Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Königin der Wildnis" + "Eine total, total verrückte Welt"

 

This postcard is a unique piece in my collection of postcards showing the Kino International in Berlin. It was published in the USSR in 1974 and sold for 3 kopeks. Maybe, it was a portfolio of postcards and sold in the shops for the members of the Soviet Army and their families in East Germany (so called magazines).

Two films are advertised on the large poster at the cinema:

- Königin der Wildnis - Born free, the great British movie about the lion Elsa (directed by James Hill, 1966) and

- Eine total, total verrückte Welt - It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (directed by Stanley Kramer, USA 1963).

The first one came to East German cinemas on 4 July 1969, the second one on 2 August 1968. Maybe it was a rerelease of these movies about 1974 (when the postcard was published).

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Die Perle" 1964

 

This is already my 25th postcard showing Kino International in Berlin (counted according to the poster motif). The postcard is extra large (21,4 cm x 10,3 cm) and was sold with an envelope. It was made by Graphokopie H. Sander K.G. Berlin and was published by Berlin Werbung Berolina.

The poster on the cinema building advertises the film Die Perle / The Pearl / La perla - a 1947 Mexican-American film directed by Emilio Fernández. It is based on the 1947 novella The Pearl by John Steinbeck, who also co-wrote the screenplay.

The film came to East German cinemas on May 26, 1964. It was shown already August 12, 1950 in the West German cinemas with the titel Mexikanische Romanze - but only 77 min of total 85 min.

In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The poster was designed by Horst Klöpfel.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Die Frau, die man nie vergessen kann" 1964

 

Another postcard in my collection of Kino International in Berlin. It is a view of Karl-Marx-Allee (until 1961 Stalinallee) with the cinema on the left, looking east to Strausberger Platz. The two 14-story high-rise buildings were built in the 1950s as Haus des Kindes (House of the Child) and Haus Berlin. In addition to the apartments for hundreds of workers, there was a dancing bar in Haus Berlin and in Haus des Kindes there were a puppet theater, a kindergarten, a children's department store and a children's cafe.

It wasn't easy to read the advertised movie on the poster. I could identify it with the help of the book Mehr Kunst als Werbung. Das DDR-Filmplakat by Detlef Helmbold (even if the poster does not match the illustration in the book). It is the Polish movie Die Frau, die man nie vergessen kann / Naprawdę wczoraj (Poland 1963, directed by Jan Rybkowski). This movie was released in East Germany on July 10, 1964.

The postcard was published in 1965 by Gebr. Garloff KG Magdeburg.

In October 2020 I visited Berlin and Kino International. There was a little interesting exhibition inside Pavillions für die Karl-Marx-Allee. And I heard, that Berlin's Karl-Marx-Allee should be on the Unesco World Heritage List.

I didn't see a movie there. I preferred to walk along Karl-Marx-Allee to Warschauer Strasse. I was amazed that there was so little going on on the avenue on a Saturday afternoon.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Die Befreiung" 1970

Another postcard from Kino International in Berlin.
The cinema advertises the movie Die Befreiung. Teil 1 - Der Feuerbogen. Teil 2 - Der Durchbruch.
Two parts of total 5 from the Soviet movie Освобождение / The Liberation about the World War II, directed by Yuri Ozerov (1969). The movie came to East German cinemas in May 1970 and was shown in 70mm in special cinemas.
The postcard was published in 1971 by Verlag Felix Setecki, Berlin. It was sent in September 1971 to a woman, she lived across the street from my current apartment ...

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Ein Menschenschicksal" 1965

This postcard was published in 1965 by Reisebüro der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik.

