Ufa Theater

Located in the Mitte district of the city centre. The Kaiser Theater was opened in 1911 with an unknown number of seats. In 1916 it was re-named Victoria Theater with 240-seats. In 1935 a sound system was added and the theater was re-named Barberina Ton Lichtspiele with an expanded seating capacity of 255. In 1942 the cinema was closed due to conditions during World War II.

It remained closed until it was taken over by the Aki Aktualitaten Kino chain who modernised the the cinema and it re-opened in 1953 with one screen and 416-seats. It was the 5th newsreel theatre to be opened by the Aki chain. Following the end of World War II, the Allies ordered that newsreels were to be screened in every cinema in the west sector of Germany for the purpose of re-education. In 1950 the Aki Aktualitaten Kino chain was founded and operated by Berhard Frank in Frankfurt Main, to screen a newsreel programme without a feature film presentation and the cinemas were located close to or in a railway station. The architects were Joachim Schweitzer & Bartels. The style of the cinema was Moderne.

The Aki screened non-stop newsreels, short documentaries and a cartoon. The Aki Aktualitaten Kino cinemas were successful and cheap. The moviegoers paid only 50 Pfennige (25 cent) for a ticket. The show started with an International newsreel by Ufa Wochenschau, then the Neue deutsche Wochenschau was screened, then the Fox tonende Wochenschau and some commercials. After that followed a short documentary then a newsreel by Welt im Bild was screened, followed by a cartoon or a slapstick comedy closed the programme. The running time for one show was 50 minutes. The Aki slogan was “around the world in 50 minutes”. The audience could enter and leave the cinema at any time. The first show started at 9am in the morning and the last at 11pm or 12 midnight. In the auditorium was an illuminated clock and a second smaller screen for train informations. The Aki Bremen was part of the Aki Aktualitaten Kino chain of newsreel cinemas located in Berlin, Hamburg, Koln, Munich, Hannover, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Bochum, Frankfurt Main, Nurnberg, Gelsenkirchen, Aachen & Wiesbaden and operated by Berhard Frank Aktualitaten Kino GmbH Frankfurt Main and Aktiengesellschaft AG. The FP 5 projectors were by Phillips. In 1956 CinemaScope was added.

In 1956 the Ufa Theater Betriebs GmbH Dusseldorf cinema chain took over and it was re-named Ufa Theater. It was twinned in 1973 and the Ufa Theater was closed in 1990.

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