A projectionist in the resistance
Lunau worked as a cinema projectionist in Berlin. After the Nazi regime took power, he became part of the German resistance by organizing a clandestine Communist group.
Literature
Rudolf Lunau
Rudolf Lunau turned his workplace at Berlin’s Babylon Cinema into a meeting point for clandestine Communist resistance to Nazism.
Rudolf Lunau was a projectionist in Berlin who became involved in resistance to the Nazi regime. In 1933–1934, he formed a clandestine Communist resistance group inside the Babylon Cinema. His story gives this celebrated picture house a hidden political history, linking the machinery of film projection with the dangers of underground opposition.
Worth knowing
Underground organizing
In 1933–1934, Lunau formed a secret resistance group rather than acting alone. The group opposed the Nazi regime from within an everyday cultural workplace.
The hidden history of Babylon Cinema
Babylon Cinema was the setting for Lunau’s clandestine resistance activity. As you stand near the cinema, its public role as a place of entertainment contrasts with the secret political work carried out there.
Addresses you can still visit
Every place in this city with a documented tie to this person.
Created here
Babylon Cinema
The projectionist formed a clandestine Communist resistance group in the cinema in 1933-1934.
Follow the story on foot
These addresses are scattered across the city. Our routes and quests put them in an order that works.