Bensheim Passion Play

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The Bensheim Passion Play is a representation of the Passion of Christ staged by amateur actors in the form of a procession , which is shown annually on Good Friday in the southern Hessian town of Bensheim an der Bergstrasse . The performance, also known as the Way of the Cross , was launched in 1983 by Italian immigrants and is considered an example of an Italian-German cultural transfer . The Passion Play attracts a large number of spectators, which - depending on the weather - regularly number between several hundred and several thousand people.

history

Good Friday procession in Lauro in Campania (2009)

A group within the football club FC Italia Bensheim , founded by Italians, began in 1982 with self-portrayals in public in order to identify themselves as self-confident Italian immigrants and to contribute to the cultural life in the city. They took part in the parade to the Bergsträßer Winzerfest with a motif wagon The Romans on Bergstrasse , with which they wanted to point out the origin of the regional wine culture with their "ancestors", the Romans . In the Advent season of the same year they showed a "living nativity scene" ( Presepe vivente ) in the Italian style with living animals. At the initiative of the geometer Antonio Fortunato, a public procession was planned for Good Friday 1983, which should show the German public celebrating this holiday according to the southern Italian model and at the same time be a “ piece of home ” to the Italians who had immigrated . The model was the Settimana santa ( Holy Week ) in Vallo di Lauro , an area east of Naples in the province of Avellino in Campania . Some of the initiators came from the town of Lauro and its immediate vicinity.

In the first year, the presentation began on Maundy Thursday evening with a prelude in the Capuchin Church , where a theatrical performance of the washing of the feet and the Last Supper of Jesus was performed, as it is in a similar form - but as a church-based ritual with the participation of the clergy - in many Places of Campania (including in the place Fontenovella near Lauro) can be seen. However, it did not attract much public attention and was not taken up again in the following years.

From the beginning, the group of participants was not limited to the Italian community. The founders ensured that the main roles of the game, designed in the tradition of the Sacra rappresentazione , were played by German players the first time, and members of other nations also played in many cases; from 1985 to 1988 a Portuguese personified the main character Jesus. The text has always been read in German, on the one hand to avoid any barriers to understanding between the performers and the audience, and on the other hand to acknowledge that they belong to their new home on Bergstrasse.

The initiator returned to Italy after the third performance. Since then, the game has been supported by a German-Italian community called Italian families with their German friends (or Good Friday friends for short ). It has a low organizational structure with no formal association character and only meets in the weeks of preparation and practice before the performance. The great majority of the active participants in the game are now Germans, there are Christians of the two major denominations and also some without church affiliation. With Antonio Renzullo, Mario Miconi, Palma Tilatti (as the only woman), Giovanni Torre, Isidoro Lipiello and currently Paolo Lipiello, however, all previous game directors ("directors") have an Italian family background. Between 1991 and 2014 Hartmuth Lux (1963–2015) from Bensheim played Jesus 24 times and thus made a significant contribution to the continuation of quality. He has been succeeded by his son Julian since 2015; he was not yet born in 1983, when he was founded, and thus embodies - together with numerous other younger actors - the tradition of the Bensheim Passion Play, which has now spanned generations.

The supporting group receives organizational support from the Italian Catholic Mission ( Missione Cattolica Italiana ) and the city of Bensheim, without thereby changing the character of the Passion Play as a relatively new custom carried by committed citizens of Italian and German origin for the benefit of an organized " event “Has been lost. Active advertising for the performance is limited to a few posters in Bensheim and the actors' places of origin, which are displayed by them themselves, and to an entry in the city's calendar of events.

In 2020, the performance had to be canceled for the first time since 1983 due to the ban on gatherings due to the rampant corona pandemic .

procedure

The acceptance of the cross by Jesus at the Spitalbrunnen (2010)
Jesus meets his mother on the way to Golgotha; behind the thieves (2012)
The erection of the cross with the crucified on the market square (2010)

The 70 to 90 actors appearing in historical costumes each move through the Bensheim city center on Good Friday morning from 10.30 a.m. The game consists of four main scenes and a few secondary scenes in nine locations and lasts about one and a half hours. The main scenes consist of the betrayal and the arrest of Jesus on Beauner Platz , the questioning of Jesus by the high council at the Rinnentorturm , the condemnation of Jesus by Pontius Pilate with abuse by his coat and crown of thorns , the taking of the cross and the release of Barabbas at the hospital well and finally the crucifixion Jesus and the two thieves accompanying him as well as the descent from the cross in the marketplace .

In the secondary scenes on the paths between these venues, the denial of Jesus by Peter , the encounter of Jesus with the three Marys and with Veronica , who hands him the handkerchief , the acceptance of the cross by Simon of Cyrene , the mockery by Barabbas, the chastisement of Jesus illustrated by the soldiers accompanying him and his three falls as well as the self-direction of Judas . Drummers dressed in Roman style lead the procession from the place of conviction to the place of execution with a haunting drum rhythm. After the crucifixion and before the descent from the cross, soldiers roll the dice for the robe of Jesus.

