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Vacation 2010 September 23, Germany Film-Museum Potsdam, Brandenburg

The next day found us agoin touring Potsdam. This time with Volker's daughter Julia. Welcome to Potsdam's oldest building. It was originally built in 1685 as an arboretum for the City Castle. In 1713 the "Soldier King" turned it into a horse stable for hids growing army. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Click the tourist info sign to learn more about the building's history

Like the City Palace, the Stables too were damaged in World War II and were destined to be demolished. Fortunately, socialist planning was always behind schedule - in this case, decades behind. When the time was finally right, the master-mind behind the demolitions - communist Party leader Walter Ulbricht was no longer in charge and those urging the preservation of the building got stronger. Eventually, the idea to create Germany's first Film-museum, saved the building. Between 1977 and 1980, the building was completely restored and in 1981, the Film-Museum opened.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXFilm-Museum The film studios of Potsdam-Babelsberg are the European movie capital. Babelsberg claims to be the world's oldest large-scale film studio. 80% of all German movies and many international films are produced here every year. In 2012, Babelsberg will celebrate 100 years of movie production. Here, in Germany's oldest Film Museum, this history comes back to life. Our favorite exhibit was the Cinema Organ (pictures below). Theatre organs were used in the era of silent movies to accompany the movie and to imitate and replace an entire, costly orchestra. This particular instrument does not only provide all the sounds of a modern synthesizer (such as flute, violin, saxophone, oboe, clarinet, cello and bugle), together with a broad variety of percussion instruments, from castanets to a kettledrum; it also plays a wide variety of special sound effects. Peas drizzling into a metal funnel imitate rain and a vibrating thin metal sheet produces authentic thunder. Other possible sounds are storm, running water, cow bells, bird sounds, trains and a ship's siren.

One special exhibition in the museum is dedicated to the Sandman. This is one the longest continuously running TV series in German TV. Since 1959, Sandman tells a five-minute bedtime story every evening at 7 pm. Over the years, he arrived on the set in a number of different vehicles - from sledges to space ships. Many of his 240 props are shown in the exhibition "Sandman's Motor Pool."

Without a doubt, the most popular character in East-German kids TV was the Kobold Pittiplatsch. He and his friends, the dog Moppi and the duck Schnatterinchen have been on the air continuously since 1962.

The museum has a kids section with costumes, allowing kids to get into character. Julia has always been Pitti's greatest fan, and here, an old kid's dream came true for her and for Moppi-Fan Volker. Judy, who had to spend her childhood without the blessings of East-German black-and white TV had no idea what this was all about. But she played along!

From here we moved on to a small village half way between Potsdam and Berlin and dove deeper into history than ever before.

Click the left turn sign to get back to the previous page. Or click the right turn signal to move on to a medieval village at the outskirts of Berlin.

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