The Oberammergau Passion Play was first performed in 1634. According to local legend, the play is performed every ten years because of a vow made by the inhabitants of the village that if God spared them from the effects of the bubonic plague then sweeping the region, they would perform a passion play every ten years. A man traveling back to the town for Christmas allegedly brought the plague with him by accident. The man purportedly died from the plague and it began spreading throughout Oberammergau. After the vow was made, according to tradition, not another inhabitant of the town died from the plague. All of the town members that were still suffering from the plague are said to have recovered. The play is now performed in years ending with a zero, as well as in 1934 which was the 300th anniversary and 1984 which was the 350th anniversary. The 2020 play is being postponed to 2022 due to the outbreak of COVID-19. It involves over 2000 actors, singers, instrumentalists and technicians, all residents of the village.
Geography
Tongue-twister
The name of the village appears in a well-known Germantongue-twister, often sung as a round:
German: Heut' kommt der Hans zu mir, / freut sich die Lies. / Ob er aber über Oberammergau, / oder aber über Unterammergau, / oder aber überhaupt nicht kommt, / ist nicht gewiß!
English: Hans will come join with me, / rejoices Lies. / If he comes by way of Oberammergau / or by way of Unterammergau, / or if at all he comes, / that is not sure!
Industry
Tourism
About half the inhabitants of Oberammergau took part in the once-a-decade Passion Play in 2010. Over 2,000 villagers performed the story of the Passion of Jesus for the audiences from around the world. This was a labor-intensive community enterprise, in which only natives of the village could participate. Performances have taken place between mid-May and early October. The play has a major economic impact on Oberammergau. There is a local expression "Die Passion zahlt" in explaining how the Oberammergau community financed construction of a new community swimming pool, community centre, and other civic improvements. Since 1930, the number of visitors has ranged from 420,000 to 530,000. Most tickets are sold as part of a package with one or two nights' accommodation.
Traditional art
The village is also known as the home of a long tradition of woodcarving; the Bavarian State Woodcarving School is located there. Among the celebrated former students is the German artist Wolfram Aichele. His processional church staff depicting Christ on a donkey can be seen in the church of St Peter and St Paul. The streets of central Oberammergau are home to dozens of woodcarver shops, with pieces ranging from religious subjects, to toys, to humorous portraits. Oberammergau is also famous for its "Lüftlmalerei," or frescoes, of traditional Bavarian themes, fairy tales, religious scenes or architectural trompe-l'œil found on many homes and buildings. Lüftlmalerei is common in Upper Bavaria and its name may be derived from an Oberammergau house called Zum Lüftl, which was the home of facade painter Franz Seraph Zwinck. The village is also known for its religious art. A wooden statue of Our Lady of Good Voyage from Oberammergau stands in the Seaport Shrine in Boston, Massachusetts.
Transport
Oberammergau lies near the Bundesstraße 23, part of the Deutsche Alpenstrasse route. Its single-track, single platform railway station is the terminus of the Ammergau Railway. Several Aerial lifts climb the nearby mountains.
Military
The Conrad von Hötzendorf Kaserne was built just east of the village in 1935–37 as a base for the signals detachment '' of the Mountain Brigade. In October 1943, the barracks were taken over by the Messerschmitt company as a research and development site; of tunnels were bored into the neighboring Laber mountain for engine production facilities, and a winter sports hotel was also taken over. In all, Messerschmitt had 500 employees in the design department and about 1,300 more in the factory. At the end of the Second World War, the Messerschmitt design department was visited by both U.S. and British scientific missions, as well as by teams from Bell and de Havilland. Among the German staff interviewed by the Fedden Mission were Woldemar Voigt, Messerschmitt's chief designer, Hans Hornung, and Joseph Helmschrott. After the war, the Americans occupied the kaserne, renaming it Hawkins Barracks and making it the primary facility of U.S. Army School Europe; over the next three decades schools in specialties ranging from military police to nuclear weapons handling were located there. The base reverted to German Army control and its original name in 1974. NATO School, formerly NATO Weapons Systems School, the alliance's principal training and education facility on the operational level, has been located at Hawkins Barracks/Hötzendorf Kaserne since 1953.
