“The whole village laughs at it”: no solution in the dispute over bird droppings in bavaria

The maypole of an allgau municipality leads to excessive bird droppings on the neighboring property? Because of a lawsuit filed by a resident against the municipality of altusried in bavaria, the kempten district court has been dealing with this question for months. But the proceedings have stalled: the court has so far been unable to find an expert to investigate the case in altusried.

Actually, a research institute had already named an expert for the investigation to the kempten district court months ago, a court spokesman said. In the end, however, the latter had stated that "as a matter of principle, he does not issue expert opinions". In response, the court asked again in mid-september to propose an expert – but until friday without a response from the research institute, said the court spokesman.

Maypole dispute: "the whole village laughs at it

A good negotiation in the dispute over the altusried maypole failed in the spring, according to the court. According to the will of the community, the maypole, which is about 27 meters high, is to be moved to the redesigned market square in the coming years anyway. The prospect of this, however, had not been able to deter the resident of the current site from filing a complaint.

The then chairman of the altusrieder trachtenverein, franz merk, had stressed in the spring that the maypole could hardly be the source of the bird droppings: "someone has to show me that a bird like that can fly eight or ten meters across." The fact that the dispute is still going on is a "shambles," he said on friday: "the whole village laughs about it."

According to its own information, the traditional costume association has moved the maypole for this year as in previous years. According to the kempten district court, an on-site investigation will probably not be possible until next may at the earliest, when the maypole is up again – and an expert can be found by then.