From the outset of the First World War, foreign production companies and their films were banned in Germany, and their entire assets confiscated. This included Gaumont, Pathé and Éclair. Despite being stationed at the front, Pommer through his co-founder Fritz Holz, a Berlin film distributor, made a successful bid for the rights to Éclair's German assets. They formed the Decla-Film-Gesellschaft Holz & Co. in February 1915. Holz resigned in mid-1915, but Decla kept the name even after Holz left the company.
With the company being guided by Pommer's wife Gertrud, Erich Morawsky [de] and/or Carl Wilhelm who also directed a number of its early films., Decla acquired the lease of the studio at no. 9 Franz Josef-Straße, originally built by Continental-Kunstfilm, part of the Weissensee Studios. Decla produced its first 12 films here in 1915.
Pommer was transferred to the Russian front later in 1915, was wounded in the leg, and returned to Berlin in 1916. After being released from hospital in summer 1916 he trained recruits before joining Bild- und Filmamt (BuFA, Picture and Film department) at the German War Ministry in 1917, the forerunner of UFA. He was transferred as a sergeant to Rumania in summer 1917, involved in military censorship of stage and film.
Under the leadership of Erich Pommer, Decla emerged as one of the leading German film companies of the early Weimar era. Assuming control of Meinert-Film, it appointed Rudolf Meinert to oversee production.
Although Decla was now a part of UFA, the success its films had enjoyed led to the continued use of the brand name for releases for some time. As late as 1924 Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen, a big-budget prestige UFA production, was released as a Decla-Bioscop Film.
Deutsche Bioscop operated independently as one of Ufa's many film production departments until 1 June 1924, when it merged with Ufa's central administration, and its identity was lost.
Significant members of Decla-Film and Decla-Bioscop that continued to work with and through UFA include Fritz Lang, F.W Murnau, Ludwig Berger, Thea von Harbou, Karl Freund, Otto Hunte, Carl Mayer, and Hermann Warm. These directors and their creative teams of photographers, set designers, dressers and musicians assembled by Pommer helped pave the foundation for the future of Weimar cinema.
Some articles about the following films may attribute them to Decla-Bioskop or other production companies, although they were made by Decla-Film before the merger in March/April 1920.
Hardt 1996, p. 19. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
Hardt 1996, pp. 19–20. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
Hardt 1996, p. 21. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
It seems that when war broke out Joseph Powell, like 4,000 other British and Commonwealth civilian males,[4] was sent to Ruhleben internment camp near Spandau as an enemy alien.[5] He was elected Camp Captain, and organised an "effective internal administration for the camp." He also set up a lending library and set up a large number of clubs, societies and cultural associations to cater for the needs of the inmates. [6]
He was not popular with everyone, however. The inmates included nearly 250 teachers and lecturers who formed the camp's Arts and Science Union, mainly upper middle class university graduates, who "looked down on him because he was a self-made businessmen rather than a man of education or independent wealth. Frequent criticism was made of his ‘brusqueness of manner’ and ‘lightning method’ of addressing fellow prisoners, and at times he was even accused of being unpatriotic or pro-German." He was described by a university professor as a "noisy, bouncing, agitated, shifty man, unable to express himself accurately by speaking or in writing... He was an arrogant, rude, even violent, unscrupulous, untruthful, uncompromising, jealous, intolerant, distrustful opportunist. He was a bully and a tyrant. In a word, his valuations were German."[7] Powell remained in Germany after the war.[5]
Hardt 1996, p. 21. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
Hardt 1996, p. 21. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
Fritz Holz's son was awarded the Iron Cross, probably in December 1914.[8]
Hardt 1996, p. 23. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
Hardt 1996, p. 24. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
Prinzler 2016, p. 33. - Prinzler, Hans Helmut (2016). Chronik des deutschen Films 1895-1994 (in German). Springer-Verlag. ISBN 9783476035851. https://books.google.com/books?id=tRG1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA33
Hardt 1996, p. 24. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
Prinzler 2016, p. 33. - Prinzler, Hans Helmut (2016). Chronik des deutschen Films 1895-1994 (in German). Springer-Verlag. ISBN 9783476035851. https://books.google.com/books?id=tRG1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA33
"List of films: Decla". -The German Early Cinema Database. (Click on Year to sort in chrono order). Archived from the original on 21 October 2020. Retrieved 21 January 2021. http://earlycinema.dch.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/films/index/Filter.FilterByCompany:1/Filter.Company.0:418/Filter.FilterByCompanyType:1/Filter.CompanyType.0:1/keep_frame2:1
Tworek, Heidi J.S.: "Bild- und Filmamt (BuFA)" Archived 2020-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel et al., issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2016-02-09. DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10824. Accessed 21 January 2021. https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/bild-_und_filmamt_bufa
