Oberammergau 1922

The Munich court photographer Henry Traut and his apprentice Fritz Grabsdorf arrive by train from Munich at the station in Oberammergau. The apprentice asks in amazement what that big gray wall is? "That's the Alps," Traut answers dryly. This or something similar is how the story of how the photographs of the 31st Passion Play in Oberammergau began in 1922.

Traut, the Munich art photographer, photographed the Passion Plays in 1910 and 1922. His pioneering photographs of the Passion Plays were used, among other things, for the postcards that were very popular at the time, for press work, for advertising purposes and for book productions.

About 60 prints of the photographs remained in the possession of Fritz Grabsdorf, the great-uncle of Gerhard Grabsdorf. Some of the prints have Traut's handwritten annotations and were apparently used to select the photographs for further use.