Studio Babelsberg AG is now owned by the American financial investment fund TPG Real Estate Partners (TREP) from Fort Worth, Texas, it was announced earlier this week. And anyone who has been waiting for this economic news to be followed by protests from the cultural sector has been waiting in vain. On the one hand, this is astonishing when you take into account that the Babelsberg district of Potsdam is home to the world’s oldest large-format film studio, founded in 1912, the birthplace of UFA masterpieces such as “Metropolis”, later home to the East German DEFA, and later the place where hopes for all-German cinema art and international box office successes crossed, sometimes even collided. The calm is also remarkable when one imagines what would be going on if the Parisian film studios were suddenly swallowed up by Hollywood or those of Pinewood near London.
But if you ask around in the Berlin film industry these days, comments on the takeover by the Americans tend to be cautious. Some say that one does not yet know enough to be able to estimate the consequences for German film. Others see further signs of monopoly in the film business. Babelsberg is now part of the studio platform Cinespace, which, according to its own information, is America’s second largest studio operator.
The actor Christoph Waltz, who once achieved world fame with the Tarantino film “Inglorious Basterds” shot in Babelsberg, praises the decision of the previous board members Carl Woebcken and Christoph Fisser to consistently open the Potsdam studios to large international productions. The two had taken over Babelsberg in 2004 for a symbolic euro and were so successful with their Hollywood course that the American takeover now seems almost logical. Woebcken and Christoph Fisser should continue to run the business. Brandenburg’s Ministry of Economic Affairs only expressed the expectation in warning words that the current 100 permanent jobs will also be retained in the future.