Universum Film AG, better known as Ufa or UFA, was a German film studio crated on December 18 1917 in Berlin. The studio was initially a producer of World War I propaganda and public service films. Following the war it became the leading German film production and the principal exponent of Expressionism through the 1920s. Famous directors based at Ufa included Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau producing films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis, M and Marlene Dietrich's first film,The Blue Angel. In 1926 Ufa opened a new production complex at Tepelhof in Berlin.
The studio's financial crisis led to it being taken over by Alfred Hugenberg in 1927. Hugenberg was sympathetic to the Nazis and the company became a producer of Nazi propaganda films after Hitler took power in 1932 with Joseph Goebbels' ministry of propaganda essentially controlling the content of Ufa films. In 1937 the Nazi Party bought up 72% of Ufa's shares and in 1942 Ufa was incorporated into the Third Reich's movie conglomerate.
Following the Second World War Ufa became the property of the GDR (East Germany) as its studios were located in Soviet occupied East Berlin and it became part of East Germany's film studio, DEFA, or Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft. After German reunification in 1991 Ufa was re-established and became a major producer of television programs. Today it is part of the transnational Bertelsmann corporation.
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