In organised allotment gardens located in the centre of the populous city of Leipzig, citizens of the German Empire and, from 1919, the first German Republic (subsequently and commonly known as the Weimar Republic) could improve their food supply and simultaneously relax in idyllic garden landscapes of their own creation. This tradition was celebrated in a fitting manner with a parade and numerous games for children that took place at a local fairground on a summer day in the month of July 1924. A handwritten note in the garden club’s chronicle proudly records 2,000 children having participated in the festivities, which continued late into the evening. The tranquil, joyous nature of the images belies the chilling fact, impossible to know at the time, that the majority of these children, born around 1919, would later serve in various functions in the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party and play a part in the Second World War.

Konstantin Wiesinger