UFA

in full Universum Film-Aktiengesellschaft 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. It encouraged experimentation and imaginative camera work and employed such directors as Ernst Lubitsch, famous for directing sophisticated comedies, and G.W. Pabst, a pioneer in the expressive use of camera position and editing techniques. Ufa was established in 1917 when the German government consolidated most of the nation's leading studios. In the post-World War I era, Ufa's films of the macabree.g., The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) by Robert Wiene and Metropolis (1927) by Fritz Lang; its realistic films based on the life of the common mane.g., The Last Laugh (1924) by F.W. Murnau; and its dramas based on traditional German legends were especially popular. From 1925 to 1930 many German directors and actors went to the United States to work in Hollywood, and, despite loans and cooperation from American companies, the studio's financial stability weakened. In 1927 controlling stock was purchased by Alfred Hugenberg, a conservative newspaper owner and future supporter of the dictator Adolf Hitler. By 1938 the Nazi government had complete control of the German film industry, and it used Ufa as a propaganda tool until the end of World War II, when the government fell and the company ceased to exist. The studio itself, however, located in Berlin, remains a production centre to this day. city and capital, Bashkortostan republic, western Russia. It lies along the Belaya (White) River just below its confluence with the Ufa River. A defensive site in a loop formed by the two rivers led to the foundation there of a fortress in 1574 to protect the trade route across the Ural Mountains from Kazan to Tyumen. It became a town in 1586 and derived importance from this trade route. Ufa grew rapidly in the 20th century as a major manufacturing centre, stimulated by the development of the Volga-Urals oil field. In 1956 its satellite town of Chernikovsk, a few miles to the northeast, with oil refineries and petrochemical industries, was united with Ufa. Synthetic rubber, polyethylene, herbicides, and other products are made there. Ufa itself has large engineering industries making power and mining machinery, electrical apparatus, telephones, and typewriters. There are also timber-processing industriesmaking furniture, veneer, prefabricated houses, and matchesand various food industries. Ufa is a major focus of rail and road lines and oil and gas pipelines at the head of navigation on the Belaya. The city is strung out for almost 25 miles (40 km) along the river on the high right bank, but it has extended onto the lower river terrace and across to the low left bank. It is an important cultural centre, with a university, several technical institutes, and numerous scientific-research establishments. Pop. (1991 est.) 1,097,000.