Asteroid 52334, Oberammergau, was discovered on March 30, 1992 at Tautenburg, Thuringia, Germany by Friedrich Börngen. Oberammergau has a period of 3 years, 267 days.
It was named for Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany, a town in the German Alps. To the tourist it offers skiing and cycling and has been famous for its woodcarvers for centuries, but it is probably best known for its Passion Play depicting the life of Jesus of Nazareth put on every ten years since 1634, fulfilling an oath the townspeople swore to God in 1633 during a bubonic plague outbreak. The play has a cast of literally thousands; participation in the play's production is restricted to Oberammergau natives or residents of at least ten years' standing.
A view of Oberammergau in the winter time.
Passion Plays have been accused in modern times of fostering anti-Semitism; in fact, Hitler reportedly used the Oberammergau Passion Play for propaganda purposes. I have not seen this particular Passion Play and therefore cannot give an informed opinion on it, nor do I wish to slander the people or town of Oberammergau, but the fact is, the death of Jesus is a rather tricky subject from the standpoint of Christian-Jewish relations. Mel Gibson's movie on the subject, The Passion of the Christ, generated controversy and protests from Jewish organizations and broadminded people even before it was released.
Astrologically, asteroid Oberammergau seems to indicate bigotry, persecution, narrow-mindedness, negative community standards.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who had to deal with this for much of her adult life, had Oberammergau in the tenth house of career and reputation, square the Nodes (past influences and moving beyond them, connections made and broken) and trine Pluto (transformation, power, criminal behavior).
Self-anointed decency crusader Anthony Comstock (born March 7, 1844 in New London, Connecticut) had Oberammergau square Deucalion (tough, mean, feeling compelled to "save" something and crush something else) and trine Quaoar (feeling compelled to act, to examine).
Richard Sinnott (born May 5, 1926 in Boston), who was Boston's last official censor (yes, the city of Boston once actually had an official censor), had Oberammergau sextile Heracles (to contend with) and quincunx Quaoar.
Beat novelist William Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, which he had to defend in court, had Oberammergau sextile South Node (separation), square the Sun (to shine), Venus (art, values) and Lilith (something hard to swallow, something reluctantly accepted), trine Deucalion and the North Node (connections made), and quincunx Juno (civil rights) and Huya (something missing, a public service). The publicity from the court case helped him by putting the issue in the spotlight and making Naked Lunch a best-seller.
Larry Flynt, who has repeatedly butted heads with people who want to keep porn (including his) from being sold in their community and who became paralyzed as the result of a failed assassination attempt by a Christian fanatic, has Oberammergau in the first house, on the Ascendant, square Ixion (creating karma) and Bienor (exuberance, condemnation), trine the Sun, and quincunx Pallas (politics).
Persecuted early 20th-century birth-control activist Margaret Sanger, who founded Planned Parenthood, had Oberammergau conjunct Damocles (crisis, danger, experience of groupthink, pushing the envelope), sextile Venus and Deucalion, and quincunx Nessus (unpleasantness, predation).
Ryan White (born December 6, 1971 in Kokomo, Indiana), a hemophiliac teenager who contracted AIDS through a contaminated transfusion of human clotting factor, was run out of town and greeted with demonstrations when he enrolled at a new school, had Oberammergau conjunct Cruithne (branded), square Saturn (work for little reward, school, heaviness), Neptune (immune disorders), and Varuna, trine Bienor (savage condemnation, compassion, nurturing generosity), quincunx Pelion (life is tough, having to earn admittance), and opposite Don Quixote (taking on something).
Emmett Till, a black Chicago teen who was murdered in rural Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman, had Oberammergau sextile Mars (violence) and Dioretsa (foolishness, something sticking), trine Jupiter (the law, faraway places, public support), Phaethon (out of control, a phenomenon) and Rhadamanthus ("the world will judge," "there will be a judgment"), quincunx Huya (something missing) and opposite Deucalion (mean, cruel, flooded with negativity, wiped out).
George Wallace, who fought racial desegregation as Alabama's governor in the 1960s, had Oberammergau conjunct Pelion, semisextile Uranus (raving, rejecting, changes), sextile Cruithne (heritage, culture, branded) and the South Node, and trine the North Node.
Oscar Wilde, a gay Irish Victorian writer who was jailed and ruined for having sex, had Oberammergau in the third house of writings, conjunct Mercury, square the Moon (the public, wife, home life), trine Neptune (scandal) and Cyllarus (self-esteem, ability to act), and opposite Uranus (homosexuality).
Marianne Alireza, who became very familiar with Saudi Arabia's repressive society through her marriage to a Saudi man and had to fight for custody of her two children after he divorced her without warning, had Oberammergau in the first house of personal interests and the physical body, sextile Ceres (family nurturance) and square Pelion (life is tough).
Adolf Hitler, who was very good at nurturing "negative community standards" while dictator of Germany, had Oberammergau in the fourth house, semisextile Chaos (a new order), sextile Mercury (ideas, writing, speech, the media), Chariklo (glamorization) and Hylonome (popular support, widespread outcry), square Dioretsa, trine Pelion, Elatus (eloquent expression) and the Ascendant (personal interests, personal appearance), and quincunx Asbolus (bad advice, advice given but not necessarily taken, terrible things) and Juno (civil rights, public persona).
Mel Gibson has Oberammergau in the sixth house of work and service to others, sextile Heracles, square Dioretsa and quincunx Pelion.
The glyph for Oberammergau, a Calvary cross, is mine.