More accordion magic

"Stephanie Hertel and her father"

German country music 2

A very popular band called "Truck Stop". Stunning.

German country music 1

Trucker genius Red Sovine came up with country classic "Teddy Bear" - a tear jerker about truckers, CD radio and an orphaned cripple. It contained the classic line:
"Mom tries hard to make ends meet,
but I ain´t much help what with my two crippled feet"
Johnny Hill performs it for you below in German. Enjoy.

Free beer mugs

This morning, I bought a crate of beer (which cost about 12 Euros for 20 half litre bottles, by the way). Often the breweries try to get the customers into buying their wares by offering a free beer mug along with said cases, usually these mugs are fairly dull, but the boffins at the Paulaner brewery really know how to attract suckers like me. This mornings purchase yielded a mug with an integrated beer opener - genius or what? I am not sure if it will replace my usual one - conveniently, it has a glass window on the side which lets you see if it is time to ask the wife to go and get another beer from the fridge....

UPDATE: It perhaps isn´t sensible to try to open a bottle of beer with the mug-bottle-opener-combo when there is still beer left in the mug.

Accordian magic by "De Kermisklanten"

Two classics, both lifted from The Bavarian Orange Order which has a lovely new site.

The two rotund gentlemen singing again

If you enjoyed yesterday´s fire brigade song, you will enjoy this one about a lady fisher-person from the Bodensee.

More German TV...

This lovely song is called "Hooray, hooray, the fire brigade is here".

The Passion Play at Oberammergau

Oberammergau lies in the mountains south west of Munich and is a popular holiday destination (see map). Every ten years it hosts a Passion Play which is famous world-wide and the next one is in 2010. Below is an article on the play which appeared recently in the UK´s Daily Telegraph, the original link is here. Also of interest is the Telegraph´s list of articles on holidays in Germany. At the bottom of this post is a youtube video showing the town of Obergammau

Oberammergau's Passion Play: Still passionate after 375 years

Every 10 years, more than 2,000 people from the Bavarian village of Oberammergau get involved in a centuries-old Biblical play. Paul Wade investigates.

By Paul Wade

"Jesus is my best friend. We once shared a room in Jerusalem," Carsten Lück says with a grin. His thick head of hair, moustache and beard give him a Biblical look – and so it should. Lück is one of 1,000 actors preparing for the 2010 Oberammergau Passion Play. "Judas has the most demanding part. I try to show that he really was Jesus's best friend before betraying him."

In real life, Lück is good friends with "Jesus"; after all, they grew up together in this village, an hour south of Munich. As I stroll down the main street, cast members are easy to spot as they go about their everyday jobs: bearded waiters and postmen, mustachioed shopkeepers and hoteliers. No wigs or false beards are worn on stage, so men start growing their hair 15 months before opening night. Policemen have special dispensation to abandon their "clean shaven" rule. After all, as I am told, the Passion Playis older than the constabulary.

Oberammergau's Passion Play was first performed in 1634. Threatened by the plague, the villagers vowed to put on a play about the "Suffering, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ" every 10 years. They survived and have kept their promise ever since.

And it is still a communal effort. On a backstage tour of the 4,800-seat Passion Play Theatre, our guide Maria explains that: "Only those who were born or have lived in Oberammergau for 20 years are allowed to take part." Half the population, about 2,500, is involved in acting and playing in the orchestra, set-building and sewing costumes. "The crowd scenes are huge. As many as 900 people are on the open-air stage at one time."

In the dressing rooms, every hook has a name above it – a clutch of Feldmeiers here, a couple of Staneks there. Often four generations of a family take part, from great grandparents to babes-in-arm. "This is Jesus's dressing-room," Maria announces.
"The only one with a sink." That is to wash off the "blood" after the crucifixion. The gore is fake, but everything else is real. The spears and armour for the Roman soldiers are forged at the local smithy and, when I pick up the crown of thorns, its spikes are sharp.

I am impressed. Any thoughts of Ambridge amateurs, under a bossy Lynda Snell, are long gone. Credit for the current professionalism is given to Christian Stückl, who took charge in 1990 and turned enthusiasts into convincing actors. He trained in Oberammergau as a wood carver, but the 48 year-old is now a highly respected director at Munich's Volkstheater.

Tradition shadows everything in Bavaria, but the production is not sacrosanct. There are new costumes and a new set; the 19th-century text, once criticised for being anti-Semitic, has been reworked; and there is more music. The 200-year-old score sounds "like early Schubert or Mendelssohn", conductor and composer Markus Zwink tells me. Created for fewer musicians and singers, it had to be expanded, but Zwink is sensitive to what he can alter. "Some pieces are great; everyone knows and loves them. Those I can't touch."

As in an oratorio, the choir and 60-strong orchestra are an essential part of the production and must also be home-grown. As Zwink points out, the play is a catalyst for talent. "Any child showing potential is given lessons. The village has chamber orchestras, youth orchestras, boys' choirs, girls' choirs."

