"Is It I?"

Some time this month, the man who played Christ will be tried by a denazification court. But whether or not he is cleared, the little Bavarian town of Oberammergau (pop. 3,944) will probably need a new Jesus. By 1950, greying Alois Lang will be 59 and too old for his Passion Play ordeal of carrying a 100-lb. cross and hanging from it in make-believe crucifixion for 22 muscle-tearing minutes.

Though its next curtain call is still three years off, Oberammergau is already wondering who will step into the cast to fill the many gaps left by Hitler, war, hard times and old age. St. Peter, St. John and St. Joseph are all due to come before the denazifying Spruchkammer at Garmisch-Partenkirchen within the next few weeks. Bearded, cherubic Hubert (St. Peter) Mayr, who runs the village creamery, joined the party in 1937, and now says: "Why not? It cost me one mark, 50 pfennig--which I could afford. If I didn't join, they'd have said a non-Nazi doesn't deserve to have that nice creamery, and it would have cost me plenty."

The 300-year-old play may need a new director. Ex-Director Georg Lang, 6 ft. 5 in., whose enormous hands produce some of the world's finest woodcarving, became a Nazi in 1934. Later, when the village's propaganda chief went to war, Georg made himself useful designing Nazi posters and building backdrops for visits of party bigwigs.

Both the Virgin and Mary Magdalene will undoubtedly have to be replaced. Tradition demands that these two important roles be played by unmarried women under 35. Having played the Virgin twice, Anni Rutz (who once studied at Florida's Rollins College) is now a spinsterly 37; Clara (Mary Magdalene) Mayr has taken a husband.

Two Ways. The biggest casting problem of all is the Christus role. Current favorite is young ex-Luftwaffe Pilot Hans Lang, cousin of Alois and his understudy in the last play in 1934. But many villagers are arguing that Hans's chestful of medals and his smoking, drinking and going with girls disqualify him. They doubt also that he would have the flexibility of recent Christs. Anton Lang, who played the Christus in 1900, 1910 and 1922, was a sad, merciful Saviour. Alois Lang played the role as King of the Jews--a firm, determined ruler. "The Bible says Christ is both," one villager explained, "and so Christ has to make up his mind which he wants to be. The problem is that not one of our young men has made up his mind that he wants to be Christ."

One 1934 veteran who will almost certainly play his role again is tangle-haired Hans Zwink--Oberammergau's twinkling-eyed Judas. He is also Oberammergau's most unpopular man. Villagers resent Zwink's sense of humor and his philosophical detachment, gossip that he is touched in the head. But his most objectionable symptom seems to be his longtime anti-Naziism. When Hitler took over Germany in 1934 Zwink retired from village life and kept to his house, painting bad portraits and canvases of church interiors. A calendar portrait of Franklin Roosevelt hung on his wall throughout the war. He defines himself as an anti-Nazi "with a clean conscience." When someone made a joke about the paradox of his anti-Naziism and his Judas role, he said: "I find it pretty funny myself. One would expect at least the same [anti-Naziism] from Jesus Christ--but if it's not there, it's not there."

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