The Passionsspiele Oberammergau 2020 will be moved to 2022. Tickets for the Passion Play 2020 will be refunded or converted to the 2022 performance.
Due to the Coronavirus, the 2020 Oberammergau Passion Play performance has been postponed until 2022. Ticket and arrangement holders for the 2020 play will receive a full refund, or may convert existing bookings to similar reservations for the Passionsspiele 2022 Oberammergau. Information and refund claim forms are already being processed. New tickets for the Oberammergau Passion Play 2022 go on sale on 5 October 2020.
Oberammergau Passion Play 2020 Canceled
The 42nd Oberammergau Passion Play has been postponed to 2022. All performances scheduled for 2020 have thus been canceled.
The original Passionsspiele was performed following a vow in 1633 that the people of Oberammergau would perform the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, if no one in the village died of the plague that was ravishing much of Germany and Europe at the time.
The Passion Play has since been performed 41 times. Given the origins of this religious performance, the people of Oberammergau clearly don’t want to contribute to the spreading of the Coronavirus in 2020. This would be a real possibility, as 450,000 spectators from all over the world were expected at the 103 performances scheduled from 16 May to 4 October 2020. The new schedule is 14 May to 2 October 2022 — new tickets will be sold from 5 October 2020.
The Passion Play in Oberammergau is usually performed every decade. It was canceled or postponed three times before. In 1770, there was a general prohibition on religious performances and in 1940, the Second World War prevented the play. The 1920 Passion Play was also postponed until 1922 due to the high casualty rate in the First World War and the general chaos in Germany in the immediate aftermath of the war and the end of the monarchy.
Ticket Refunds for Oberammergau Passion Play 2020
Due to the postponement of the Oberammergau Passion Play 2020, ticket and arrangement holders will be able to either claim a full refund, or convert existing reservations for the 2020 performance to similar performances in 2022. Such conversion is a good option — new Passion Play 2022 tickets and packages will only go on sale from 5 October 2020.
The new premier is provisionally scheduled for 14 May 2022.
Information and refund claim forms are available at the official Passionsspiele-Oberammergau website.
This simple procedure is for anyone who bought tickets through the official channels.
Visiting Oberammergau in Bavaria
Oberammergau is in a beautiful part of Bavaria with many different things to do making it well worth visiting even outside the Passion Play performance periods.
Further major religious sights in the immediate vicinity include the Ettal Monastery and the Wieskirche – a defining work of the Bavaria Rococo and inscribed on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list.
In addition to the beautiful nature of the Bavarian Alps, visitors can also tour two fantasy palaces of Bavarian Mad King Ludwig – his Disney-like Schloss Neuschwanstein Castle and the small but actually completed Schloss Linderhof Palace.
Transportation to Oberammergau is easy from Munich and Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The Bayern-Ticket is a very good local transportation deal when traveling in Bavaria on public transportation.