The performance thus brings to life - with the addition of the imprisonment and questioning of Jesus before the High Council as well as other smaller episodes - essentially the traditional fourteen Stations of the Cross ( Via Crucis ), as it is figuratively used for devotional practice in many places inside and outside Roman Catholic churches ( thus also in the Bensheimer parish church St. Georg and in the Capuchin church) has been laid out for a designed processional or social game .

The text spoken by the main actors is based closely on the literal specifications in the four Gospels of the New Testament . The dramatic events are framed by various musical contributions. In the first two years - as in Lauro - there were chants in southern Italian dialect performed by white- clad Italians (so-called Biancovestiti ), since then German choirs or instrumental groups (e.g. the Catholic Church Music Association "St. Bartholomäus" Fehlheim ) have been involved who mainly perform German hymns for the Passion time.

Over the years, only a few small changes and additions to the performance have been made, the Passion Play as a whole has never undergone major changes.

After the performance, most of the actors and numerous visitors gather in the Capuchin Church on the market square for a bilingual prayer with communion for the participating Catholics, in which the Our Father is prayed in German and Italian at the same time. At the exit, after having paid alms on the previous Palm Sunday in Italy, the participants will receive consecrated olive branches , which are also intended as a “reminder of the homeland of Italy”.

resonance

The Bensheim Passion Play has become a fixture in the city throughout the year. His perception extends far beyond Bensheim, which is not only proven by the number of viewers, but also by reporting in the national media and in other publications. A picture from the performance in 2000 illustrates the article Good Friday in the ten-volume Brockhaus -Lexikon . The event is a popular meeting place for families with an Italian background from the Rhine-Neckar region and its wider surroundings; in 2007, every fifth visitor was Italian.

The creation and design of the game were the subject of a scientific study at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in conjunction with Messina University , which was presented to the public in Mainz on Research Day in 2010 and the results of which are available in printed form (see literature ).

literature

  • Gerd J. Grein : Good Friday procession in Bensheim. In: Sammlung zur Volkskunde in Hessen 29 (1987), pp. 3–10.
  • Diane Dingeldein: “ This is where Germany begins to become Italy.” On the motivation and performance of the Passion Play in Bensheim, founded by Italians . In: Siegfried Becker, Joana MC Nunes Pires Tavares (ed.): Immigrating, settling in, remembering. Contributions to historical migration research. (Hessian papers for folk and cultural research NF 43). Jonas-Verlag, Marburg 2009, pp. 135–152. ISBN 978-3-89445-409-8 .
  • Diane Dingeldein: The Bensheim Passion Play. Studies on an Italian-German cultural transfer. (Mainz contributions to cultural anthropology / folklore, vol. 7). Waxmann, Münster / New York / Munich / Berlin 2013. ISBN 978-3-83-092919-2 ( Google books )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Document 1: Mannheimer Morgen
  2. ↑ Document 2: Darmstädter Echo ( Memento from October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Initiator of the Bensheim Passion Play (press report) ( Memento from October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Diane Dingeldein: The procession in Vallo di Lauro and the Passion Play in Bensheim an der Bergstrasse. A comparative study of the cultural transfer of a Good Day event. In: Yearbook for European Ethnology . Third part 5 (2010), pp. 171–194.
  5. ↑ Dingeldein 2013 (see literature), p. 119 f. - Independent of the Passion Play, on Maundy Thursday 2015, the Protestant parish of the Bensheim district of Auerbach invited to an evening service "with the rite of washing the feet and a common agape meal " in the community center (Bergsträßer Anzeiger of March 30, 2015).
  6. ↑ Dingeldein 2013 (see literature), p. 166.
  7. ↑ Press article in memory of Hartmuth Lux
  8. ↑ Press report and video 2016
  9. ^ The Missione Cattolica Italiana in Germany
  10. ↑ They are provided by the fanfare train of the KSV 1903 in neighboring Schriesheim in Baden .
  11. ↑ See the previous photo series and the video in the web links
  12. ↑ Chants of the Biancovestiti in Lauro 2013 (video, part 1)
  13. ↑ Chants of the Biancovestiti in Lauro 2013 (video, part 2)
  14. ↑ The association's website with references to the Passion Play in the schedules
  15. ^ Hessian Television I (2011)
  16. ↑ Hessian Television II (2014)
  17. ↑ Bild-Online
  18. ↑ Press article by the dapd agency at WAZ-online (derwesten.de)
  19. ↑ International Business Times
  20. ^ Günter Schenk : Christian folk festivals in Europe. Innsbruck 2006, p. 50 f .: Christ's suffering in the pedestrian zone. A passion play unites Christians of all denominations. ISBN 978-3-70-222777-7
  21. ↑ The Brockhaus in ten volumes. Volume 5. FA Brockhaus, Mannheim 2005, p. 3062.
  22. ^ Diane Dingeldein: On the reception of the Passion Play in Bensheim and the Good Friday procession in Lauro. Origin and role of the audience in the festival process. In: Quarderni di intercultura . Anno II / 2010, pp. 1-14. PDF
  23. ↑ Research Day 2010 (University of Mainz) ( Memento from October 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Web links