Figure 1.-- Episode 6 of Edgar Reitz's panoramic film about the fictional village of Schabbach in the Hunsruck sector of Germany (in the Rhineland) is the "The Proxy Marriage". The scenes shows the proxy wedding during World War II (1943) in the village of Maria Simon's oldest son Anton to his girlfriend Martha who is already pregant.

Episode 6 of Edgar Reitz's panoramic film about the fictional village of Schabbach in the Hunsruck sector of Germany (in the Rhineland) is the "The Proxy Marriage". The scenes shows the proxy wedding during World War II (1943) in the village of Maria Simon's oldest son Anton to his girlfriend Martha who is already pregant. Anton, who can not present for the wedding ceremony, works for the progaganda unit on the Eastern front at the height of World War II. The term "proxy wedding" is a way of referring to a wedding that takes place as an emergency because one of the couple cannot be physically present and because the bride is under pressure to get married because she is with child. The actual wedding takes place over the phone, but there is a village celebration anyway and this shot shows the wedding guests gathered on the steps of a public building in Schbbach. The scene takes place in the winter, so the children have winter clothes. Notice the boy (about 10) at the left side of the picture wearing a winter overcoat and a flat cap with ear flaps. Underneath he wears short trousers and long brown stockings. Two girls in the front row to the right also wear winter overcoats and woolen stocking caps. They wear long tan stockings under quite short dresses. Reitz took special care to research the costuming for this film, so what the children are wearing represents an excellent historical record of German children's clothing during the war in a somewhat remote village. The presence of the German army is visible in the two uniformed soldiers. There is also an SS officer at the back.

Created: 3:13 AM 10/28/2005
Last updated: 3:13 AM 10/28/2005