Kirmes

The Fair

In 1959, in a small Eifel village, the annual fair is set up. When a carousel is fixed firmly in the ground, a fair worker discovers a skeleton, a steel helmet, and a machine gun. The skeleton belongs to Robert Mertens, a plain soldier, who deserted in 1944 und flew to his home village. But when he arrived, no one wanted to help him, neither his former friends nor the minister, or even his own parents. Completely stranded, Robert took a bitter decision and killed himself with his machine gun. During the last days of war, his relatives hastily buried him in a bomb crater – exactly in the same position where the fair is about to take place.