Kleine Ammer

Between visiting the two castles we stopped for half an hour at Oberammergau, a small town of around 5,000 people known for its storybook and religious illustrations on houses (pictures taken from the bus, sorry!) and the fact that every ten years the townspeople perform the Passion Play - the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.

The town is very beautiful and we enjoyed the stop a lot. We visited a souvenir shop that had beautiful locally made cuckoo clocks which James sadly would not let Alysha buy to bring home (again, no photos in the store unfortunately).

The Passion Play tradition came about during the bubonic plague, when after half the town had died the remaining townspeople vowed that if the rest of the town was spared by God they would perform a play depicting Jesus' life and death every ten years. No further townspeople died and they honoured their vow. The town performs it for an entire summer season in a dedicated theatre in town on years ending in 0. Performers must have lived in the village for 20 years to be eligible to be in the play.

During the 20th century the play experienced much controversy due to the explicit anti-Semitism included in it; the play was even endorsed by Hitler in 1934. Minor revisions to address the antisemitism occurred in the 60s and 80s, though international Jewish groups still considered the play significantly antisemitic. Further major revisions in 1990 and 2000 resulted in a performance which Jewish groups do not consider antisemitic.Read more