Symphonie einer Weltstadt (1941)

The film is like a nostalgic sightseeing tour of Berlin, before the city was destroyed by the Second World War. This theme was already very popular in the late 1920s, as similar productions, such as the 1927 silent film Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis, also demonstrate. Berlin as It Was, however, is a film with sound in the sense that a narrator comments on the moving images while appropriate music accompanies the narration. The screening was nevertheless banned by the Nazis, since, only a short time after the film was completed, the city depicted had been painfully altered in places by bomb damage. As a result, it did not premiere until 1950, under the title “Berlin as It Was.” The film begins with aerial views of Berlin. It shows the day beginning over the city and presents several scenes of workers above and below ground. Views from a window into a courtyard and out onto street life follow. Milk and other goods are sold on the street. Nature awakens beside a river. Fishermen haul their nets ashore. Riders set off in a park. Next come views of city façades. A small band plays at the edge of a weekly market, where fish and other food are sold. A carriage passes the largest and most modern buildings between the Tiergarten and the Landwehr Canal. Ships are loaded, in scenes from the harbor. These are followed by scenes of the old Gendarmenmarkt, the Berlin U-Bahn, Kurfürstendamm, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, and Alexanderplatz. Since July 13, 1989, the film has been shown continuously at least once a week at the Adria Film Theater in Berlin (as of July 2022), and by now once a month (as of June 2025).