In Miesbach, for example, they are pretty sure of their maypole this year. In any case, maypole thieves from surrounding villages should not have an easy time with the pile that the Miesbachers are storing, preparing and guarding practically in the middle of their town. But above all, in Miesbach, too, they are relying on the fact that this year there will definitely be something again with the maypole erecting. The federal government has already overridden most of the Corona requirements, the Free State has only extended them until April 2nd, and the Prime Minister was at least the guest of honor at the opening of the spring folk festival in Würzburg at the weekend. With the erection of the maypole and the associated celebrations in Miesbach and everywhere else in Bavaria, not too much should go wrong this year.
The people of Miesbach in particular didn’t have to do without their maypole for too long anyway. They had put a new tree on the listed market square in 2019, a year before the corona pandemic. It was easy to get over the fact that this tree had to be taken down prematurely last autumn because of fungal infestation, because there was supposed to be a new one in the city this year anyway. Elsewhere, communities, lads’ clubs and people wearing traditional costumes have lost their rhythm more clearly as a result of the pandemic.
Anyone who would have been there in one of the past two years in a cycle that was mostly carefully coordinated by the village and community often had to make do with the old one, forego a maypole altogether, or instead later in a small circle with a distance rule and mask requirement, but without big celebrations, a tree put up. In Finning in the district of Landsberg, for example, there has been an “August tree” since 2020, which was erected after the Corona lockdown at the time. In return, the tree in Neubiberg was there on time on May 1st – several times an hour. Unknown persons had wrapped a railway barrier in white and blue fabric and decorated it with the local coat of arms. In Sonthofen in the Allgäu, on the other hand, nothing worked at all last year because the traditional place of the maypole on the market square was occupied by the Corona test center. This year it should be that time again in Sonthofen, while Bayrischzell will remain treeless until 2023. In Tegernsee, too, the fire brigade, which is otherwise deployed there, prefers to build their new fire station this year.
The Mayor of Altusried, Joachim Konrad, is particularly looking forward to this year’s May Festival. But that doesn’t just have to do with the fact that another festival is coming up. Konrad is happy because “finally, finally”, as he puts it, the local maypole dispute has been settled, which caused laughter far beyond the borders of the Allgäu. A local resident complained and eventually filed a lawsuit because he was bothered by bird droppings on his property. The droppings, the local resident said, come from starlings, which like to settle on the maypole at the end of summer. However, the Altusrieder Trachtenverein speculated that the starlings would have to “shit ten meters across” because the maypole is quite far away from the property. There was even a debate as to whether an ornithologist should clarify this question as an expert – but now there is an out-of-court settlement.
A conciliation negotiation last year had failed. Apparently, the start of construction of the new town center has now changed the mood of the quarrelsome residents. A new town hall is being built, as well as a new market square, and by 2025 at the latest the maypole will move from its previous location to the new site. “It has probably opened his eyes now that there is really construction going on there and that the move of the maypole is safe,” says Mayor Konrad. The compromise stipulates that the maypole can remain in its old place for a few years, so the traditional costume association removes the umbel, i.e. the tip of the maypole with the branches, by the end of August at the latest so that the birds no longer gather there – and with that can no longer defecate down. Konrad is relieved: “I’m glad it’s over now, we really have more important things to do.”