren Gesellschaft nicht ausführen kamt, da ich mich dort in meinem Geschäftssinn zu beengt fühle. Sie wollen doch gütigst bedenken, dass die Dr. C. Schleusner Akt.-Ges. darin mit
2/3 ist, während ich nur mit 1/3."
MO: „Aha!" erlaubte ich mir zu interjezieren. "Sie wollten mithin nur Ihre 1/3 Pflicht tun!"
JG: "Sie sind noch immer der unverbesserliche Witzling!" Hören Sie bitte, weiter! Ich kam schliesslich mit der Schleusner Akt.-Ges. dahin überein, dass sie meinen 1/3 Anteil käuflich erwirbt, mich von meiner Konkurrenzklausel befreit, damit ich von ihr ganz unabhängig weiter arbeiten kann."
MO: "Ist Ihnen dies bewilligt worden?"
JG: "Mit grösster Freude! Beide Teile, sind somit vollauf befriedigt und haben wir uns in gütigstem Einverständnis voneinander getrennt."
MO: "Und nun?"
JG: "Jetzt habe ich eine andere G.m.b.H. gegründet und zwar die Deutsche Vitaskope, die in der Friedrichstr. 20 bereits eröffnet ist." [NB His full-page ad in the previous issue says in big letters Deutsche Vitascope]
MO: "Werden Sie uns mit Neuheiten überraschen?"
JG: "Ich glaube annehmen zu dürfen, dass mein neuer Vitaskop allen willkommen sein wird. Ganz besonderes Interesse dürfte mein neuer Synchronapparat erregen schon wegen seiner Billigkeit, Güte und minutiöser Präzision. Ferner bringe ich einen neuen Dauerfilm auf den Markt, der wie der Name andeutet, fortlaufende Handlungen ohne Unterbrechungen zeigen wird. Man ist durch ihn in der Lage eine ganze Oper aufzuführen und zwar aktweise, wie in einem Opernhause."
MO: „Sie haben sich da ein schönes Pensum reserviert das noch viel Arbeit kosten wird Hoffentlich gelingen Ihre neuen Pläne im selben Masse wie die alten".
Indem ich mich durch kräftigen Händedruck von dem kleinen, runden, vielseitig gewandten Herrn Greenbaum dankend verabschiedete, kam der Telegraphenbote mit der Nachricht, dass ihn in Paris dringende Geschäfte erwarten.
September 1909: Vitascope advertisement for the "Protectophon", Der Kinematograph, No. 157, 29 December 1909, back cover, and also inside rear cover, No. 162, 2 February 1910, [pdf 31]. Apparently for sound films. No further information.
19 May 1909: Another article by Olitski about Dt.Bio joining forces with Ludwig Hupfeld A.-G of Leipzig to make sound films with his 'Phonola' reproducing pianos, similar to the pianola.
Unsere Anregungen in No. 111 "Die Kinobühne als Konzertsaal" und die sich daran schliessenden Artikel in Nos. 116 & 118 halten das erfreuliche Resultat gezeitigt, dass unsere Worte nicht ungcliört blieben, sondern auf fruchtbaren Boden gefallen sind. Wie erinnerlich sein wird, bezweckten wir eine Kombination von Reproduktionsklavier und Filmaufnahme, also die Möglichkeit, unsere bedeutenden Klaviermeister wie d’Albert. Busoni, Godowsky usw. den Kinotheaterbesuchern zu repräsentieren und zwar nicht nur deren Person, sondern ihr ganzes Gehaben vor dem Flügel. Wir behaupteten ferner, dass diese neuen Films zur künstlerischen Hebung des Kinotheaters beitragen und den Theaterbesitzern eine erhebliche Einnahmebequelle sichern würden. Und schliesslich bemerken wir dass sich die Filmfahrikanten einen unauslöschlischen Namen in der Kulturgeschichte machen würden, denn es wäre doch, so meinten wir am Ende, äusserst interessant und für das gesamte musikliebende Publikum, das bekanntlich kein kleines ist, wichtig und erfreulich, könnte es heute sehen und hören, wie ein Liszt oder Rubinstein einstens gespielt, wie sie sich beim Spielen bewegt hallen. Diese beiden Momente richtig erfasst, erkannt zu halten und zu dem Entschluss gekommen zu sein, diese Kulturaufgabe zu lösen und auszuführen, ist das Verdienst der Deutschen Bioskope-Gesellschaft in Berlin und der Ludwig Hupfeld-A.-G. in Leipzig.
