Continental-Kunstfilm

Continental-Kunstfilm GmbH (Continental Art Film) was a short-lived German film production company based in Berlin, formed in February 1912 by Walter Schmidthässler and Max Rittberger. A large number of Continental-Kunstfilm's productions are now probably lost, although some significant films have survived into the 21st century.

Continental began by releasing a mix of documentaries and comedies, together with serious melodramas by directors such as Max Mack. The company produced the first feature film about the sinking of the RMS Titanic, (In Nacht und Eis) in August 1912. Joe May and Ernst Reicher early in their careers made a number of 'Stuart Webbs' detective films there; Otto Rippert and Harry Piel also directed films at Continental; and Gerhard Dammann wrote and directed numerous comedy shorts starring his 'Bumke' character in 1913.

Continental built a new glasshouse film studio in 1914 in the Berlin suburb of Weissensee; but when the German government consolidated a number of film companies to form Ufa (Universum-Film AG) during World War I, Continental was not included. The studio's film production dropped considerably after around 1915. The Weissensee studio was acquired by Film-Atelier GmbH (FAG) in 1919, and was subsequently leased out to other production companies, including Decla-Bioscop who made The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari there in the winter of 1920-21.

Walter Schmidthässler (also Schmidt-Häßler) was an actor who had worked with the Meiningen Ensemble at the Meiningen Court Theatre before turning author and film scriptwriter. He joined Jules Greenbaum's Deutsche Vitascope production company in 1910 as director and lead actor.

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