The former "Ufa im Park" was built in 1926 as a silent movie theater in neo-Gothic style. In the post-war years, the cinema was temporarily used by the Americans. In 1955, a fundamental redesign took place and the second renovation in 1999/2000 was based on this style.
In 1999 and 2000, the city of Wiesbaden renovated the Caligari in two construction phases at a cost of around 3.5 million marks. Now the "jewel among German cinemas", as Volker Schlöndorff called the Caligari, presents itself in its new guise. The auditorium offers space for a total of 425 visitors in the stalls and tiers.
In 1980, the German Film Institute - DIF (today DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum e.V.) - opened its "Archive Cinema Caligari" program here with one film day per week. The focus was on historical film rarities, not only from its own archive, such as silent films with live music. Until the mid-1990s, the venue was also rented out to two boulevard theaters, which meant that cinema operations were only possible to a limited extent. In 1990, the city of Wiesbaden launched its municipal film program, initially with one screening day per week. Since then, cinema operations have been continuously expanded. Since January 2000, the Caligari FilmBühne has been used for daily film screenings. There are around 18 to 20 screenings per week. The Caligari is a forum for a number of film initiatives and cooperation partners, for example the DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum e.V., the Wiesbaden Media Center, Wiesbadener Kinofestival e.V., the Evangelische Stadtakademie and Katholische Erwachsenenbildung, the Deutsch-Französische Gesellschaft, the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung and many more.
The name of the cinema comes from the most important work of expressionist silent film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" by Robert Wiene from 1919/20.