Oberammergau is no German Brigadoon; in between the once-a-decadePassion Play seasons, the twisting lanes are busy. Tourists come year-round to photograph homes decorated with Lüftlmalerei, literally ''paintings in the air''. Most of these frescoes are religious, with the best known the scene of Christ before Pontius Pilate that decorates the Pilatushaus. Inside this 18th-century building, we watch chips fly as a carver creates an angel from a chunk of lime tree. The Pilatushaus showcases other artists: a coppersmith hammering away at a bangle, a potter painting a vase. All are members of a 50-strong craft co-op that takes turns to demonstrate their skills in the atelier and shop.

Visitors also head up the Laber, a 5,000-feet peak overlooking the village. After a cable-car ride, we stare at the waves of blue-green Bavarian Alps fading south into Austria. Once Carsten Lück gets the new script, he will come here: "I go up the Laber and walk around the mountain shouting my lines. In the end, my dog knows the part of Judas as well as I do."

In the 21st century, the villagers' commitment is admirable, giving up time, work, holidays and money. Rehearsals will continue on the outdoor stage this winter, through wind, rain and snow. Once the season starts in May, there are five performances each week until October. And, although the major speaking roles have two actors for each part, everyone else has to turn up like clockwork. With half the village involved, the other half still has to run the town.

The sole survivor of elaborate works that were once common in Germany and Austria, the Oberammergau Passion Play might seem like an anachronism. But in an age of theme parks and star-studded arts festivals, this determination to honour an ancestral vow is impressive. For the religious, it is something of a pilgrimage; for the secular, the music and drama can be deeply moving. I certainly admire the continuity, handed down from generation to generation. As Markus Zwink tells me: "My father was in four productions, but we Zwinks have taken part for centuries." And the Zwinks are not unusual. "That's what we do. In Oberammergau, the Passion Play is in our blood."

OBERAMMERGAU PASSION PLAY 2010

The season runs from May 15 to October 3. Each of the 102 performances lasts five hours, from 2.30-5pm and 8-10.30pm, with a three-hour dinner break. Audiences are under cover, but mountain weather can be chilly; take blankets, even long johns.

With only 1,200 beds in the village, tickets are sold as part of a package.

Leger Holidays (0845 408 0769; www.leger.co.uk) has a six-night coach tour, including the play and Bavarian castles, from £859. DERTOUR (020 7290 1104;www.dertour.co.uk) has a four-night break, flying to Munich and including the play, from £829. For more UK tour operators, and other information on thePassion Play, see www.oberammergau-passion.com

VISITING OBERAMMERGAU

If you go this autumn…

The Hotel Alte Post (0049 8822 9100; www.altepost.com) has rooms for two, with breakfast, from £62.

The Otto Huber Guesthouse (0049 8822 92270; www.huber-otto.de) has doubles with breakfast from £43.

Passion Play Theatre backstage tours in English (£3) run Tues-Sun, 11am and 2.30pm.

Nearby sights include the 14th-century Ettal monastery, and King Ludwig's Linderhof Palace. Or hike part of the new 50-mile Meditation Trail through the Ammer River valley: walk a few miles, and return by train or bus. For further information, see www.ammergauer-alpen.de

Security threat at Oktoberfest

From Der Spiegel magazine´s English site;

"Police have thrown a tight security cordon around the Munich Oktoberfest this week as a precaution following a series of video threats from Islamic militants. But terrorism fears and heightened checks on vehicles, bags and Dirndls aren't spoiling the party, the organizers say."

more information here.

The Bavarian Orange Order

Now that the bigots have their own site (and piss poor it is too), I am deleting some of the Bavarian Orange Order stuff from Ulsterman in Bavaria. Good luck to them, but it may well not be as successful a venture as they hope.

Death metal in the Austrian Tirol

Just in case you were wondering, I didn´t make this you tube classic.

Cyberwar !

A week or two ago, my blog visitor counter went up by around 9200 hits overnight. Strangely, there was no evidence of a mass influx of new visitors on my flag counter thingy and this led me to  the following conclusions:


1. Some sad person was refreshing the screen over and over again. However, nobody would be that sad.
2. I did it myself. But sadly, I didn´t.
3. Vladimir Putin is scared of this blog and launched an unsuccessful cyberwarfare attack in an attempt to put us out of business. Given the other possibilities, this is the most plausible explanation.


Well, Vladdy boy - you failed. And to show my utter disrespect for you, I am reproducing a picture of your poster boy predecessor Leonid Brezhnev snogging his East German commie running dog lackey Erich Honecker. When Germans see this picture, they laugh and hopefully now the rest of the world will also have a chuckle*.


My next step is to try to get the counter back to what it was. God knows how that works.

*but given the level of readership here, "the rest of the world" should be taken as meaning 2 or three individuals who stumble here accidentally


UPDATE: Counter Sorted. 

Oktoberfest traffic jam

The breweries bring their beer to the Oktoberfest grounds in the manner shown below. A pleasant sight, however, for pedestrians only.

Oktoberfest

During the week at lunchtime is the time to go if you want to guarantee a seat in a tent. Also there were no queues for any of the rides.