Above, animators in 1926 between shots on the set of Metropolis, filmed on the UFA site in Berlin by avant-garde director Fritz Lang. Left, the auto..Jree streets ofthe present ·day UFA urban village, whose cafes, events and community service projects draw 300,000 people a year. To reduce the impact ofthe visitors, the Fabrik runs many systems for composting, greywater use and energy efficiency. such significant films as Metropolis and The Cabinet ofDr. Caligari were produced at UFA..What was left of the studio closed in the early 1970s, unable to compete with television and Hollywood. The idea for a Fabrik fiir Kultur, Sport und Handwerk [Factory ~or culture, sport and crafts] developed in an alternative West Berlin neighborhood in the early 1970s. Cold-war money pouring into the isolated city, intended to keep West Berliners from leaving, had the unintended effect of making West Berlin a Above, some goods are moved about the UFA grounds. The com~un°ity provides home and workfor 'one hundred permanent and temporary residents. Some ofthose are members ofthe wild UFA circus, ·below, who entertain their · fellow Berliners and travel a European-wide circuit of alter71ative, international cultural centers, with which UFA Fabrik is closely associated. mecca for radical projects, and fertile ground for the . counterculture. An important environmental festival in 1978 motivated the Fabrik craft-collective to look for a place where they could realize dreams of living ·and working together. They boldly, but peacefully, occupied the forgotten., demolitionthreatened UFA studio grounds, and immediately opened their doors to the public. Great support was · shown by neighbors, media people and other West Berliners. In a gesture of trust, they withdrew from the site just before a decisive city hall debate. The West Berlin Senate RAIN Summer 1994 Volume XIV, Number 4 Page 9
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