Letztere ist seit langer Zeit in der glücklichen Lage. die ,, Kunstlernotenrollen" zu besitzen, über die wir in einem Artikel bereits sprachen, und die für den gedachten Zweck einzig und allein in Betracht kommen, weil diese Noten von den bedeutendsten und begehresten Konzertkünstlern eigenhändig gespielt und für die Reproduktionsklaviere "Phonola" und "Dea" gestanzt sind. War mithin das Originalspiel unserer Klaviergrössen durch die Hupfeldschcn Fabrikate gegeben und gesichert, so ticstand nur n«x*h die Krwägung, wie die zeitliche Ubereinstimmung mit der Filmaufnahme zu bewerkstelligen wäre. Und dieses Problem ist nun nach gegenseitigem Gedankenaustausch der beiden renommierten Gesellschaften gefunden und gelöst. Schon in wenigen Wochen werden die Tlieaterbesitzer durch die Konzertfilms oder 'Phonolafilms' in den Stand gesetzt sein, ihr Repertoire zu vergrössern und dem Publikum mit einer Sensation aufzuwarten. Die Abmachungen mit den Künstlern für die Filmaufnahme sind derart getroffen, dass diese sich einzig und allein, der Deutschen Bioskope-Gesellschaft auf mehrere Jahre verpflichten, sodass die Ludwig Hupfeld-A.-G. zusammen mit der Deutschen Bioskope-Gesellschaft die ersten und vorläufig die alleinigen Fabrikanten dieser Konzertfilms sind und bleiben werden. Da es sich in diesem Falle nicht um momentan aktuelle, sensationelle Films handelt, sondern um ein Dauerfabrikat, kann man ungefähr eine Vorstellung erhalten, in welch lohnender Weise der schnelle Entschluss der beiden Gesellschaften sich bezahlt machen wird."
So, these are sound films, but with live pianola playback via a pre-recorded music roll. Were any even made? Easy, just find the titles of piano music...
Although Greenbaum's Vitascope (separate from Deutsche Bioscope's actualité business) first concentrated on sound films using his own patented Synchroscope apparatus, Tonbilder became increasingly unprofitable by 1909, although Deutsche Bioscop (freed from a non-competition agreement) was advertising both actualités and sound films in 1910 Check!
Most sound film production folded before the end 1910. It wasn't until around 1920 when sound-on-film first became possible that interest in sound films started again, and its development took until 1929 to become a commercial reality.
Source: [190] Much longer list of non-sound films from 1910 at The Concise Cinegraph: [191]
Personen- Verzeichnis: Philine . . Frl. Gaetes Lotharin. . Herr Neudamm Mignon. . . Frl. Wiggraf (Mitglieder der Kgl. Hofoper) Kgl. Hofopern-Chor, Kgl. Ballett. [193]
Greenbaum's Deutsche Vitascope joined up with PAGU in early 1914, perhaps to fight the French of invasion of Pathé and Gaumont - there seems to have been a huge general anti-foreigner feeling, certainly in the film and cinema trade: even the German branches of Pathé and Cines joined in the general sentiment, trumpeting their German-ness. See Lichtbild-Buhne issues from c1913? This means that Greenbaum and Deutsche Bioscop (with PAGU since the Nielsen films of 1911 until the outbreak of war) may have been briefly re-united under the same umbrella.
