Fountain shows ahead of the movie, box seating with service, and 1950s charm: Berlin's Zoo Palast was once considered the country's most glamorous cinema. In the early days of the motion picture, stars like Romy Schneider and Sophia Loren celebrated their first big successes here. After nearly two years of renovations, Zoo Palast has now reopened.

While the Zoo Palast was significant for the film industry, Essen's Lichtburg movie theater was an architectural piece of art. In the 1950s and 60s, it was considered the most important cinema for premiere showings.

The Lichtburg offers 1,250 seats and, in its 85-year history, was often the site of major German premieres. In July 1951, the American science fiction film "Destination Moon" played here, for example. To make the cinematic experience complete, visitors to the premiere showing were greeted at the doors by men in astronaut suits.

In addition to the country's largest theater, Essen is also home to Germany's largest multiplex cinema. With a total of 5,370 seats in 16 theaters, the Cinemaxx is also one of the largest in all of Europe. Thousands of film buffs enjoy the state-of-the-art setup every day. But a century ago, things looked quite a bit different. Let's go back to the beginning…

Pictures started moving in 1895, when August and Louis Lumiere presented the first short films in Paris. Carl Gabriel started showing motion pictures in his wax museum in Munich in 1896. Then on April 21, 1907, he opened a "Theater of Living Pictures" in his home. Now known as the Gabriel Filmtheater, movies are still shown there.

In 1902, the businessman Charles Pathe bought the rights to the Lumiere brothers' patents and started commercializing the cinema concept. The first building constructed exclusively to be a movie theater was completed in 1911 in the city of Burg and was dubbed Palast-Theater. It's since been renamed Burg Theater and still shows films to this day.

Now a protected historical building, the Kino International on Berlin's Karl-Marx-Allee was once the site of many important film premieres in East Germany. It opened on November 15, 1963 - three months after the Berlin Wall was erected - with the Soviet film, "Optimistic Tragedy." The very last premiere in East Germany was Heiner Carow's "Coming Out" on November 9, 1989 - the day the Wall fell.

The Hochhaus-Lichtspiele in Hanover can be seen from a distance because it's located on the 10th floor of the building. Before the up to 275 visitors can take their seats at a height of 34 meters (112 feet), they have to climb 200 stairs - or take the elevator. A planetarium used to be located under the green dome, but it was destroyed in World War II.

Dresden's Rundkino, opened in 1972 (pictured), is one of the most important architectual witnesses of the post-war era. The distinctive, cylinder-shaped building, which has been under protection since 2003, arguably resembles a UFO. The large theater has 898 seats and the largest screen in the state of Saxony. It doubles as a lecture hall for the city's Technical University.

The Cinema im Ostertor, which opened on November 7, 1969 in Bremen, was intended to show art films rather than high-budget blockbusters. And it was successful: The 134-seat theater has received Germany's prize numerous times for its cinematic programming.