Wassersport / Kopfsprünge (mit Günther Leitz am Rollenende)

Bathing in the Lahn River

Men in swimming trunks jump one after the other from a wooden jetty into the Lahn. From the second half on, the shot runs backwards. The film ends with a close-up of Günther Leitz (1914-1969), the youngest son of Ernst Leitz II, then sole shareholder of the optical company Leitz in Wetzlar. "Im Freibad an der Lahn" is a later version of "Wassersport / Kopfsprünge". "Im Freibad an der Lahn" was not published at the time it was filmed, but it is a re-release by the company archive, which was created about 30 years later and was given its new title after Barnack's death in 1936.

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.