Germany's Medieval Heartland

Proud cathedrals and small country churches, defiant castles and peaceful monasteries – they all bear witness to the deep-rooted fear of God, yet also to the most mysterious eras in history: the medieval …

Passion Play 2010: Tickets for Sale

A play of life and death, promised in a moment of mortal threat - so began the history of the Oberammergau Passion Play in 1633. In the middle of the Thirty Years War, after months of suffering and death …

High Speed Mobility with ICE Trains

Germany certainly has not become smaller but distances between cities are shrinking fast – at least if you take the train. Due to extensive investments in railroads and tracks, new ICEs connect German Cities with a travel speed of up to 160 mph. With the German Rail Pass, the ICE offers high speed mobility at a very competitive price …

Historic Lodging

Muenster. Tipped off by a European Union investment scheme, 14 castles, monasteries and manor houses in North Rhine Westphalia have started to run Bed & Breakfast services – providing both, remarkable historical authenticity and a high grade accommodation.
Hotel-turned-castles include, amongst others, Schloss Diersfordt (built 1432), 14th century country house Hertefeld or Schloss Ossenberg with its unique Rococo style architecture. Vacancies can be checked by online booking requests…

Oberammergau. – A play of life and death, promised in a moment of mortal threat - so began the history of the Oberammergau Passion Play in 1633. In the middle of the Thirty Years War, after months of suffering and death from the plague, the Oberammergauers swore an oath that they would perform the "Play of the Suffering, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ" every ten years. At Pentecost 1634, they fulfilled their pledge for the first time on a stage they put up in the cemetery above the fresh graves of the plague victims. Since then, tradition went on and in the year 2010, the Community of Oberammergau will perform the 41. Passion Plays in 2010.

The Passion Play Today

In this spirit, during a work period of several years, text and music were fundamentally revised, new settings and costumes were designed and a new production was created in countless rehearsals. Now, more than 2,000 Oberammergauers, actors, singers, instrumentalists and stage technicians bring to the stage those events Christianity regards as its central source of life and hope in approximately six hours of playing time.
Package sales will be starting soon this year, tickets only won't be sold before early 2009. In the same year, from Ash Wednesday onwards, all the men in Oberammergau taking part in the play are  requested to let the hair on their heads and faces grow.