On 12 or 22 January 1915, Deutsche Vitascope [formed on 17 August 1909] restructures itself as Greenbaum-Film GmbH. [6] [196]
From 1907 Greenbaum's Deutsche Bioskope expanded rapidly in various directions. Apart from producing topical and actualité newsreels, Greenbaum had patented and was marketing the Synchroscope, a pioneering sound-on-disc system which used manual adjustment to synchronise phonograph records with moving pictures to create a working sound and vision system. [197]
Operating the Synchroscope involved the projectionist noting the position of two dial indicators like the hands of a clock, one (connected by a long cable) showing the speed of the remote clockwork-operated phonograph located near the screen, and one the speed of the hand-cranked projector at the other end of the projection hall. The projectionist had to alter the cranking speed of the projector (by turning the handle faster or slower) to keep the dials together, to synchronise the moving image with the sound. Various coloured lights glowed if the film was running too slow or too fast. [198] Greenbaum's device was an imitator of Oskar Messter's similar 'Biophon' system, and along with similar inventions, Germany soon had around twelve incompatible competing sound-on-disk film processes. None of these lasted very long. [199] [am]
Greenbaum produced a number of short sound films (Tonbilder) of vocal classical and light music including opera and operetta: [6] for example, Anna Müller-Lincke made some Tonbilder of operetta songs in 1907. [203] Guido Seeber, the head of the technical department at Deutsche Bioscop, had previously developed his own Seeberophon and was familiar with Messter's Synchrophon; he devised a number ingenious trick shots for the Synchroscope. [204]
Greenbaum also planned to "take up the eminently important production of the so-called silent films on a modest scale and to enable regular production." In this field of silent feature films, the company had suffered significant financial losses in the past due to lack of experience. [6]
Guido Seeber is also credited with the Synchroscope [205]{McMahan|2014|p=68) - Seeber was Greenbaum's very first employee from 1899. [206] If Seeber is properly credited with it, it must have been a development of Greenbaum's orginal device.
Lots more on Greenbaum and competitors at Catalogo Giornate del Cinema Muto 2015, pp. 177-9
Furthermore, Messter's Biophon appears to have been a direct plagiarisation of a very similar device by Léon Gaumont's Chronophone.(McMahan pp 66-67). Messter threatened legal action against the makers and owners of competing sound-film equipment in Germany, including the Synchroscope, but became willing to make an agreement. Gaumont and Messter combined forces and marketed the 'Gaumont-Messter Chronophon-Biophon'.(McMahan p. 68-69) [207]
Title Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema Women make cinema Author Alison McMahan Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2014 ISBN 1501302698, 9781501302695 url= https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mqIMBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA68
In 1907 Gaumont entered into an agreement with George Kleine to distribute Chronophone and normal Gaumont silent films in the United States.{McMahan|2014|p=70-71), similar to Greenbaum's partnership with Carl Laemmle, see next.. Gaumont and Kleine fell out in 1912 over membership of the MPPC, Gaumont deciding to become an 'Independent'.(McMahan pp. xx-xxi)
In search of international sales, Greenbaum entered into contracts in 1908 to supply Synchroscope to Carl Laemmle's Movie Service Company in Chicago and to another American, Charles Urban, in Britain. [6] [208] [209]
According to Greenbaum, "The existing workshop would, with only a few additional staff, be sufficient for the manufacture of the machines to be delivered under the contracts, especially synchroscopes, but a separate recording studio would absolutely have to be set up in America. Laemmle's Film Service Company is ready to meet the costs for setting up this studio." [6]
The Synchroscope was heavily advertised by Laemmle:
Laemmle had opened offices in 7 cities: Chicago; Omaha, Nebraska; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Salt Lake City, Utah; Evansville, Ind.; Portland, Oregon; and Memphis, Tenn. Synchroscopes were installed in eg Omaha, Nebraska, [211] Denver, Colorado (Theatorium), Portland, Oregon (Star) [212]
Laemmle sold the system to a number of cinemas in or near these cities, showing Deutsche Bioscope's films, mostly arias from German operas, operettas, or vaudeville revue numbers. He hired Greenbaum's son George to install every Synchroscope he sold. [211] [an]
From 7 to 14 July 1908 the Star Theatre, Portland, Oregon [213] showed a bill consisting of a pair of Synchroscope films. [214] In another advertisement around this time, Laemmle asserted: "Sometime you'll have to have a Synchroscope in order to stay in business." [215] [ao]
