Arbeiter verlassen das Leitzwerk [Archivtitel]

Workers Leaving the Leitz Factory

With this filmic documentation, Oskar Barnack paid tribute to the Lumière brothers by also recording workers leaving a factory. In Barnack's case they were workers exiting the Leitz factory in Wetzlar.

Since the 1910s, Oskar Barnack, the inventor of the Leica, has 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.