October 2019. I’m on the train to Oberammergau with a croissant and a thermos full of tea, on one of my first research trips to the Oberland region of Upper Bavaria, and I have appointments for all sorts of discussions. It’s a sunny autumn morning. There’s no Covid-19 yet, the première of the 42nd Passion Play is scheduled for May 2020, the invitations have been sent, most of the tickets have been sold. Oberammergau is in preparation mode. The set designer Stefan Hageneier will guide me through the Passionstheater and the workshops, showing me his designs and the stage. Markus Zwink, the musical director, will explain to me how he deals with a musical legacy which stretches back for centuries, and why the children in Oberammergau get free music lessons. I will get to know Monika Lang, sitting in her living room as she explains how she and her fellow campaigners fought for years, or rather decades, for equal rights for women in the Passion.

Oberammergau via Unterammergau

From Munich you take the regional train to Murnau, along the shores of Lake Starnberg, heading south. It’s work, but it feels more like an excursion. Out of the city and into...