The history of the cinema is closely linked to its long-time owner Gerhard Klein, who ran it for thirty years and made it an institution in Berlin's West. Built towards the end of the 1920s as an elegant residence, it is occupied in 1942 by the sound film pioneer and president of the Reichsfilmkammer Carl Frölich, who has a private movie theater built in. Immediately after the end of the war, the house is "denazified" and in 1946 it is opened to the public as a newly-built movie theater with a larger screening room. Years after the end of World War II, a former child star with Jewish roots returns from Tel Aviv to Berlin. Gerhard Klein was forcibly expelled from Germany in 1938 in the course of the "Polenaktion". During his trip back to his hometown of Berlin, he falls in love and decides to stay. In 1956, he becomes the new owner of Capitol Kino. He runs the cinema for more than thirty years. Under his management, the cinema becomes legendary in West-Berlin.Since 2019, Gerhard Klein's life and legacy is honored by a commemorative plaque.