Schützenfest [Archivtitel]

Summary

The film shows the parade of the Schützenfest (traditional festival or fair featuring a target shooting competition) in Wetzlar in 1914. Among others, participants of the '27th Verbandsschiessen Wetzlar' are present. The procession consists of festively decorated cars and horse-drawn carriages and wagons. The roadside is lined with spectators. There is also a brass band, participants in costume and decorated floats on which historical scenes are recreated (knights, castles, soldiers). On the wagon of the hairdressers' guild sit women and men in costumes and wigs of the 18th century. Children and men on bicycles. Another association has decorated its float as a Viking ship, the people on it are dressed in respective costumes. Various groups on foot and on horseback follow. At the end of the parade more and more audience joins. Afterwards scenes from the city center of Wetzlar. Rifle club members stand guard, people walk through the city festively decorated with fir trees. Previously shown floats and groups can be seen again.

Since the 1910s, Oskar Barnack, the inventor of the Leica, has captured events around Wetzlar on film with his self-constructed film camera. He documented flood disasters, town festivals, medical experiments, sporting events and the company at which he was employed as chief designer: Optische Werke Ernst Leitz in Wetzlar. His films form the basis of a film archive in which local history has the same place as the impact of major historical events.