With its foundation in 1981, Filmmuseum Potsdam acquired technical objects that had so far been preserved by the State Film Archive of the GDR. Particularly amateur devices were added until 1990 and compiled to form a collection of their own.
After 1990, extended research for the purpose of stock formation was finally possible. Additionally, modernisations as well as liquidations of companies and institutions in East Germany contributed to the steady growth of the technology collection. This way, cameras from the 1920s and 1930s, editing tables, animation stands and printers from the 1930s and 1940s appeared that had still been in use until then. Fortunately, vendors often attached less importance to adequate prices than to the fact that "their" devices would not be scrapped but kept for museum use.
After its establishment as an institution of the Federal State of Brandenburg, the museum finally got larger storage facilities, enabling the collections to store historical equipment such as editing tables, animation stands and printers that are difficult to preserve for lack of space.