The UFA (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft) is a film and television production company that unites all production activities of ‘Bertelsmann’, one of the world’s largest media conglomerates.

The original UFA was established in 1917, as a response to the foreign competition in film and propaganda, and was founded by Emil Georg von Stauß. Its purpose was to promote German culture and to enhance Germany’s international image in the years after World War I, but due to a financial collapse in the film industry, the UFA was heading into bankruptcy.

However, in 1927, Alfred Hugenberg, an influential German media entrepreneur and member of Hitler’s cabinet, purchased the UFA, and when the Nazis came into power, films became propaganda for the general public. This process was called Nazification – the process of placing something under Nazi control or influence. If not for promoting Nazi propaganda, the UFA would have gone out of business.