A dozen men with long wooden poles in their hands, a trunk lifting off the ground a hand's breadth at a time, commands in between that hardly a spectator understands, and an audience holding its breath. That is how a maypole goes up, as it has for generations, and usually without a crane.
When the maypole is raised
Around the first of May, in many places on the holiday itself, in some already the evening before. The raising turns into a festival with brass music, Brotzeit, the bread and cold cuts that go with it, and beer, and the whole village or the whole district comes to it. Come early and you see the work. Come late and you see the result.
The way to vertical
The old method needs no machine. With long wooden cross poles, called Scherstangen, and in Bavaria also Schwaiberl or Schwalben, the swallows, the tree travels upwards a stage at a time:
- The trunk lies on the ground, its lower end resting against the prepared ground socket or foundation.
- Several teams set the crossed poles and lift the tree a stretch.
- The height reached is secured, then shorter poles are set for the next lift.
- So the tree comes upright, stage by stage, until it sits in the foundation and is wedged fast.
That takes strength, timing and experience, and it only works together. In many places the Burschenverein, the local club of young men, the fire brigade or a maypole club of its own takes the job on. In the city, where the trees weigh several tonnes and space is short, a crane usually helps out today.
The work before the big day
Before the tree goes up it spends weeks in work. Felled, stripped, peeled, painted and decorated, often by many hands and with stubborn debates about shades of paint. In the nights beforehand it is guarded, because by old custom an unwatched tree can be stolen. The day of the raising is the high point. The substance of it happens before.
Raising in Munich
The custom is at its most visible in the city districts and at the Viktualienmarkt, where the new tree is due to go up on 9 May 2027. What is fixed for the coming season is shown on the page Munich Maypole 2027.
Sources
- muenchen.de, offizielles Stadtportal: 1. Mai in München 2027: Maifeste, Maibäume und weitere Traditionen.
- Kommunale Unfallversicherung Bayern, Unfallversicherung aktuell 2/2017: Sicheres Aufstellen des Maibaums.
- Michael Ritter, Bayerischer Landesverein für Heimatpflege, in: MUH 48 (2023): Maibaumaufstellen.
- Wikipedia: Maibaum.
Retrieved on 7 October 2026. The sources are in German. They document the facts given on this page; the bodies named remain the authority.