Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz

This article is about the Berlin cinema built in 1912 as the Nollendorf-Theater. For the 'Theater am Nollendorfplatz', see Neues Schauspielhaus.
Cines Nollendorf-Theater c. 1914. The architect was Oskar Kaufmann, and the seated figure above the entrance and the bas-reliefs of the frieze on the Motzstraße side are by Franz Metzner.

The Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz was a cinema located at 4 Nollendorfplatz, Schöneberg, Berlin. The chief architect was Oskar Kaufmann. Built in 1912–13 and decorated by leading artistic practitioners of the day, it was the German capital's first purpose-built, free-standing cinema[de 1][n 1] Described as "historically, [...] the most important cinema in Berlin",[1] it incorporated a number of technical innovations such as an opening roof and a daylight projection screen,[2] and opened as the Nollendorf-Theater in March 1913.

The cinema was built by a group of US investors allied with the Italian film company Cines[3] which included the American millionaire Joe Goldsoll (a high-class swindler and con-man); A. H. Woods, a Hungarian theatrical producer based in New York to whom Goldsoll was related by marriage; and Edward B. Kinsila, later a film studio architect. The Nollendorf-Theater was rumoured to have been "paid for by the Pope's money."[n 2] One of the directors of Cines was Ernesto Pacelli, President of the Banco di Roma, who was in the confidence of Pope Leo XIII and the cousin of Pope Pius XII.[4]

It became the Cines Nollendorf-Theater in 1914, but the Berlin branch of Cines collapsed in late 1915 after the Banco di Roma, one of its main investors, fell into financial difficulties. The building was acquired by the Union-Theater Lichtspiele (U.-T.) chain of cinemas, part of Paul Davidson's PAGU company. Although PAGU was bought in late 1917 by Universum-Film AG (Ufa), the cinema continued to be known as the Union-Theater Nollendorfplatz until 1923. It was renamed as Ufa-Theater Nollendorfplatz in 1924 and finally as the Ufa-Pavillon in 1927. It was badly damaged during World War II in an RAF bombing raid in late 1943, and was not rebuilt.


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  1. ^ Bentinck 1975.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT_15_Dec_1912 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Pronounced Chee-néss
  4. ^ Tomadjoglu, Kimberley (2000). "Rome's premiere film studio: Societa Italiana Cines" (PDF). Film History. 12: 263. Retrieved 1 November 2016.