Oberammergau Passion Play
Once I heard about this Passion play in Germany, I wanted to attend. As a Christian, the presentation of the life and death of Jesus reminds me of the love that God has for us.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 (NIV)
It just so happened that I had hosted two students from Germany - Tillman (Till) and Antonius (Toni) in the years before 2010, the next performance. The play is performed every 10 years. Below you can read about the history of the play and the amazing dedication of this village to perform it every 10 years. The entire village is part of the plan in one way or the other.
Travel Tip: Plan trips around extraordinary events or performances. Be sure to include other points of interest - especially when traveling overseas. You don't want to make that 8 - 10 hour flight for just a few days. :) Not too early to start thinking about it for 2030.
https://www.passionsspiele-oberammergau.de/en/home From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Oberammergau Passion Play (German: Oberammergauer Passionsspiele) is a passion play that has been performed every 10 years from 1634 to 1674 and each decadal year since 1680 (with a few exceptions) by the inhabitants of the village of Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany. Since its first production it has been performed on open-air stages in the village. The text of the play is a composite of four distinct manuscripts dating from the 15th and 16th centuries.[2]
The play is a staging of Jesus' passion, covering the short final period of His life from His visit to Jerusalem and leading to His execution by crucifixion. It is the earliest continuous survivor of the age of Christian religions vernacular drama.
According to legend: an outbreak of bubonic plague devastated Bavaria during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). Bad Kohlgrub was so depopulated that only two married couples remained alive. The village of Oberammergau remained plague-free until 25 September 1633, when a man named Kaspar Schisler returned home after working in the nearby village of Eschenlohe. Over the next 33 days, 81 villagers would die, half of Oberammergau's population. On 28 October 1633, the villagers vowed that if God spared them from the plague, they would perform a play every 10 years depicting the life and death of Jesus. Nobody died of plague in Oberammergau after that vow, and the villagers kept their word to God by performing the passion play for the first time in 1634.
So I decided to take my first trip to visit former students and took my mom with me. I'm glad I took her for more reasons than one. They probably treated us better because she was with me. On this trip, I visited with 4 former students: two from Germany, 1 from Czech Republic (Jakub) and 1 from the Netherlands (Robin). As part of that trip, we planned to attend the 2010 version of the Oberammergau Passion Play. Till Hoffmann's grandparents were going to take us.
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Picture of me and mom with Till's parents, brother, and grandparents. The ones that took us to Oberammergau.
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This is the cover of the book about with pictures from the performance. You are not allowed to take pictures during the play. Here are some pictures I took before the performance began;
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| The view from our seats in 2010. |
The pictures below are professional photos taken during a dress rehearsal.
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| This is a picture of the chorus that sings are various points. There is also a full orchestra. |
There is an intermission and you may want to consider pre-purchasing a meal. The intermission allows you to eat a dinner meal. One time I did and the other time I didn't. I was little more panicked the time that I didn't.
Well, that would be the end of this story, it I didn't want more. I had the idea to do it again - even though when I did it the first time it was a once in a lifetime visit. The next performance was schedule for summer and fall of 2020. Guess what? it was cancelled due to COVID. Perhaps I should say postponed. Then I thought about taking another trip to visit exchange students some for the first time and some for the second. The year was 2022. When planning my trip going from Vienna (Till) to Switzerland (Jakub) and then Milan (Tommi), I noticed that the path took me close to Oberammergau and that they were going to do the 2020 performance in 2022.
As you can imagine, once a performance year is over they begin planning the next one. In the ten years between they cast, rehearse, design, build, etc. When the 2020 performances were postponed it was a huge disappointment for the community. Some of them wait years to be the right age to perform a certain part. The entire town participates and in 10 years there are many changes that take place until the next performance. I heard the story of a man you wanted to live long enough to play a role in 2020. By doing the performance in 2022 most of the plans were able to be implemented. Of course, the public demand is always there. As you can imagine this performance is a part of many Christian tours of the area. A pilgrimage of sorts for so many. This time I was by myself (between students). It wasn't as easy, but just as amazing.
First a few pictures from me and then some professional pictures of the performance.
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| My view in 2022. |
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| A storybook German village. |
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| Most of the town is probably in this scene. |
“Christ did not die to make good works merely possible or to produce a half-hearted pursuit. He died to produce in us a passion for good deeds. Christian purity is not the mere avoidance of evil, but the pursuit of good.”
― John Piper, The Passion of Jesus Christ 
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