Hardt 1996, pp. 27. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
Phillips, Gene D. (1998). Exiles in Hollywood: Major European Film Directors in America. Lehigh University Press. ISBN 978-0-934223-49-2. decla bioscop. 978-0-934223-49-2
Hardt 1996, p. 37. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
Hampicke 2015. - Hampicke, Evelyn (2015). "Jules Greenbaum". CineGraph – Lexikon zum deutschsprachigen Film (in German). Cinegraph.de. Retrieved 31 March 2015. http://www.cinegraph.de/lexikon/Greenbaum_Jules/biografie.html
Kreimeier 1999, p. 72. - Kreimeier, Klaus (1999). The UFA Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company, 1918-1945. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520220690. https://books.google.com/books?id=I1u5qMPO0RkC
Hardt 1996, pp. 40–41. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
Kreimeier 1999, p. 82. - Kreimeier, Klaus (1999). The UFA Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company, 1918-1945. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520220690. https://books.google.com/books?id=I1u5qMPO0RkC
Hardt 1996, p. 73n. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
Hardt 1996, pp. 92–98. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
Elsaesser, Thomas (2013-04-15). Weimar Cinema and After: Germany's Historical Imaginary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-07859-1. 978-1-135-07859-1
Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey (1996). The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-874242-5. decla. 978-0-19-874242-5
[0] First Decla film according to Hardt 1996, p. 22n. See also Der Glaube siegt (1915). The German Early Cinema Database. Retrieved 8 October 2022; and Lichtbild-Buhne No. 11, March 1915. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
"List of films: Decla". -The German Early Cinema Database. (Click on Year to sort in chrono order). Archived from the original on 21 October 2020. Retrieved 21 January 2021. http://earlycinema.dch.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/films/index/Filter.FilterByCompany:1/Filter.Company.0:418/Filter.FilterByCompanyType:1/Filter.CompanyType.0:1/keep_frame2:1
[4] Brot (1915). The German Early Cinema Database. Retrieved 8 October 2022. https://earlycinema.dch.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/films/view/19601
Lichtbild-Buhne, Vol. 8, No. 14, (April 1915)
[5] Die Masuren (1915). The German Early Cinema Database. Retrieved 8 October 2022. Lichtbildbühne No. 11, March 1915. https://earlycinema.dch.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/films/view/29438
[9] Lichtbild-Bühne (May 1915), Vol. 8, No. 18, pp. 15, 24-26. https://archive.org/download/lichtbildbuhne-1915-05/lichtbildbuhne-1915-05.pdf
[0] Banned for the duration of the war. Polizei, Berlin, (No. 15.41). Die Gefährliche Kinderkrankheit. The German Early Cinema Database. Retrieved 8 October 2022. https://earlycinema.dch.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/films/view/23033
[10] Der Barbier von Filmersdorf (1915). The German Early Cinema Database. Retrieved 8 October 2022. https://earlycinema.dch.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/films/view/18560
Lichtbild-Bühne (May 1915), Vol. 8, No. 19, p. 17; No. 21, p. 23; No. 22 p. 15 (in German). https://archive.org/download/lichtbildbuhne-1915-05/lichtbildbuhne-1915-05.pdf
Hardt 1996, p. 25n. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
[11] O diese Männer (1915). Lichtbildbühne No. 24, June? 1915. https://earlycinema.dch.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/films/view/30964
Hardt 1996, p. 25n. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
[14] Die Goldquelle (1915). Polizei, Berlin: Jugendverbot (No. 15.44). The German Early Cinema Database. Retrieved 8 October 2022. Lichtbildbühne No. 33, p. 44b; No. 35 p. 17, August 1915. https://earlycinema.dch.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/films/view/23986
[15] Ein Schrei in der Nacht (1915) Lichtbildbühne No. 38, No. 41, 1915. Early Cinema Database. Retrieved 8 October 2022. https://earlycinema.dch.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/films/view/33285
Hardt 1996, pp. 24n, 25n. - Hardt, Ursula (1996). From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571819307. https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24
Austrian film, apparently produced by Decla/Pommer.
Lichtbild-Buhne No. 46, November 1915, p. 28; No. 47, p. 28; No. 48, p. 43 (27 November), https://ia904502.us.archive.org/19/items/lichtbildbuhne-1915-11/lichtbildbuhne-1915-11.pdf
Die Schaffnerin der Linie 6. Filmportal.de. Retrieved 8 October 2022. Lichtbildbühne No. 47, 1915 https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-schaffnerin-der-linie-6_0de144a4333445fb9bbbbc2dc5f058ab#
Ein Unbeschriebenes Blatt (1915) The German Early Cinema Database. Retrieved 8 October 2022. https://earlycinema.dch.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/films/view/36224
Lichtbild-Buhne No. 45, November 1915, pp. 18, 59. Banned for under-18s, Lichtbild-Buhne No. 48, 27 November 1915], p. 60 https://ia904502.us.archive.org/19/items/lichtbildbuhne-1915-11/lichtbildbuhne-1915-11.pdf
Homunculus was originally made in 6 parts by Deutsche Bioscop Gmbh, released from June 1916 to January 1917. After the merger with Decla-Film in May 1920 it was edited down to a more compact form in 3 parts, and re-released in August 1920. Until 2014 only part IV from 1916 survived.[43] A restored version was completed and shown in August 2014.
"With Decla-Bioscop AG (Sorted by Release Date Ascending)". IMDb. Retrieved 2019-12-02. https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?companies=co0069975