Two complementary lift-off approaches for thin films from MgO, based on standard chemicals, are reported. Accompanied by appropriate annealing treatment they can be employed to synthesize freestanding single crystalline Fe-Pd films in the face centered tetragonal martensitic phase required for miniaturized magnetic shape memory acutation. Generalizations to other materials systems, e. g. epitaxially grown martensitic Ni-Mn-Ga magnetic shape memory alloy films, are also demonstrated.