Ukrainer in Wetzlar - Fahnenweihe & Heimkehr

Ukrainians in Wetzlar, 1919

Footage of the prisoner of war camp Büblingshausen. The Ukrainian soldiers march up to the consecration of the flag. They are dressed in new uniforms in Ukrainian style and wear Karakul caps, a Ukrainian orchestra plays. The soldiers march with luggage to the train station to return to their homeland. At the end the film shows the Ukrainian monument, which was erected on the wall of the Old Cemetery in Wetzlar on August 16, 1919. Several versions of this film exist. In another, an intertitle allows for an exact dating of the events: "Wetzlar, March 3, 1918 / Return of the Ukrainian Prisoners of War". After the closure of the camp, the Wetzlar suburb of Büblingshausen was built using the old barracks. Today, the street Unter dem Nussbaum is located at the site of the camp exit. The year "1919" in the title refers to the monument erected later, which the film shows at its end.

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.