Of Beards and Bubonic Plague: German Village Prays for a (2nd) Miracle

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/world/europe/germany-oberammergau-passion-play-coronavirus.html

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OBERAMMERGAU, Germany — There is no doubt in the mind of the Rev. Thomas Gröner that what happened in his village was a miracle.

He says he has proof, too.

The pandemic had ravaged the village. One in four people are believed to have died. “Whole families, gone,” Father Gröner said.

Then villagers stood before a cross and pledged to God that if he spared those who remained, they would perform the Passion Play — enacting Jesus’ life, death and resurrection — every 10th year forever after.

It was 1633. The bubonic plague was still raging in Bavaria. But legend has it that after the pledge, no one else in the village died from it.

Standing in his church underneath the cross where villagers had once made their promise, Father Gröner held out a battered leather-bound book.

“Look,” he said, his fingers scanning a faded page with tightly packed handwriting that abruptly stops three quarters down. “They recorded dozens and dozens of deaths and then — none.”

For nearly four centuries, the people of Oberammergau (pronounced oh-ber-AH-mer-gow) more or less kept their promise, celebrating their salvation from one pandemic — until another pandemic forced them to break it.

This year’s Passion Play, scheduled to premiere in May and run through the summer, had to be abandoned because of the coronavirus. An epic production, cast with local residents as actors, the play would have brought half a million visitors to the village and 2,500 people, or half of Oberammergau, onto the world’s biggest open-air stage.

The production would have been the 42nd since the play’s premiere in 1634. Canceled only twice — in 1770 during the enlightenment and in 1940 during World War II — the play has been performed once every decade and sometimes twice, for special anniversaries. It had to be postponed once before — after too many men had died in World War I to field a cast.

Now, as Easter weekend approaches, Oberammergau is praying for another miracle.

So far, the village does not have a single known case of Covid-19.

“Maybe the pledge still protects the village?” Susanne Eski, a dressmaker asked hopefully, as she was preparing to put costumes for the Passion Play into storage one recent afternoon.

But outside Oberammergau the number of cases have been rising, and most fear it is just a matter of time. On Palm Sunday, there were more than 91,000 infections in Germany and more than 1,300 deaths.

For centuries, kings and queens, leaders and celebrities, have flocked to this small village in the Bavarian Alps to be immersed in the story of salvation.

Since the mid-1960s, the play has been criticized for its crude anti-Semitism, first by Jewish groups and later by the Roman Catholic Church itself. Hitler reportedly loved it and deemed it “important to the Reich.”

Christian Stückl has directed the Passion Play for three decades, gradually ridding it of its most egregious anti-Semitic symbolism and opening the cast to Protestants, Muslims and married women. He welled up with emotion when he announced that this year’s performances would be postponed by two years.

The village had been building up to this moment for a decade.

For months, hotels and restaurants had staffed up to cope with the onslaught of visitors. Local craftsmen worked overtime to sculpt the stage props. Volunteers helped sew costumes. Rehearsals brought together all age groups in the village from toddlers to grandparents, sometimes daily.

And, in keeping with an ancient village statute, many men had stopped shaving a year ago to allow hair to sprout freely, A.D.-30 style.

But the rehearsals have stopped. The Passion Play theater, with its 4,500 seats, stands empty. Props and costumes are going into storage.

Only the beards remain: Both village hairdressers are shut because of the coronavirus.

“If you didn’t know this was Oberammergau, you’d think this village is full of hipsters or jihadis,” joked Cengiz Görür, 20, a son of a local restaurant owner and the first Muslim to get a leading part in the Passion Play.

He was cast as Judas, the play’s traditional villain, which, as the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung recently wrote, “some outside observers find very modern, others a little nasty.” The director said he got the role for his great acting talent.

It has been more than two weeks since the postponement was announced, and a collective sense of gloom has given way to an anxious calm. Like elsewhere in Germany, Oberammergau is adapting to the new reality of life under a pandemic — but perhaps more than elsewhere, villagers are looking at their fate through the prism of their local history.

The story of the plague profoundly shaped this village, remarked Eva Reiser, who was to play Mary.

“How will the coronavirus change us and our world?” she wondered. “What will be the stories they tell about us?”

Already, the coronavirus has given new significance to the words Frederik Mayet, who was to play Jesus, had been rehearsing.

When Jesus addresses the people of Jerusalem, he talks about how “poverty and disease are carrying you off.” In two years time, when the pandemic has taken its toll and the Passion Play is resurrected, Mr. Mayet said, “that sentence will have a whole different meaning.”

Mr. Stückl, the director, can trace his own family back to the days of the plague. Its first victim was one of his ancestors, the caretaker of the church.

