Word: oberammergau
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Passion zahlt's" (The Passion will pay for it), people like to say in Oberammergau. And, indeed, the famous Oberammergau Passion Play, first performed in the picture-postcard Bavarian hamlet back in 1634, has kept the local economy humming for much of the 20th century. It is a six-hour production, put on for a four-month run every ten years with a cast of 800. A quarter of the town (pop. 4,800) takes part, working as stagehands, orchestra members, singing away in the huge chorus, or milling about as Roman soldiers or members of Jewish crowds. Many...
...this year's show, Oberammergau reformers thought they could solve the problem by replacing the Daisenberger play with an older and less passionate Passion text written by Father Ferdinand Rosner of the nearby Ettal Monastery and first performed in 1750. Rosner's allegory-laden verses blame the whole tragedy on the Devil. The "Rosnerites" raised cash for a 1977 trial production. Critics loved the show, but the villagers missed their old familiar lines, scenes and songs from the Daisenberger version. In the 1978 election of the village council, the "Daisenbergers" won and promptly scheduled the usual Passion text...
Munich's Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger declared from an Oberammergau pulpit, "AntiSemitism has no part in this play." Saying that anti-Semitism can be brought on "by talking about it," he added: "I beg of everybody, particularly our Jewish friends, to stop reproaching us with an anti-Semitism totally alien to the historic roots and content of this play...
...Oberammergau reformers are not satisfied. The production, says Hans Schwaighofer, head of Oberammergau's venerable woodcarving school, "does not alter the play's strident tone or its message: the collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus." Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum of the American Jewish Committee, who has lobbied the villagers for years, is horrified: "The play is a nightmare of antiSemitism. Jews are still portrayed as bloodthirsty and cruel characters...
Despite these criticisms, half a million tourists are expected to flock to the village this summer. And the mountain folk of Oberammergau are unlikely soon to give up their Passion. Says a Roman soldier in the cast: "We have acted in this play as children. We have sung in the choir and lived with the text all our lives. We shall not abandon it because some people in New York and fancy art critics think Rosner is better. This is our play. They can't take it away from...