On December 18, 1917, Universum-Film AG (Ufa) was founded in order to be better able to cope with foreign film competition, also in propaganda. After the end of the war, however, there was a concentration on genres that appealed to the public. From 1922 onwards, the Neubabelsberg Bioscop studios functioned as Ufa’s production centre alongside the studios in Berlin Tempelhof, which were expanded in 1926 with the construction of what was then Europe’s largest studio hall. Erich Pommer becomes head of all Ufa production plants (1923). Directors such as Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau are now realising major projects such as “Metropolis”, “Dr. Mabuse”, “Die Nibelungen”, “Faust” or “Der letzte Mann” for Ufa. After a severe financial crisis, the Scherl Group of the major publisher Alfred Hugenberg took over Ufa in 1927, and in 1930 Josef von Sternberg directed the global sound film success “The Blue Angel” with Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich.

After the National Socialists seized power, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, Erich Pommer and others emigrated. With the founding of the Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment under Joseph Goebbels and the establishment of Filmkreditbank GmbH, the state controls the entire German film production. Entertainment of the cinema audience is now in the foreground. Film comedies with Hans Albers and Heinz Rühmann, operetta and revue films with Zarah Leander as well as the opulent colour film “Münchhausen” were created. The Gleichschaltung was completed in 1942 with the merger of Ufa, Tobis, Terra, Bavaria and Wien-Film into a single group, Ufa-Film GmbH (Ufi).

On April 24, 1945, units of the Red Army occupied the Ufa site. With the granting of the first production license by the Soviet military administration, the Deutsche Filmaktiengesellschaft, or DEFA for short, was founded on May 17, 1946, whose first feature film was Wolfgang Staudte’s “Die Mörder sind unter uns” (1946) with Hildegard Knef. The remaining Reich film assets remained in the western occupation zones under fiduciary management until Bavaria and Ufa were privatized in 1956. Universum-Film AG (Ufa) and Ufa-Theater AG are taken over by a consortium of banks led by Deutsche Bank. Ufa boss Arno Hauke, however, is fighting in vain against the film crisis.

In 1964, Bertelsmann acquired Universum-Film AG and all shares in Ufa-Theater AG. In order to prevent the sale of the film rights of the old Ufa, the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation was established in Wiesbaden at the instigation of the federal government and the film industry, which acquired the rights to the Ufa and Bavaria films in 1966 and has been managing them ever since. In 1972, the Riech Group acquired Ufa-Theater AG and continued to run it under the Ufa rhombus under a license from Bertelsmann. The Ufa naming rights, however, remain with Bertelsmann. Under Werner Mietzner, there is a renaissance of Ufa productions in UFA television production. With the launch of private television, Bertelsmann establishes UFA Film und Fernseh GmbH in Hamburg together with Gruner & Jahr for its holdings in radio and television stations such as RTL and Premiere as well as for the marketing of film and sports rights. Founding managing directors are Bernd Schiphorst and Manfred Harnischfeger. From 1984 onwards, the holding company also oversees the TV production activities of the Bertelsmann Group.

From autumn 1991, UFA’s production companies will be under the management of Wolf Bauer as Chairman of the Management Board. In addition to Axel Reick as commercial director, Bauer also appoints Norbert Sauer as managing director of UFA television production and as a member of the holding company’s management board. In the years that followed, UFA Film & TV Produktion developed into the largest German production company. Award-winning TV movies, long-running entertainment formats, high-rating daily soaps, numerous primetime series, sitcoms and non-fictional programs make UFA the market leader in Germany with 2000 hours of programming.

Wolf Bauer initiates a highly successful cooperation with the Australian Reg Grundy, the inventor of innovative and internationally successful television formats. The resulting company Grundy UFA TV Produktions GmbH with managing directors Mike Murphy and Wolf Bauer establishes the industrial form of television production with Gute Zeiten – schlechte Zeiten . Grundy UFA develops into the most successful European producer of daily series and telenovelas.
In 1998, Wolf Bauer and Nico Hofmann founded teamWorx, a company that stands for outstanding, sophisticated event productions.

From 2002, the production company Phoenix-Film under the management of Markus Brunnemann also belongs to UFA. His father Karl Heinz Brunnemann founded the company in 1979 from Deutsche Synchron in the former Ufa studios in Tempelhof. Phoenix is primarily dedicated to popular series and family series.
During this time, UFA Television Production developed a high level of expertise in crime series and series, such as SOKO , and for outstanding TV movie productions.
Following the takeover of Pearson TV by RTL Group, Grundy’s show & entertainment business will also be merged under the umbrella of UFA. UFA is thus the holding company of all production activities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary and thus part of RTL Group’s global production business.
With UFA Cinema, founded in 2008, UFA is also once again starting the production of major feature films such as Der Medicus.
In 2009, the UFA Lab was founded under the direction of Jens-Uwe Bornemann. The central field of activity of this part of the company is the creation and production of content for new digital platforms. This digital production unit for innovative, transmedia moving images and storytelling develops new program forms and business models for UFA’s digital transformation.

In view of the changes in the media market and the rapidly advancing digital transformation of the use of moving images, a strategic realignment was decided in 2013 to ensure UFA’s future viability. UFA’s previous guiding principle of positioning its seven program labels in regulated competition on the market has been replaced by a One UFA strategy, which provides for increased networking of creative potential and an improved innovation and development process, and bundles the unique production know-how for the entire company. A new, simplified organizational structure consistently follows this guiding principle. Three UFA units were formed from seven labels.
Four genre-specific units now operate under the umbrella of UFA GmbH : UFA Fiction, UFA Serial Drama, UFA Show & Factual, UFA Mitte and UFA Documentary
UFA Fiction is the merger of the previously separate fictional labels teamWorx, UFA Fernsehproduktion and Phoenix Film. As a further unit, GrundyUFA now operates as UFA Serial Drama. GRUNDY Light Entertainment and UFA Entertainment have been renamed UFA Show & Factual. Since 2021, UFA Documentary has been focusing on documentaries, docu-hybrids and serial features. With the founding of UFA Mitte in 2024, new content in particular is to be developed and produced originally in Central Germany.

In 2017, UFA celebrated its 100th anniversary. This is associated with a century of eventful film history and an entertainment brand that has reinvented itself again and again in the interplay of tradition and innovation.
The anniversary year 2017 was not only an occasion for UFA to celebrate, but also an opportunity to look back and once again gain new perspectives on an eventful hundred-year history. As Germany’s largest program creator, UFA today shapes the television landscape with TV events, movies, feature films, series, long-running and daily series, as well as shows and reality formats.

UFA has created unforgettable images over the past 100 years. Common to all eras of the company’s history is the UFA brand, which will continue to stand for passion, creativity and distinctive programs in the future.