A theater for the whole of life: this applies to few others as it does to Christian Stückl from Oberammergau.
Oberammergau - Andreas Rödl speaks plainly: “Christian has already received so many awards and prizes from the highest authorities.
Now is the time for the congregation to honor this extraordinary commitment.
It's overdue. ”For the mayor of Oberammergau there is no question that the director of the Passion Play deserves this.
To do this, the municipality uses the most important instrument available to it: Christian Stückl is to become a new honorary citizen of his home village on the initiative of the municipality head.
The municipal council will decide on this in its public meeting on Tuesday, November 17th at 7 p.m. in the Ammergau house.
In fact, hardly a year has passed in the recent past in which the passionate theater man has not received an honor.
This year he received the Abraham Geiger Prize for the renewal of the Passion Play, "away from Christian hatred of Jews towards a balanced representation of internal Jewish conflicts".
In May, the renowned Evangelical Academy in Tutzing awarded Oberammergauer (who will be 59 on Sunday) the tolerance prize in the category of moral courage for his many years of commitment to anti-Semitism;
he also received the Buber Rosenzweig Medal.
Youngest director of the Passion Play in history
The son of the innkeeper couple Roswitha and Peter Stückl (house name “Sodla”) has dedicated himself to the theater for almost 40 years and has enjoyed an unprecedented career as a director during this time.
It all began in 1981 with the establishment of our own theater group in Oberammergau.
Above all, of course, is “the” Passion: in 2022 he will stage the world-famous Vow Game for the fourth time - for the first time in 1990 as the youngest director ever at the age of 28.
He led all four games to great economic success.
Again and again, Stückl managed to discover and promote talented and aspiring actors.
He was born with another ability - namely to inspire the masses.
He became internationally known in 2006 when he staged a brilliant opening ceremony at the soccer world championship in Munich.
Another cornerstone of his career for Stückl is the Münchner Volkstheater: in 2002 he was appointed as artistic director and quickly led the house from a depressed stage to a hip theater that is particularly popular with young audiences.
The 58-year-old hit the bull's eye in 2005 with the new production of Brandner Kaspar, who has long enjoyed cult status.
The Volkstheater has become a success story under Stückl's direction.
The new building in the Schlachthofviertel will open in 2021 and will be one of the most modern theater buildings in Europe.
In addition to his work in Oberammergau and Munich, the director staged on major stages, at the Salzburg Festival, at the Schauspielhaus Zürich, the Hamburg State Opera and at the Vienna Burgtheater, to name but a few.
The Oberammergau theater summer would also be unthinkable without him.
Mayor Andreas Rödl said: “He never got a cent for it.” If the municipal council decides to grant honorary citizenship on Tuesday, the municipality will wait a little longer with the official ceremony.
Mayor Rödl: “That would not be the right setting at the moment.
We want to do it next year, and then go ahead. "