WEIMAR GERMANY
My POSTCARDS
OBERAMMERGAU PASSION PLAY
(1922)

Issued to commemorate the 1922 Oberammergau Passion Play. The play has its roots in 1633 when the region around the town of Oberammergau was suffering from the plague, and many of the citizens were dying. In order to relieve the suffering the town's people prayed to god, that if their suffering was alleviated, they would perform a play depicting the death and resurrection of Christ every 10 years. The plague did come to an end (no evidence of divine intervention), and the villagers, true to their word have performed the play every 10 years since that date, with the 42nd passion play to be staged in October 2022. You can visit the passionplay's webpage here. Enjoy.

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SERIES V

This series of postcards was published by Verlag F. Bruckmann A.G of Munich, and is numbered Series V, with cards 25 through 30. These six cards were sold in a wrapper (see below) inscribed "Offizielle farbige Postkarten-Serie | Passionspiele Oberammergau 1922 | Naturfarbige Uvachromaufnahmen" 'Official coloured postcard series | Passion Play Oberammergau 1922 | Natural colored uvachrome images' followed by a list of the six cards that make up Series V.

It would seem reasonable to assume that there are four earlier series, each of six cards and numbered as: Series I cards 1 to 6, Series II cards 7 to 12, Series III cards 13 to 18 and Series IV cards 19 to 24. I don't know if there are any later series, or if postcards were published for earlier or later performances (i.e. 1912 or 1932, etc).