From 1912 onwards castles and circuses sprout up around the studios. Film architects, effects innovators and craftsmen create new worlds – expressionist spaces, German forests, METROPOLIS’s upper and lower city. That’s why Babelsberg becomes the Mecca for film professionals from all over the world in the 1920s. Around 1950 the young DEFA scenographers take on the heritage of the Ufa masters while beating out their own path. Today, international productions combine traditional set-construction techniques with computer-generated marvels.