ufaFabrik

ufaFabrik in Berlin’s Tempelhof district is an International Cultural Centre with indoor rooms seating 80, 160 and 260, plus a 500-seat covered summer stage. Its distinguishing feature is the setting: an 18,566-square-metre former UFA film-copying works remade into a resident-run culture campus. Concertgoers can catch close indoor shows or outdoor bills beneath a roof, on a site where performance, ecological projects and communal life share the same grounds.

A film lab put back in action

The story begins in 1921, when the grounds served Berlin’s UFA film laboratory and copying works. By the late 1970s, the vacant complex faced demolition. On June 9, 1979, four groups from West Berlin’s alternative scene occupied the site in what they called a peaceful recommissioning, proposing a cultural and communications centre. Press coverage from June 12 recorded the action and its stated purpose; ufaFabrik’s own history says the group secured permission to remain from the Berlin Senate within three weeks, followed by its first lease agreement that autumn. The conversion immediately made room for performance: residents prepared the main hall for music, theatre and circus events, while 45 people formed a shared-income residential community on site. That combination of a working communal project and public venue remains the thread connecting the film-factory past to the present programme.

Four stages, wide-ranging bills

ufaFabrik books music within a broad cultural programme, supporting emerging artists alongside local and international ensembles through an artist-in-residence approach. Expect world music, chanson, cabaret, dance, music hall and festival programming alongside theatre, circus and family events. The layout gives shows distinct scales: three seated indoor venues for intimate presentations and a covered open-air stage for 500 people in summer. The wider campus includes Café Olé and its summer garden, useful for a pre-show drink or a pause between events.