Decla is a contraction of Deutsche Eclair, in that the company was an affiliate of Éclair of France. In March 1919, Decla merged with Deutsche Bioscop AG to become Decla-Bioscop. In 1923, the company was subsumed into UFA – Universum-Film AG. Under Erich Pommer, Decla-Bioscop gathered a parade of the most distinguished German film directors, cinematographers, architects and actors, producing many of the central works of German cinema, including The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) and films by F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang.
The company’s films were shot at its famous studios in Babelsberg outside Berlin. Other Danish filmmakers worked there as well, among them Benjamin Christensen (Seine Frau, die Unbekannte, 1923).
By Dan Nissen | 18. June