| Show am ue e 10 M A 9 V t x caiaphas of oberammergau Is a blacksmith ere 74 hy hv the national geographic society wahington D C service I 1 T IS always with joy that I 1 the traveler wandering south JL through germany views the white flag atop the gothic city hall of Ba varias capital munich for the signal tells him the day Js is exceptionally clear and the peaks of the alps are beckoning in plain view some sixty miles away st peter the must be in a good mood to send so fine a day say thousands in the city of munich itself and they ey head straight for the mountains A swift electric train or a bus whirring over smooth roads takes the traveler past the inviting lake of St arnberg see the banks of which are studded with villas and manors white sailboats greet him from the greer greel waters and their background is the hazy blue mountains that loom in the distance some 45 miles farther south the first approach to these gigantic monuments of nature has the emotional impact of the immigrants first glimpse of new yorks colossal skyline shortly the upward journey begins through rolling verdant hills which make the transition gradual half a mile above sea level the wanderer finds himself surrounded by the gray peaks partly wooded mountains and high green hills which cradle aberam bergau panorama of the ammer valley if the wayfarers wayfare rs ambition holds out his feet will soon follow his eyes to the lofty height and before him will unfold a panorama of the ammer river valley in its midst peacefully resting is the village which takes its name from the meandering an ice cold cola stream district on the upper part of the ammer river is the meaning of oberammergau a word apparently formed with no consideration for alien tongues three miles down the river lies unterammergau imergan and on the opposite s ite side a place called oberau standing in the brisk breeze blowing ng over the kofel one scans the irregularly scattered town with its red roofs amid green crowns of trees four bridges cut the silver band of the ammer in whose mirror are reflected the towns tallest buildings the church and the passion play theater little more than two years have passed since the curtain once more went down on that stage I 1 not to rise again until 1940 the hush that settled over the hall also pervaded the streets of the village which only a short while before had been resounding with the voices of thousands of people gathered there from near and far in this sequestered bavarian town some people representing practically all the nations and creeds of the earth rubbed elbows in the special jubilee year of 1934 when 73 performances of the play were given that memorable series marked the three hundredth anniversary of a tradition unbelievably dear to the village whose people for generations have been living in intimate daily contact with it origin of the passion play the history of the passion play may be comparatively young considering si that even before the roman legions celts belts populated the valley the bavarian tribe preceded the age of knighthood whose members as early as the twelfth century saw a church being built in oberammergau traveling merchants kept that little littie hamlet in intimate touch with the outside world making it a thriving community but then the thirty years war came and the specter of a disastrous pestilence began to lay its grip on the settlements surrounding the village at the foot of the kofel wherever fires were seen blazing angst at the entrance of towns the wanderer fled in horror lest he he also also be seized by the black death and thrown into the raging pyre the guards on the outskirts of oberammergau must have missed that lone man who after years year S of absence from home yearned to t 0 be with his family again nothing could keep him away any longer sick he staggered over the mountains at night through dark forests and unseen by others joined his dear ones next morning the excited beating of drums broke the news to the inhabitants that it had come the dread disease and kaspar bringer of death lay dead the all powerful reaper began his work and 84 persons within a short time fell a prey to him but their doom incited in the village a spiritual awakening ril ifie from death and despair rose the passion play a memorial to those who assembled in the little parish church in 1633 making a solemn vow to produce the drama of the suffering and death of jesus every ten years if the plague should disappear the old village chronicle tells us that it did and that the year after under the guidance of the monks monk of the benedictine monastery of nearby ettal the villagers for the first time fulfilled their promise in time of war and inflation prom 1670 on every decade beheld the same religious spectacle the same fervor and devotion only the faces chan changed ged ever the passion sion play kept growing through times of interdictions inter dictions wars and hardships of all kinds was the mighty weight of a world war that took 70 men permanently from the ranks of this population of 2600 souls to do away with the sublime legacy handed down by their ancestors for almost three centuries true it is 1920 remained silent and bleak there were not enough players no provisions but 1922 looked down on a busy summer saw the play start in may and end in september once again oberammergau was proving faithful to its vow no german will forget those heartbreaking days of inflation and currency collapse 13 years ago when one had to carry ones money in a satchel for the simplest shopping the principal character then received for more than three score trying performances the sum of 20 marks an amount which enabled him to buy only a pair of shoes and a few cakes 0 of f soap the marks given i g iven a member of the orchestra would he h thought carry him a long way ticul arly if he tucked the particularly money away in the savings bank in a few days it had depreciated to zero and that was that but the players carried on and even the unheard anh eard ot of sun sum of if one million dollars was staunchly by the villagers when they refused rejected a proposal to have their play reproduced in the movies and elected to have it continue to be what it had been from the very outset local drama a with a great tradition executed by amateurs 0 only Y thus th u was it possible for the village in th the shadow of the sheltering kofel to preserve its quaint character |
