Viehscheid / Almabtrieb

You may have heard the expres­sion “till the cows come home.” In Alpine towns, that is a lit­er­al moment that peo­ple cel­e­brate! The Alpine cat­tle drives—known as Viehscheid or Almab­trieb locally—mark the cows’ return from high moun­tain pas­tures at the end of sum­mer. These events are a col­or­ful, joy­ful way to cel­e­brate the begin­ning of autumn.

A Mountain Tradition

Each spring, herds of cows are dri­ven up to alpine mead­ows, where they graze on wild herbs and lush grass­es all sum­mer. The moun­tain­ous ter­rain keeps them active, which is believed to boost both their vital­i­ty and (for dairy cows) the qual­i­ty of their milk. Come Sep­tem­ber, the cows return to the valleys—and that’s when the fes­tiv­i­ties begin.

What Is a Viehscheid?

The tra­di­tion mark­ing the cows’ return is known by many names: Almab­trieb or Alpa­b­fahrt in Ale­man­nic dialects, Alpa­bzug in Switzer­land, and Viehscheid in Bavaria’s All­gäu region. “Viehscheid” lit­er­al­ly means “cat­tle sep­a­ra­tion,” refer­ring to the prac­tice of divid­ing the large com­mu­nal herd as each cow is returned to its right­ful owner.

The Celebration

Ear­ly on the morn­ing of the event, the cows are dec­o­rat­ed with bells, flow­ers or flo­ral head­dress­es, and col­or­ful rib­bons. Farm­ers and herders wear tra­di­tion­al cloth­ing (sim­i­lar to what you might see at Volks­fest or Okto­ber­fest), and the pro­ces­sion is accom­pa­nied by music and cheer­ing crowds. After­wards, towns often host a live­ly cel­e­bra­tion in the mar­ket square, fea­tur­ing local food ven­dors, region­al crafts, beer tents, and performances.

Where to Take Part

There are many Viehscheid events with­in a few hours of Stuttgart—some even acces­si­ble by train. One of the most pop­u­lar is in Ober­st­dorf, about 2.5 hours away by car. For up-to-date infor­ma­tion on dates and loca­tions, check out Allgäu-Viehscheid.de.

Tip: Many vil­lages may only con­firm the dates of their Viehscheid a few weeks ahead of time. In addi­tion, a Viehscheid may be can­celled or scaled back if any cows are seri­ous­ly injured or lost dur­ing the sum­mer. In such cas­es, the pro­ces­sion still occurs, but with­out the fes­tive and dec­o­ra­tive aspects. It’s wise to con­firm event details on local news sites short­ly before you go.