The poster advertises the movie Ein Menschenschicksal / Судьба человека / Fate of a Man, a 1959 Soviet film adaptation of the short story by Mikhail Sholokhov, and also the directorial debut of Sergei Bondarchuk. Bondarchuk won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of his adaption of Tolstoy's War and Peace in 1969.
The movie tells the ordeal of a simple man who lost his house and family in the Second World War. But despite the bitterest experiences, he maintained his belief in the power of man. Patriotism and one-sided hate songs undermine the pacifist message of the visually impressive anti-war film. Still worth reading and seeing.
The film was released in East Germany on 6 November 1959. Kino International was opened on 15 November 1963. So there must be a re-release of this film.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Don Quichotte" 1958

This postcard shows a model of later Kino International and Hotel Berolina. It was sent in January 1960. There is written on it: "Redesign of the city center of Berlin. Hotel Berlin Tourist with cinema and shop buildings." Read about the construction of the Karl-Marx-Allee on wikipedia.
The cinema was opened on 15 November 1963. The hotel was opened in 1964 and demolished in 1996. There had a 14-story high-rise built between 1996 and 1998. The new building is architecturally based on the former hotel and now the city hall Berlin-Mitte.
In the cinema building you can see many details of the later built one, e.g. the sculptural relief.
I find the film poster in the model remarkable. The poster is designed by Hans Adolf Baltzer, it is for the 1957 Soviet movie Don Quixote, directed by Grigori Kozintsev. It was the first feature film realized in widescreen of Soviet Lenfilm production. The poster thus indicates that 70mm films can be shown in the new cinema. I don't know if the movie Don Quixote was ever shown there.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Die Brücke" 1964

I'm sure, Kino International in Berlin is the most printed cinema on postcard worldwide. This is No. 20 in my collection showing different posters - and it is not the last one.
The poster today advertises the film Die Brücke / The Bridge, a German anti-war film by Bernhard Wicki from 1959. 
It tells about the last days in war 1945 in a small Bavarian town. Seven underaged boys receive the militarily senseless order to defend a bridge from the advancing US troops. Only one will survive the mission ...

The film received many awards and nominations, among them a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1960. It is one of the best German films of all time. It came to East German cinemas on 4 September 1964.

The postcard was published by Graphokopie H. Sanders KG Berlin.
The poster was designed by Jürgen Großmann.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Die zweite Wahrheit" 1967

Another postcard from Kino International in Berlin.
This time it was a bit harder to determine the date of the photo on the basis of the movie poster. I succeeded with the help of the book Mehr Kunst als Werbung. Das DDR Filmplakat 1945 bis 1990 by Detlef Helmbold, which contains all East German cinema posters. Looking this book is like a walk through film and design history.
The poster on the cinema belongs to the movie Die zweite Wahrheit/La seconde vérité. It is a 1966 French film directed by Christian-Jaque.
The movie started on 13 October 1967 at Kino International.
The postcard was published by Verlag Felix Setecki, Berlin, in 1968.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany- "Festtage des sowjetischen Films in der DDR" 1964

Kino International was opened on November 15, 1963. This photo was taken in May 1964 and published as a postcard by Kunstanstalt Straub und Fischer in Meiningen.

The cinema advertises Festtage des sowjetischen Films in der DDR / Festival of Soviet film in the GDR. As read on the website of DEFA-Stiftung there were shown movies like Die Ballade vom Soldaten / Баллада о солдате / Ballad of a Soldier (Director: Grigori Chukrai, USSR 1959), Die Kraniche ziehen / Летят журавли / The Cranes are Flying (Director: Mikhail Kalatozov, USSR 1957) and Ein Menschenschicksal / Судьба человека / Fate of a Man (Director: Sergei Bondarchuk, USSR 1959). And maybe one of the famous Soviet fairy tale movies? 

Kino International in Berlin / Germany - "Chronik eines Mordes" 1965

The photo was taken in February 1965, when the movie Chronik eines Mordes / The Story of a Murder was shown at Kino International. It is an East German DEFA movie following the novel Die Jünger Jesu by Leonhard Frank. Director was Joachim Hasler. You can see the actress Angelica Domröse in the main role at the poster.

The poster was designed by Erhard Grüttner.

