Overview
"The Bavarian mountain village of Oberammergau is famous for its decennial passion play. The play began as an articulation of the villagers' strong Catholic piety, but in the late 19th and early 20th centuries developed into a considerable commercial enterprise. The growth of the passion play from a curiosity of village piety into a major tourist attraction encouraged all manner of entrepreneurial behavior and brought the inhabitants of this isolated rural area into close contract with a larger world. Hundreds of thousands of tourists came to see the play, and thousands of temporary workers descended on the village during the play season, some settling permanently in Oberammergau. Adolf Hitler would attend a performance of the play in 1934, later saying that the drama ""revealed the muck and mire of Jewry."" But, Helena Waddy argues, it is a mistake to brand Oberammergau as a Nazi stronghold, as has commonly been done. In this book she uses Oberammergau's unique history to explain why and how genuinely some villagers chose to become Nazis, while others rejected Party membership and defended their Catholic lifestyle. She explores the reasons why both local Nazis and their opponents fought to protect the village's cherished identity against the Third Reich's many intrusive demands. On the other hand, she also shows that the play mirrored the Gospel-based anti-Semitism endemic to Western culture. As a local study of the rise of Nazism and the Nazi era, Waddy's work is an important contribution to a growing genre. As a collective biography, it is a fascinating and moving portrait of life at a time when, as Thomas Mann wrote, ""every day hurled the wildest demands at the heart and brain."""
Full Product Details
Author: Helena Waddy (Professor of History, Professor of History, SUNY Geneseo)
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:
Width: 23.60cm
, Height: 3.10cm
, Length: 16.00cm
Weight: 0.646kg
ISBN: 9780195371277
ISBN 10: 0195371275
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 15 July 2010
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
Helena Waddy offers a rich and detailed examination of the uneasy interaction of Naziism with the village's heritage and the Catholic piety which nourished it. James Deming, Scottish Journal of Theology
Helena Waddy offers a rich and detailed examination of the uneasy interaction of Naziism with the village's heritage and the Catholic piety which nourished it. * James Deming, Scottish Journal of Theology *
Author Information
Professor of History, SUNY Geneseo
