ABSTRACT
Based on archival work, this chapter reconstructs the diverse and changing alliances that could be formed in the debate about the Passion play and its performance from a historical perspective. In two synchronous cuts (1860, 1890), it analyses the social and institutional tensions that characterised the Oberammergau Passion play in the nineteenth century – among the citizens as well as between parish, church, the various legal institutes, the State of Bavaria and the Bavarian king. In 1860, the text produced by Alois Daisenberger 1850 was revised again to make a profound impression on foreign visitors. In 1890, the Gospel tradition and the ecclesiastical-theological position opposed the local traditions in Oberammergau and the Daisenberger version of the text. Again, the village could assert itself against demands for a revision. The village community’s consistent reference to its tradition is interpreted as a strategy to preserve autonomy in dealing with its Passion play.
