Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2012, Babelsberg is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world and the biggest on-stop studio complex in Europe. From box-office hits to artistic triumphs, many of them have been created here... In these sound stages, stars like Marlene Dietrich were born, and here beats the heart of German cinema to this day. Babelsberg has always been a source of technical and artistic innovation. Many key developments in set design, special effects, camera technology, and sound recording originated in these studios. All eras of the studio's history are spread out and illuminated in front of the eyes of the reader: the early days of motion pictures, the Golden Age of Weimar cinema, the politically dark days of the "Third Reich," the socialist turn of Germany's largest postwar film company DEFA, and, most of all, Babelsberg's current commercial and cultural importance in the international film business.