Reichsbanner-Umzug [Archivtitel]

The "Reich Banner Black-Red-Gold, Federation of Republican War Participants" was founded in Magdeburg in February 1924 as a non-party alliance of the SPD, the liberal German Democratic Party and the Catholic Centre Party. The Reich Banner saw itself as a "protective organization of the republic and democracy". Initially conceived as a war veterans' association, it was both a registered association and a paramilitary combat alliance.

Committed to the democratic ideals of the 1848 Revolution (also in the banner colors "black-red-gold"), it sought to defend the Weimar Constitution from the radical opponents of democracy, especially from National Socialists, monarchists and Communists. After the National Socialists came to power and the banning of the Reich Banner in March 1933, numerous members were politically persecuted, especially Social Democrats and Jews.

The founding meeting of the Wetzlar local group of the "Reich Banner Black-Red-Gold" took place on July 8. Ernst Leitz II, head of Leitzwerke, was a prominent member of the Wetzlar Reich Banner and actively supported the local group. Oskar Barnack's film "Reichsbanner Procession" shows a rally in Wetzlar, in winter weather conditions, possibly the "Banner Consecration" of the local group on November 16, 1924.

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.