TIME’s First Jesus Cover: Anton Lang

The men who represent the Christ, Peter, Judas, together with 40 of their fellow-villagers, have arrived in the U. S. They will exhibit themselves and their woodcarving, pottery and painting. They will not give the Passion Play or any part of it. Cities to be visited by them will include Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis.

History. In the early 1600’s the Thirty Years’ War* ravaged Bavaria in which lies Ober-Ammergau. War was followed by the Black Plague, which was worse. To avert the plague, the Ober-Ammergau villagers, meeting in a churchyard, vowed to “enact the Passion-tragedy in honor of the bitter sufferings and death of our dear Lord” every tenth year forever. Fulfillment of the vow began with a play given in the churchyard, 1633.

The Play is now given in an open-air Renaissance amphitheatre on a stage similar to the Elizabethan. It begins early on Sunday morning after the players have attended High Mass. It lasts eight hours. The first part (Act I to Act VII) carries the story of Christ’s last week from His entry into Jerusalem to His vigil in the Garden of Gethsemane where He prayed: “Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but Thine, be done.” After an interval for lunch, the second part (Act VIII to Act XIV) continues to the Condemnation under Pilate. The last part (Act XV to Act XVIII) is the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross). The per-formance also includes Old Testament tableaux. About 700 villagers take part in the play, including children as angels.

Ober-Ammergau is surrounded by walls of rock, snow-capped peaks, mountain streams. Its little stone houses are gaily decorated by the paintings of unknown artists. And every-where are wooden crosses bearing the image of Christ. At the town fountain, water flows from His bleeding hands.

Anton Lang was first chosen to play the Christus in 1900. The selection of artists is often determined by physical resemblance to the characters as idealized in religious paintings. No false beards or other make-up are permitted. The man who plays the Christus must have strength as well as dramatic ability, for the cross which he must carry for 15 minutes weighs 150 pounds, and, in addition, he remains for 20 minutes fastened to the cross. There is said to be danger of heart-failure each time an actor essays this scene. Lang played this part in 1900, 1910 and 1922.

Andreas Lang played Peter in 1922. Illustrative of the simplicity of the Passion Players in private life is the fact that Andreas Lang is known as one who “quite willingly drinks a glass of Bavarian beer with a visitor, in the old inn.”

Guido Mayr is the present impersonator of Judas. He has become famous in his part and is also recognized as an exceptionally clever comedian.

The Exhibition. It is, however, not as players but as craftsmen that Anton Lang and his fellows have crossed the Atlantic. Ober-Ammergau has been reduced to poverty. In 1922, despite the decline in the value of the mark, the villagers would not increase their prices. They gave three days’ board with admittance to the play for 90c. Americans came to their rescue, provided them with orders for woodcarving, etc., and have now arranged for them to exhibit and sell their art work in America.

In the typical cottages erected in Grand Central Palace, Manhattan, against a painted background of icy mountains, the carvers, potters, metal workers, etchers are seen at their daily tasks as at Ober-Ammergau.

The venture is underwritten by a committee, headed by George Gordon Battle, including E. F. Albee, Clement M. Biddle, Joseph P. Day, Haley Fiske, W. A. Harriman, Arthur Curtiss James, Robert Underwood Johnson, Elmore Leffingwell, Franklin Simon, Addison Van Tine, Frank D. Waterman, Mrs. Gertrude Atherton, Mrs. A. C. Bedford, Mrs. John O. Cosgrave, Mrs. Minnie Maddern Fiske, Mrs. David F. Houston, Mrs. Arthur Curtiss James, Mrs. Medill McCormick, Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, Jane Cowl and Evangeline Booth.

*A war primarily religious between Catholic and Protestant princes over the principle cujus regio ejus religio (“the religion of the monarch shall become the religion of the country”). Wallenstein, Gustavus Adolphus, Turenne and Richelieu were conspicuous.