Bundesarchiv, Berlin-Lichterfelde (Abteilung Filmarchiv)

In 1955 the GDR State Film Archives were founded in East-Berlin. The Federal Archives in Koblenz were given the task of acting as a central film archives in 1978. In the course of the reunification of Germany in 1990, the State Film Archives were integrated into the Federal Archives and set up in Berlin. Today users are welcomed in Berlin-Lichterfelde, while most of the film material is stored in specialized repositories in Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten, among others around 70,000 rolls of cellulose nitrate film. 

The Film Archives have been collecting German newsreels, documentary films and feature films since the 1950s, but hold older material too. Copies of all films made by the Federal Administration and its functional predecessors as well as films that have received subsidies and film prizes or other public sponsorship have to be given to the Film Archives. It also collects documents on film history, censorship and certification records as well as associated film material such as programmes, photographs, posters and scripts. For Holocaust research the national socialist news reels (Wochenschauen) as well as feature films and documentary material about that time period may be of special interest.