Laemmle rented the Majestic Theatre [216] in Evansville, Indiana during the summer months when it was closed as a vaudeville house, and there he used the new machine, of which he held the American agency from its German manufacturers. Twenty years afterwards, in 1929, an old employee wrote in a letter:
Henny Porten: see From cinema to sound film. A piece of experienced film history. Dresden: Carl Reisner 1932, p. 46; Henny Porten mainly worked at M&B during her audiovisual career. Messter had already recorded English audio images for the US market in 1904 (cf. Mein Weg, p. 66) . Jossé: The emergence of the sound film, p. 92, reports that Carl Laemmle took over the US marketing of Jules Greenbaum's sound-image system in the USA in 1908 and imported sound images produced in Berlin for this purpose; Jossé says that's why the recordings were in German (which is why the project failed), which is somewhat unlikely since Greenbaum had been in the USA longer and was familiar with the conditions there. Unfortunately, there are no concrete references to sound image exports (by individual companies) (Muller, p. 292, n427), chapter "Kinogrundungskonjunktur und deren Auswirkungen"
In the end Synchroscope largely petered out in the USA because not enough sound films were made to meet demand, and because it could only last for two or three reels while the standard length of films was increasingly four or five reels long. [211] In addition, cheaper knock-off sound films were made by less experienced artists miming to an inexpensive commercial record. Costs for sound films dropped to those of ordinary silent ones by 1908, at around 1.00 mark per metre, which made them wholly unprofitable. [199] Messter had been concentrating almost exclusively on sound films for several years, contributing to 90% of his turnover in 1908: but in 1909 he declared a loss. [199] Deutsche Bioscop was still producing sound films in 1910, such as the tenor solo Liebesfrühlings im Dachstübchen (lit. 'Spring love in the attic') and the carol Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht with choir, church bells, organ and wind band. [156]
Other devices such as the Chronophonograph, the Cameraphone and the Cinephone were temporarily more successful in the US at the time: [223] a Cameraphone Theater opened in Portland, Oregon in February 1909. [224]
Similarly, Greenbaum's costs had soared by the end of 1908: the Synchroscope equipment was expensive, being originally priced at $750 (around $20,000 in 2015) although Laemmle struck a deal for $395 for low-end cinemas and $550 for the bigger theaters; [211] and each short film required new theatre-style sets and historical costumes. [6] At their peak in around 1908, the costs for sound films at 2.50 marks per metre (3 feet), apart from the cost of the record, were double those for silent films, from 60 pfennigs to 1.20 marks per metre. [225] By December 1909 Vitascop-Gesellschaft was selling copies of Zum Jahreswechsel, "Ein allegoriches Tonbild" for one mark per metre. [226]
A complete second-hand Synchroscope with a Victor talking machine, two indicator dials with cable plus instructions and two used films was being offered for sale for $110 in July 1909. [227] [211]
The shareholders complained at a meeting in December 1908 about the extra capital outlay, and looked forward to a general reduction in costs, not further expenditure. To free up the Greenbaum's commercial interests, Schleussner bought out their remaining share in 1909, and ended a no-competition agreement; after which Jules Greenbaum seems to have had no further involvement with his old company. [6]
Commercially viable movies using sound-on-film techniques only became widely available at the end of the 1920s with the German Tri-Ergon system used by Tobis-Klang in Europe, and e.g. Fox Corporation's Movietone apparatus in the USA.
A-S Filmfabriken "Danmark", Kopenhagen. Agent (Vertreter) for Deutschland und die Schweiz: Max Stambulki, Friedrichstrasse 243." [43] [i]
Die Toteninsel pops up for rental in Der Kinematograph for January 1915 Nr. 419, [pdf 20] by Frankfurter Film-Comp. GmbH states: "Die Toteninsel - Liebesroman - Nach Böcklinschen Motiven. 4 Akte." Lol, immediately above is "Der Excentricclub - von Misu - Schiffsdrama in 4 Akte" and we know
all about Herr Misu, don't we? And also further, an ad for Deutsche Bioscop-Gesellschaft mbH, Friedrichstr. 236, has "Telegram-Adresse: Bioscope" with an 'e'. So there. Also, Lichtbild-Bühne for November 1915 Nr. 14, [pdf 67] by Günther & Co., states: "Die Toteninsel (nach BöcklinMotiven), 4 Akte" but with no further info.
Well, well, wellety well. Looked up "The Isle of the Dead" in Danish, and found this:
Furkel, Georg (November 1926). "Film vor 30 Jahren". Der Kinematograph (in German). Part I: 7 November 1926, issue 1029, pp. 15-16 • Part 2: 14 November, issue 1030, pp. 11-12 • Part 3: 21 November, issue 1031, pp. 15-16