East Berlin’s Karl-Marx-Allee, where Kino International is located, was purposefully laid out as a striking showcase of socialist architecture. From its monumental apartment blocks to the lofty, domed towers at Frankfurter Tor, everything along the grand boulevard was built to impress. And among the jewels in its crown was this film-lover's destination, a gleaming modernist cinema conceived as a statement of Soviet sophistication.
Tour Kino International, a cinema gem reborn in Berlin
No expense was spared when it came to its construction. Architects Josef Kaiser and Heinz Aust’s bold design features a cantilevered foyer on the first floor that floats unsupported over the entrance below, with its windowless side walls covered in a vast sculptural relief depicting scenes of a Communist utopia. The cinema opened 1963, with custom-made crystal chandeliers and gleaming parquet floors leading audiences to the 500-seat auditorium – complete with elaborate wood panelling and a distinctive, wave-shaped ceiling that was meticulously shaped to optimise acoustics.
After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the building was granted heritage protection and taken over by the Yorck Cinema Group. But by 2024, after more than 60 years of continuous use, the once-futuristic movie theatre was beginning to show its age. Architecture firm Dickmann Richter was called in to bring the building back up to scratch with modern technical standards and polish up some of its original features, and the cinema has just reopened following 18 months of painstaking renovations.
'The building services systems have been completely modernised, and the latest projection and sound technologies have been integrated,' says Dickmann Richter architect Helen Hart. 'With restored architectural surfaces, a refreshed colour scheme, and carefully designed lighting, the building once again radiates the modernity that distinguished it at its opening in 1963.'
The process of breathing new life into the cinema’s historic fabric required the expertise of a team of master craftspeople who were assembled from across Germany to work on the project. 'Almost 800 sq m of textile wall covering were replaced, and all of the wooden slats – amounting to more than 7km in total – were meticulously refurbished,' says Hart. But of all these restoration challenges, one feature called for particular attention: the stage curtain, which was adorned with some 40 million sequins. 'It’s certainly the building’s most iconic feature, and its restoration required an enormous amount of care and effort.'
For architect Daniel Dickmann, co-founder of Dickmann Richter, the refurbishment was a rare opportunity to safeguard one of the city’s key architectural landmarks. 'We consider it extremely important to preserve such a significant representation of recent German history,' says Dickmann. 'For many East Berliners in particular, Kino International is not merely a cinema, but a place of shared memory across generations.'
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