The postcard was made by Graphokopie H. Sander KG.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Dr. med. Hiob Prätorius" 1965

It is not easy to read the film title on the poster. But I got many film program folders from my parents from the 1960s and know the movie offer of this time very well. The person on the poster looks like a doctor, so it could be the comedy Dr. med. Hiob Prätorius. And look here at postertreasures I found the shown East German poster.

Dr. med. Hiob Prätorius was a 1965 West German comedy film directed by Kurt Hoffmann and starring everybody's darling Heinz Rühmann and Liselotte Pulver. It was based on a play by Curt Goetz - one of the most brillant comedy writers in the German-speaking world.


The story tells about an older doctor and a young woman in trouble.

The same play was filmed by Joseph L. Mankiewizc in 1951 as People Will Talk with Cary Grant.

The movie started on January 14th, 1965 in West German cinemas and came already on August 13th, 1965 to East German cinemas. It was the most successful West German movie in 1965. So I am sure it was also very successful in East Germany. And in the evening the street before the cinema was full of people - more than on this postcard.

The postcard was published by Verlag Felix Setecki in Berlin.

The filmposter was designed by Thomas Schleusing.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Sonnenallee" 1999

This postcard is the latest from this interesting building. The movie Sonnenallee came to German cinemas on October 7, 1999. It was directed by Leander Haußmann after a novel by Thomas Brussig and tells about a youth in East Berlin in the late 1970s. The Sonnenallee is an actual street in Berlin that was intersected by the border between East and West during the time of the Berlin Wall, although it bears little resemblance to the film set. 

On the large poster you can see Detlev Buck  as an East German policeman. His 1993 movie Wir können auch anders ... is one of the best German movies about the situation in East Germany in the early 1990s. And I remember children clapping after his excellent children movie Hände weg von Mississippi. 

At all it is a set of three postcards, advertising postcards publishing by the Yorck Kinogruppe - owner and co-owner of different cinemas in Berlin and Dresden. It is an interesting view outwards to the Café  Moskau, it is so often on the postcards together with Kino International.
Thanks for this good idea! (And my wish for the next time: More people on the postcards.)

5 cinemas in Berlin/Germany

At all I don't like multiview cards where one little picture shows a cinema. But this postcard is different: it shows 5 cinemas in Berlin. (And there are some good multiview postcards from only one cinema.)
You can see on this postcard:

• Kosmos, opened in 1962 and closed in 2005.
  Josef Kaiser and Herbert Aust were the architectures of this cinema with 1000 seats in one hall. For more information and pictures look at great Kinokompendium.
• Kino International, opened in 1964.
  For more information and pictures look at great Kinokompendium.
• Filmtheater Colosseum, was planned by famous cinema-architecture Fritz Wilms and opened in 1924.
  The film producer Arthur Brauner acquired the grounds in 1993 and built in 1997 a multiplex with 10 halls.
  For more information and pictures look at great Kinokompendium.
• Lunik Lichtspiele, opened in 1961 and closed in 1961.
  It was planned by Josef Kaiser and had about 500 places.
• Filmtheater Gérard Philipe, opened on December 18, 1960 and closed in 1979.
  Gérard Philipe (1922-1959) was a French actor, very popular also in East Germany.

The logo bft betweenthe photos of cinema Kosmos and Kino International stands for VEB Berliner Filmtheater, the East German state cinema company in Berlin.

At all a well done postcard from 1964.

Kino International in Berlin/Gemany - "Boccaccio '70" 1965

Boccaccio '70 is a 1962 Italian anthology film directed by Mario Monicelli, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica, starring Anita Ekberg, Romy Schneider, Sophia Loren and Marisa Solinas. It is an anthology of four episodes, each by one of the directors, all about a different aspect of morality and love in modern times, in the style of Boccaccio. Boccaccio (1313-1375) is still today famous for his Decameron.
The total running time is 208 min (like the Italian version with all four segments), but there were some changes in some countries. I don't know the running time of the movie, when it came to Kino International and to East Germany on 2 July 1965.
The postcard was published by VEB Bild und Heimat in Reichenbach/Vogtland. 
The filmposter was designed by Erhard Grüttner.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt" 1965

Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt / The Adventures of Werner Holt  is a 1965 East German film directed by Joachim Kunert. The script was based on Dieter Noll's 1960 published novel Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt (Part 1).
The plot: Werner Holt (Klaus-Peter Thiele), a young Wehrmacht soldier stationed on the eastern border of Germany in the last days of World War II, is awaiting the attack of the Red Army and he recalls the last two years of his life.
The movie released on 5 February 1965, and it is still today cited as one of the most notable films that, using a modernist style, challenged the traditional East German anti-Fascist narrative by introducing a more personal perspective to the theme.
With this view of Kino International you get a little idea of the pictures on the facade. You can see better pictures of altogether 14 different scenes from the leisure and professional life of socialist everyday life at Kinokompendium.
The postcard was published by VEB Bild und Heimat in Reichenbach/Vogtland. 

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Anna Karenina" 1967

The 1967 Soviet movie Anna Karenina came to East German cinemas on 28 June 1968. It was directed by Aleksandr Zarkhi, based on the novel of the same name by Leo Tolstoy. Tatiana Samoilova played Anna Karenina. Anna Karenina was presented as a 70 mm color movie at Kino International.
The postcard was published by Graphokopie H. Sander KG in Berlin.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Kampf um Deutschland" 1963

The advertised movie Kampf um Deutschland is an East German documentary about the fight of communists against fascism between 1930 and 1945 and building a communist Germany after 1945. And all in CinemaScope.
The movie directed by Joachim Hellwig and had premiere on 7 October 1963 - the 14th annivarsary of the establishment of the German Democratic Republic. The premiere night was not in this cinema (it was still a building site), it was in Filmtheater Kosmos in Berlin. 
The postcard is from 1964. It is a good view of the cinema and its unique architecture. It was published by PGH Film und Bild in Berlin-Friedrichshagen.
The poster was designed by Jürgen Großmann.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Optimistische Tragödie" 1963

Another postcard from Kino International. It is a very interesting postcard, because the theatre was opened with the advertised movie Optimistische Tragödie / Оптимисти́ческая траге́дия / An Optimistic tragedy, a 1963 Soviet movie by Samson Samsonov. 
Unfortunately it isn't a photo from the grand opening premiere on November 15, 1963. I found at Bundesarchiv a picture from this event with flags in front of the cinema and at this postcard there aren't flags. 

Postcard is published by Graphokopie H. Sander KG in Berlin. 
The poster was designed by Klaus Wittkugel. The typeface on the Café Moskau  opposite the Kino International was also designed by him.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "In 80 Tagen um die Welt" 1966

The photo was taken in summer 1966. Then the Oscar-winning movie Around the World in 80 Days came to Kino International (on 22 July 1966). This US-American movie realesed already in 1956. But it was too expensive for the East German film distributuion to start this film earlier in East German cinemas. 
The movie was made in Todd-AO 70mm cinematography and could shown in this quality in Kino International.
The screenplay based on the well known novel by Jules Verne.
I am sure woman and boy at this postcard are wanted to this movie, they are looking so expactantly at the cinema. 
The postcard was published by Graphokopie H. Sander KG in Berlin.

I got a postcard with another poster from this film via Postcrossing:

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Gräfin Cosel" 1969

A colour postcard with Kino International on a summer day. The cinema advertises the movie Gräfin Cosel / Hrabina Cosel (directed by Jerzy Antczak, Poland 1968), realeased in East German cinemas on 13 June 1969.
Anna Constantia Countess of Cosel (1680 - 1765) was a German noblewoman and mistress of Augustus the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. But this love hadn't a happy end, Augustus has arrested her in 1716 to Burg Stolpen/Saxony, where she died after 49 years of imprisonment.
The postcard was published by VEB Bild und Heimat in Reichenbach/Vogtland.
The poster was designed by Gerhard Rappus.