The Origins of the Oberammergau Passion Play

Amid the turmoil of the Thirty Years'  War, the plague broke out in large parts of Europe, taking the lives of many more people than the war itself.  The Black Death crept into the remote mountain valley at the foot of the Kofel where Oberammergau lies, in 1632.  According to a chronicle of the time, the residents of the village set up a vigilant watch and for a time they succeeded in keeping out the plague.  During the annual fair held to commemorate the dedication of the village church, a man named Kaspar Schisler, who had worked outside the village during the summer, slipped over the mountains to his house in the village.  Within a few days he succumbed to the plague - as did a larger number of the people of Oberammergau.

In those days no one knew anything about germs, or the terrible toll they have exacted on humanity through the ages.  People therefore invented incredible stories to explain the outbreak.  They believed that the plague was spread by a green and yellow cloud that descended at night, or that Jews had poisoned the wells.  And if there were no Jews in the village, then there was little doubt that God himself was sending the plague down from heaven to punish humanity for its sins.  Often the people saw only one chance of survival:  to pacify God's fury.

In 1633, devastated by the plague, the people of Oberammergau pledged to perform the Passion Play as a sign of their repentance and remorse over the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.  Such vows were common at the time in many areas of Bavaria and Austria.

The chronicles relate further that from the day the people of Oberammergau gathered around the cross to swear their sacred vow, no further person died of the plague.

The first Passion Play of Oberammergau was staged in 1634.  In 1680 the performance was moved to the first year of each decade.  Were it not for the prohibition imposed in 1770 by the church and the state on the staging of passion plays in any form, and had the date for the Passion Play of 1940 not fallen during World War II, then there would never have been any interruptions in the history of the Passion Play.

(From:  The Passion Play 2000 Oberammergau, edited by the Community of Oberammergau)

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