Passion Brotherhood

The Passion Brotherhoods were theater societies organized as brotherhoods that performed passion plays and other spiritual plays in public. They were founded in the European late Middle Ages during the emergence of bourgeois urban cultures. Its members came from all secular and spiritual classes . The Passion Brotherhoods enjoyed a high reputation in their cities. They often existed well beyond the Middle Ages and from the middle of the 16th century were devoted to secular theater, as the performance of mystery plays was banned under the influence of the Reformation .

A brotherhood was responsible for all financial, organizational and technical matters of a theater productions. Most of the time she resorted to the support of the respective city. The Passion Brothers played the roles in the performance itself; For some roles ( Judas , Teufel) and for the services of musicians and jugglers , they also signed the musicians' guild , since a two- to three-day performance often had a thousand participants during Christian holidays. Important Passion Brotherhoods were the Confrérie de la Passion , which was founded in Paris in 1380 and continued there until 1677, the Vienna Corpus Christi Brotherhood from 1431, the Roman Arciconfraternità del Gonfalone (from 1489) and the Lucerne Brotherhood of the Coronation of Our Dear Lord Jesus Christ , the Was founded in 1470 and was active into the 20th century.

Sources and testimonies of literary and theater historical importance are u. a. Account books and conducting roles according to which the games were performed.

literature

• Otto Kamshoff: The Passion Brotherhood with the Capuchins in Cologne . 1909