After a week of preparation and a 15-month corona delay, the Erlinger boys and girls set up a new maypole on Saturday.
Andechs' Mayor Georg Scheitz is particularly pleased about the solidarity in the monastery village.
Erling
- Georg Scheitz will not have been any different from many other Erlingers. Since the end of 2019 there was a painful gap in the center of the village that he didn't like at all when he passed it almost every day. The old maypole had been dismantled at the time, and since then only the blue, steel girders protruded from the ground in front of the old forge and in the shadow of the parish church of St. Vitus. Now this gap has finally been closed, "our village is complete again," says the Andechs mayor. In a well-prepared campaign, the Erling-Andechs boys and girls association set up the new maypole on Saturday - with a 15-month corona-related delay.
"All of this was planned for May 2020," says Scheitz in an interview with Starnberger Merkur. The 35 meter high spruce had already been felled in good time and has been in the forest ever since. Scheitz said the club around senior boy Felix Frey came to him recently and asked if something was now possible. He gave the green light - in compliance with the corona and hygiene rules. What happened next made the mayor proudly look at the girls and boys. “Hats off,” he says.
Because within ten days they brought the tree to the village, shaved the bark, sanded the wood, painted it - and kept a maypole watch, which was probably a pretty good idea. "Scouts from other places have been spotted," says Scheitz. Around 40 to 50 young people would have helped, but never all at the same time. “That was really well organized.” Finally, the girls also painted the blue steel supports.
They finally took him to the center of the village on Saturday morning. Instead of setting up the Trumm traditionally with bars, muscle power and lots of people, this time an excavator and a crane came to the rescue - also a concession to the pandemic. After an hour everything was done. The youth brass band played the Bavarian anthem, Father Lukas Essendorfer, the chaplain of St. Vitus, gave the blessing. And the guild signs, which were renewed around ten years ago, shine in new splendor. Erwin Wolf had only repainted it last year with a view to May 1, 2020. “The cohesion is great,” says Scheitz happily. "And the maypole is the most beautiful we've ever had."
There remains only one question: does the tree with its 35 meters scratch the height of the church tower of St. Vitus? Scheitz gives its height as "around 32 to 34 meters". But the maypole is of course a little lower.