The Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen (Museum for Film and Television) opened its doors in Berlin in 1963. The collection covers everything that belongs to German film and television history - including the papers of director Werner Herzog, the film posters of Josef Fenneker, important screenplays from Carl Mayer to Christian Petzold as well as the estate of Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992).
The Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin is the latest collection of the Deutsche Kinemathek, which can be seen in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library). In 1993, the Marlene Dietrich estate was taken over by the Kinemathek, which documents the life of the actress and singer almost without gaps. The archive contains more than 45,000 sheets of correspondence, over 16,000 photographs and over 3,000 textile objects.
Over 1,300 of these photographs are now available in the DDB and at this point we would like to give a brief impression of this extraordinary collection.
The photographer Erich Sellin ran his photography studio "Unter den Linden" in Berlin from 1890–1910. Sellin became known for his "Kaiserfotos" (Emperor photos), his business was classical portrait photography. The most famous children's photos that still exist of Marlene Dietrich and her family were taken in Sellin's studio.
Marlene Dietrich was born Marie Magdalene Dietrich in Berlin Schöneberg in 1901 and grew up as the daughter of a police lieutenant. After her father's death, her mother remarried and the family moved to Dessau in 1914.
