Unsere heimkehrenden Kriegsgefangenen, Wetzlar 1919

Summary

Arrival of returning German POWs at Wetzlar train station. The soldiers are greeted at the station by a crowd of people. Since the train is arriving from the direction of Cologne, it can be assumed that the former prisoners of war, who are not only from the city of Wetzlar but from the entire district, probably are returning from France. A military band of the Reichswehr welcomes those arriving, women hand out flowers. On a flag it says: "It is finished". A field kitchen near the train station provides food for the returnees.

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