Where Was Metropolis Filmed?

The Short Answer

Metropolis was mainly filmed at UFA's Babelsberg studios in Potsdam, Germany, where a huge hall was built specifically for the production. Large interior sets, including the Heart Machine explosion, were shot in a former Zeppelin hall at Filmwerke Staaken in Berlin. Additional exterior scenes were filmed at brickworks in Vienna, Austria, and camp site exteriors at Ehlen in Hessen.

Fritz Lang's 1927 silent epic imagines a futuristic city of towers and machine halls, yet almost none of it exists as a real place. The film was constructed on studio stages and in one cavernous airship hangar, with a handful of practical exteriors shot far from any skyscraper.

The production was famously punishing: 310 shooting days and 60 nights spread over 17 months, from May 1925 to October 1926. Lang's perfectionism pushed the budget from 1.5 million to more than 5.3 million Reichsmarks. Visiting the sites today means confronting how much of this towering city was built by hand indoors.

Every Location At A Glance

Location	Where	What was filmed	Access
Studio Babelsberg (Marlene-Dietrich-Halle)	Potsdam, Germany	Majority of interior scenes including city sets and machine halls	Ticketed
Filmwerke Staaken Luftschiffhalle	Berlin, Germany	Heart Machine explosion and large interior sets	Private property
Ziegelfabriken Wienerberg	Vienna, Austria	Exterior scenes	Outside only
Ehlen	Habichtswald, Germany	Camp site exteriors	Free to see

Filming Locations Map

4 locations. The map loads when it scrolls into view.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

Location By Location

The majority of interior scenes, including the city sets and machine halls, were shot here at UFA's Babelsberg studios in Potsdam. The Große Halle was built specifically for the production and survives today as the Marlene-Dietrich-Halle, part of an active working studio. Access is by ticketed tour only, since filming still happens on the lot. Tours run through the studio grounds and cover more than a century of German film history, with Metropolis as one of its founding chapters.

The scenes with the exploding Heart Machine were filmed in this repurposed Zeppelin hall in Berlin's Spandau district, using steam from locomotives to simulate the catastrophe. The vast former airship hangar gave Lang the height and floor space that even Babelsberg could not supply. It is a historic site but not generally accessible to the public, so travelers hoping to see it should expect an exterior glimpse at most from the surrounding area.

Exterior scenes for Metropolis were shot at these brickworks in Vienna's 10th Bezirk, an industrial landscape that doubled for the film's harsher quarters. The site sits in an industrial area with limited access today, and there is no dedicated visitor attraction tied to the production. Travelers with an interest in the film's location scouting can view the area from outside, but should not expect signage, tours, or preserved sets.

Camp site exteriors for the production were filmed at Ehlen, a rural spot in Habichtswald, Hessen. Unlike the studio sites, this is public land with open access, so a visit requires nothing more than getting there. There is little filming infrastructure left to see, which makes it a destination for completists rather than casual visitors. It pairs naturally with a wider trip through the Hessian countryside rather than as a standalone stop.

Where It Is Set Versus Where It Was Filmed

Metropolis is set in a fictional futuristic dystopian city, a place invented entirely for the screen. The filming reality was far more grounded: studio stages in Potsdam and Berlin carried most of the load, with exteriors in Vienna, Austria, and rural Hessen filling in the rest. No real city stood in for Lang's metropolis, which is why so few of the locations resemble the skyline audiences remember.

The Studio Side

Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam remains the anchor site for anyone tracing the film. It is an active studio where tours are available, and the hall purpose-built for Metropolis still stands, now named the Marlene-Dietrich-Halle. Filmwerke Staaken in Berlin, by contrast, is a private historic site and not generally accessible, though its role was decisive: the Heart Machine explosion relied on that Zeppelin hall's scale and steam supplied by locomotives.

Tours That Visit These Locations

Only one of the filming sites, Studio Babelsberg, is set up for visitors, and the tour below includes it as a stop within a broader film history excursion rather than a Metropolis-specific outing.

5-Hour Film History By VW Bus

Potsdam-Babelsberg: 5-Hour-Tour "Film-History" by VW-Bus

This 5-hour small-group outing by VW bus covers Potsdam-Babelsberg's film history and includes a stop at Babelsberg Film Studio, the lot where most of Metropolis was shot. Rated 4.9 from 7 reviews, priced at $428.

4.9 out of 5 · 7 reviews

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where was Metropolis filmed?

Mostly at UFA's Babelsberg studios in Potsdam, Germany, including the specially built Große Halle, now the Marlene-Dietrich-Halle. Large interior sets and the Heart Machine explosion were filmed in a former Zeppelin hall at Filmwerke Staaken in Berlin, with additional exteriors at brickworks in Vienna and at Ehlen in Hessen.

Can you visit the studios where Metropolis was made?

Yes, Studio Babelsberg is an active studio with ticketed tours that pass through the grounds, including the hall built for the film. Filmwerke Staaken in Berlin is a private historic site and not generally accessible to the public.

How long did filming take?

Filming lasted 17 months, from May 1925 to October 1926, encompassing 310 shooting days and 60 nights. The budget grew from 1.5 million to more than 5.3 million Reichsmarks during that time.

Was the flood scene real water?

Yes. Some 500 children from Berlin's poorest areas were used in cold-water flood scenes across two weeks of shooting, one of the production's most notorious episodes.

Is Metropolis set in a real city?

No. The story takes place in a fictional futuristic dystopian city. It was filmed almost entirely on stages in Potsdam and Berlin, plus practical exteriors in Vienna and Hessen.

What survives of the sets today?

The Große Halle built for the production still stands at Babelsberg, renamed the Marlene-Dietrich-Halle. The Staaken Zeppelin hall still exists as a historic building but is not open to visitors, and the Vienna and Ehlen sites hold no preserved filming infrastructure.

For most travelers, one stop tells the story: Babelsberg, where the film was born and where its purpose-built hall still stands on a working lot. The Berlin and Vienna sites reward only the devoted, while Ehlen suits completists already passing through Hessen. A guided excursion through Potsdam's film history turns a silent relic from 1927 into a place you can actually walk.