UFA, a German motion-picture production company that made artistically outstanding and technically competent films during the silent era. Located in Berlin, its studios were the best equipped and most modern in the world. Its purpose was to promote German culture and, in the years following WW1, to enhance Germanys international image. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, it was coerced to make National Socialist films. Rising production costs and a shrinking international market (owing to Nazi policies) led to large deficits. The government purchased the company in 1937 and thereafter tightly controlled film content. The company ceased to exist after the war’s end in 1945. A new company called UFA was launched in 1956, but it eventually went bankrupt.
Today, UFA GmbH (UFA) works as a subsidiary of RTL Group’s production division Fremantle Media, which had been formed out of Pearson TV, and is responsible for all production activities of Bertelsmann and Fremantle Media in Germany.