Schützenfest (1914)

Source
DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum

The footage shows the parade of the riflemen's festival in Wetzlar in 1914, with participants of the '27th Verbandsschiessen Wetzlar' among others. The procession consists of festively decorated cars and horse-drawn carriages and carts. The roadside is lined with spectators. There is also a brass band, participants in costumes and decorated carriages on which historical scenes are re-enacted (knights, castles, soldiers). On the float of the hairdressers' guild, women and men sit in costumes and wigs of the 18th century. Children and men on bicycles. Another guild has decorated its float as a Viking ship, the people on it can be seen in respective costumes. Various walking groups and horse riders follow. At the end of the parade more and more people join in. Afterwards scenes from downtown Wetzlar. Members of the rifle club stand in a line, 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, 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.