We toured Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, and Lucerne. We visited Hitler’s Eagles Nest, which had a spectacular view and was a fascinating piece of engineering with an elevator that held a complete living room.
But, of course, the point of the trip was the Passion Play, performed only every ten years since 1680 in Oberammergau.
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.
I had low expectations for the play. The production involves over 2,000 performers, musicians and stage technicians, all residents of the village. Only those who have been born and raised in Oberammergau or have lived in the village for at least 20 years can become part of the Passion Play cast. This would seem to indicate an amateurish production, since the population of Oberammergau is only about 5,000. But I was blown away by the professional staging and performances. To me, it is a religious Opera, with all the power and grandeur of Grand Opera. I remember being deeply moved in the scene when Christ enters Jerusalem and the scene when he is nailed to the cross and dies.
The performance was three hours in the morning, two hours for lunch and then two hours in the second act. We shopped in the village after lunch and purchased a Nativity scene of high craftsman carved wood figures, which we have used every year since then.
We also visited the death camp at Dachau, including the gas chambers and crematoriums. It was staggering to contemplate what happened there. At that time there was a Carmelite chapel at the edge of the property, and we said Mass there.
We toured Lucerne, Switzerland, taking in a supper club with a folk show - terrific entertainment.
