The Untraditional German May Day or Labor Day (May 1st) is taking place outside my apartment window, I have a front row seat.  Here is where the tree will be raised.  It is tradition to steal these trees and make the town beg for forgiveness involving some embarrassing offerings or near impossible feats.  My very good friend had his stolen from their town in Erbendorf a few days ago, they have to bake a cake the full length of the tree, something like 33 meters long to get it back.  Another town had theirs stolen and they have to provide 1000 liters of beer to the town that stole it.  It is nearly a mission impossible to steal one of these trees but there have been several this year reported.

I had to go down to the street for the pictures as the sun was setting in the background.  I say untraditional German May pole as this May pole is being raised by a crane.  Of 21 years in Germany, I have never seen one raised by a crane, they are typically raised by hand, wo/man power and ropes.  Note the crane in the background and that awesome blue sky that we have been suffering for weeks.  We really need rain.  I also noted the dirt patch in front of the tree here I was standing in, this is the town square where business took place for hundreds if not thousands of years.  There is a prominent Celtic grave site just 200 meters from here.

May pole going up.

May pole raised and ready to be secured with wedges at the base.

Nice picture of the May pole and church in a silhouette view.

A nice aluminum pin commemorating German Labor Day 1 May 1936 under Hitler.  I found this last year, have not cleaned it other than brushing with water.

Reverse of the pin.  HH and I'm headed down to the party, they will be partying outside my bedroom window all night so I might as well join them, LOL!  Mike