Neumarkt Passion Play
The Neumarkt Passion Play is a passion play in Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate , which shows the last 5 days in the life of Jesus Christ .
The origins of these games can be found in the 17th century: As part of the re-Catholicization of today's Upper Palatinate , the Capuchin Order in Neumarkt began to perform such games in order to bring the population closer to the Catholic faith. The Corpus Christi brotherhood appeared as the game carrier. Two essentially identical game manuscripts have come down to us from 1772. Despite the efforts of the citizens to continue the ecclesiastical theater, one finally had to bow to the prohibitions of the ecclesiastical and secular authorities: in 1793 only the tomb of Christ was carried through the city.
It was not until 1901 that the Catholic Journeyman's Association, the predecessor organization of today's Kolping Family , took up the tradition again and began again with the performance of a passion play.
After the First World War , preparations were made for the game to be performed again in the early 1920s. German Mayr from Neumarkt wrote a new textbook and also directed the 1922 Games, where 23 performances took place. In addition, the games were to be shown at a fixed rhythm again, as originally, further performances were planned for 1927 and 1932. However, the political and economic circumstances of that time prevented this.
It was not until 1959 and 1964 that the Kolping Family succeeded in performing it again. Kaspar Hirschbeck, then pastor of the parish of St. Johannes , revised German Mayr's text in the early 1980s and also took into account numerous statements from the Second Vatican Council . This version was performed in 1984 and 1989 with the aim of repeating the games every 10 years now.
For the performances in 1999, the Neumarkt high school teacher Hans Georg Hirn subjected the game to a thorough revision. Taking into account the latest historical and theological findings, he reverted to the German Mayr version and supplemented the text in places.
The fact that Neumarkt was the organizer and host of the "EUROPASSION" in 2009 meant a special award. More than three decades ago, gaming communities of different origins came together under this name to form a supra-international association, which now has around 90 Passion Play venues from 15 European countries.
Passion Play 2009
The Passion Play 2009 was performed from February 28th to April 10th in the Small Jura Hall with around 1000 seats, over 400 amateur actors, stage builders and make-up artists participated. The patronage was taken over by the Eichstatt Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke .
Passion Play 2019
From March 9th to April 19th, the 2019 Passion Play was performed in the Small Jura Hall. The direction was in the hands of Michael Ritz, the direction of the Passion Play Choir was again taken over by Peter Bruckschlögl, as in 2009.
literature
- Manfred Knedlik: Lay players from Upper Palatinate put the suffering of Christ on stage. The tradition of the passion play in Neumarkt. In: Unser Bayern 58 (2009), No. 3, pp. 12–15.
- Manfred Knedlik: Neumarkt Passion Play in the 18th century, taking into account the game manuscripts from 1772 . I n: Oberpfälzer Heimat 63 (2019), pp. 83–94.
- Hans-Jürgen Müller: Neumarkt Passion Play. In: Die Oberpfalz 77 (1989), pp. 53-55.