Wild-haired and chain-smoking, Mr. Stückl is a lifelong Catholic but he is not so sure that what happened in 1633 was a miracle. The pledge was made in October, he pointed out, just as winter set in. The plague bacterium does not do well in the cold.

“There is probably a scientific explanation,” he said. In times like these, humans need stories of hope and redemption, he acknowledged, but they also need to trust in science.

Updated June 16, 2020

The coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus. It is the first time the United States has had widespread federally mandated paid leave, and includes people who don’t typically get such benefits, like part-time and gig economy workers. But the measure excludes at least half of private-sector workers, including those at the country’s largest employers, and gives small employers significant leeway to deny leave.

So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement.

Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus — whether it’s surface transmission or close human contact — is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.

A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.

The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nation’s job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April.

Mass protests against police brutality that have brought thousands of people onto the streets in cities across America are raising the specter of new coronavirus outbreaks, prompting political leaders, physicians and public health experts to warn that the crowds could cause a surge in cases. While many political leaders affirmed the right of protesters to express themselves, they urged the demonstrators to wear face masks and maintain social distancing, both to protect themselves and to prevent further community spread of the virus. Some infectious disease experts were reassured by the fact that the protests were held outdoors, saying the open air settings could mitigate the risk of transmission.

States are reopening bit by bit. This means that more public spaces are available for use and more and more businesses are being allowed to open again. The federal government is largely leaving the decision up to states, and some state leaders are leaving the decision up to local authorities. Even if you aren’t being told to stay at home, it’s still a good idea to limit trips outside and your interaction with other people.

Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)

Taking one’s temperature to look for signs of fever is not as easy as it sounds, as “normal” temperature numbers can vary, but generally, keep an eye out for a temperature of 100.5 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. If you don’t have a thermometer (they can be pricey these days), there are other ways to figure out if you have a fever, or are at risk of Covid-19 complications.

The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don’t replace hand washing and social distancing.

If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.

If you’re sick and you think you’ve been exposed to the new coronavirus, the C.D.C. recommends that you call your healthcare provider and explain your symptoms and fears. They will decide if you need to be tested. Keep in mind that there’s a chance — because of a lack of testing kits or because you’re asymptomatic, for instance — you won’t be able to get tested.

These days, under government orders, the streets of Oberammergau have emptied and the two village schools closed. The bakery and butcher are still open, but handwritten signs urge customers to enter only two at a time. All religious services are canceled, too.

The economic fallout has been immediate and brutal, said Anton Preisinger, who was going to play Pilate, the Roman governor who orders Jesus’ crucifixion.

His hotel, owned by his family since the 19th century, went from being fully booked to “zero bookings.” He’s already had to let 13 people go.

“Social distancing hurts when social contact is your livelihood,” he said.

But during a pandemic, social distancing is vital. And Oberammergau knows this first hand.

“We’ve done it before,” Mr. Mayet said.

In 1632 it looked as if the village might escape the plague. All surrounding villages had been devastated. In nearby Bad Kohlgrub only one married couple was said to have survived.

But Oberammergau had been spared. It had, in modern parlance, gone into quarantine — a sort of self-imposed isolation meant to keep villagers in and visitors out.

Guards patrolled village boundaries. They erected plague fires as a deterrence.

“It was social distancing, 17th-century style,” Mr. Mayet said. “The village went into lockdown. It closed its borders.”

And for a while it worked.

But one night, a villager who was working in a neighboring village was so desperate to see his family that he slipped past the guards. His name was Kaspar Schisler and he brought the plague with him.

Everybody in the village knows his name. There is even a street named after him.

“No one wants to be Kaspar Schisler,” Ms. Reiser said. “No one wants to be the person who brings the virus into the village.”

Ms. Reiser, who works as a flight attendant when she is not playing the mother of God, has been aware of the coronavirus for longer than most in Oberammergau. In late January, a Chinese passenger on a flight from Munich to Lyon was suspected to have contracted the virus.

It turned out to be a false alarm. But after that, Ms. Reiser started counting the days through the 14-day incubation period every time she found herself in a crowded place, obsessively washing her hands and keeping her distance from her grandmother, 92.

“She wants to live through one more Passion Play,” Ms. Reiser said.

In Oberammergau a lifetime is often measured in Passion Plays. This would have been her grandmother’s 10th.

An hour’s drive from Oberammergau, deep in the woods, there is a chapel dedicated to a little known saint who is only now being rediscovered — Saint Corona, patron saint of resisting epidemics, Father Gröner said.

There are hard times ahead, he said. But everything has two sides. Perhaps something good will come of this crisis, he said. The return of solidarity and compassion for each other and the planet.

“In a way,” Father Gröner said, “the story of suffering and salvation they have been rehearsing onstage is now playing out in real life.”