KÜHBACH, Germany (AP) — As the brass band played Bavarian tunes and the villagers drank their beer, watched and cheered, the young men of Kühbach in southern Germany pushed up their new maypole with long wooden rods until it stood perfectly straight against the sky.
In addition to the locals, people from all over Bavaria and beyond flocked to the small village of about 4,500 residents on Friday to watch the Maypole being erected — a custom that has been observed for centuries and is deeply rooted in Bavarian folklore.
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Young men guard a maypole in Kuehbach, Germany, Thursday, April 30, 2026, one night before they erected the pole. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Young men wear leather trousers as they erect a traditional May pole in Kuehbach, Germany, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
A young man drinks beer as he erects a traditional May pole in Kuehbach, Germany, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Young children sit on a May pole before it is erected in Kuehbach, Germany, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Young men wear leather trousers as they erect a traditional May pole in Kuehbach, Germany, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
“The Maypole is a symbol of togetherness,” said Mayor Karl-Heinz Kerscher, pointing at the youngsters pushing up the pole. "All these young guys, when they give it their all, when they show their strength, that’s just proof that we’re powerful, that Bavaria means something, and that here in Kühbach it’s twice as beautiful.”
May 1 is a public holiday observed all over Germany, but putting up maypoles in the center of the village is a beloved tradition celebrated primarily in Bavaria, Austria, and other parts of southern Germany as a symbol of not only community but also the beginning of spring and fertility.
In Kühbach, a lot of care and time is devoted to this custom every three years, when a new pole is raised.
Last winter, the Kühbacher Burschen, a village club with 240 members, chose a stately spruce in a nearby forest, cut it down, cut off all branches and the bark, let it dry, and painted it three times over in white and blue — the state colors of Bavaria.
On the sides of the tree, they attached metal signs with the guild emblems of the village, and — most important — they then guarded their precious maypole, which had been put up for storage in a former sawmill for weeks around the clock so that nobody would steal it.
Stealing each other's new maypoles is another beloved tradition in Bavaria. And if the theft is successful, the village that was robbed needs to buy back its maypole, and that gets very expensive: up to 200 liters (422 pints) of beer and a whole barbecued pig with potato dumplings and brown gravy — something that can easily fetch up to 3,000 euros ($3,325).
By Friday, however, no maypole had been stolen from Kühbach, and early in the morning the mostly young men and women, all dressed in their best lederhosen and light-blue dirndl dresses, came to the sawmill to triumphantly take it to the center of their village.
“Our motto is, ‘preserve traditions, shape the future’ — that really sums it up pretty well,” said Florian Oberhauser, 26, the head of the Kühbacher Burschen, or Kühbach Boys.
The 28-meter (92-foot) tall maypole was lifted horizontally on wooden carts and pulled into the village by two sturdy horses from the local beer brewery.
Once the procession — with children sitting on top of the pole in a long row — arrived at the market square, the Catholic priest, who had just finished his Mayday Mass, blessed the tree and the young men with holy water. Everyone drew closer together to pray and the actual work began.
Equipped with long wooden poles, the youngsters paired up on both sides of the pole and cheered each other with shouts of “Hau-Ruck,” as they slowly put up the Maybaum, as it is called in German.
When the maypole stood straight against the blue sky, the marching band played an extra fanfare, people poured into the huge festival tent, sat down on the benches, had pork roast and sausages for lunch — and some more beer.
Simone Nodlbichler, 41, who played the clarinet all morning as her band accompanied the Maypole procession through the village, past the church and to the market square of Kühbach, beamed as she put away her instrument.
“This tradition is being passed down from generation to generation," she said as her two teenage daughters looked on. “As you can see, both young and old are involved.”
“I think there’s a wonderful sense of community here, and it’s still very much alive," she added.
Young men guard a maypole in Kuehbach, Germany, Thursday, April 30, 2026, one night before they erected the pole. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Young men wear leather trousers as they erect a traditional May pole in Kuehbach, Germany, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
A young man drinks beer as he erects a traditional May pole in Kuehbach, Germany, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Young children sit on a May pole before it is erected in Kuehbach, Germany, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Young men wear leather trousers as they erect a traditional May pole in Kuehbach, Germany, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The folksy wisdom and jokes that were a staple of the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting for decades when Warren Buffett was leading the show will be missing Saturday, but shareholders still started lining up at midnight outside a Nebraska arena to listen to new CEO Greg Abel.
Attendance is down significantly this year with the arena only a little over half full as the meeting started. That’s much different from the past few years when more than 40,000 attended to listen to the 95-year-old Buffett and — before his death in 2023, Buffett’s longtime partner Charlie Munger was always part of the fun. Buffett gave up the CEO title in January, but he remains chairman and will be sitting with the rest of the Berkshire board on the floor to listen at the meeting.
Saturday’s meeting began with a video tribute to Buffett filled with clips from the previous 60 years of annual meetings. The first clip showed the standing ovation Buffett received last year after he surprised shareholders by announcing that he would step down.
Abel then announced the symbolic move of retiring jerseys with Buffett’s and Munger’s names on them that will hang in the rafters of the arena.
Buffett took the microphone briefly to praise Abel and recognize Apple CEO Tim Cook, who attended the meeting. Buffett said Abel has done a tremendous job so far, and Cook helped Berkshire's initial $35 billion investment in Apple grow to be worth $185 billion today. Cook even got a longer round of applause than Buffett did when he was introduced.
“Greg is doing everything I did and then some,” Buffett said, so his decision to step down has worked out great so far.
Abel has been on stage next to the legendary investor at the annual meetings for several years, but this year is his first time running the show. Investors expect the conversation to focus more on how the dozens of companies Berkshire owns are doing. The conglomerate owns major insurers like Geico, several major utilities like Pacificorp, BNSF railroad and an assortment of manufacturers, retail and service businesses.
Signs of the transition are peppered throughout the 200,000-square-foot exhibit hall where shareholders buy products from Berkshire companies. A caricature of Abel playing his favorite sport of hockey is front and center on commemorative boxes of See’s Candy with Buffett and Mrs. See in the background in hockey gear. At the Pilot Travel Center booth pictures of Abel and Buffett are plastered on the windshield of a semitrailer truck, but Abel is in the driver’s seat. And this year Jazwares created a Squishmallow version of Abel to go with the latest versions of Buffett and his longtime partner Charlie Munger as stuffed dolls that shareholders lined up to buy.
“Sadly we miss Warren and Charlie and that show which was fun, but it’s a business meeting for a lot of us and hearing what the businesses are doing is what it’s all about,” investor Chris Bloomstran, who is president of Semper Augustus Investments Group said.
But also many people travel to Omaha primarily to meet up with like-minded value investors, who practice the approach that Buffett employed, and attend some of the investment conferences and meetings that are scheduled around Berkshire’s shareholder meeting.
“That’s why I’m really here, really here is to network with other people,” said Bob Robotti, who runs his own investment company. He doesn’t expect surprises from Abel and the other Berkshire executives at the meeting. “They shouldn’t say anything that would be shocking and surprising because they’re consistent with what they do.”
Many investors are watching closely for any changes Abel might make, but there’s not a lot of reason expect anything big. After all, Abel has been with Berkshire for more than 25 years, and he had already been managing all of the conglomerate’s noninsurance businesses for nearly eight years by the time he was promoted.
Abel did make a few administrative changes to establish a team to help support him, but he has promised to maintain Berkshire’s culture that allows the CEOs of all of its businesses to largely run their day-to-day operations while consulting with headquarters on any major investments and sending any extra cash to Omaha.
The CEOs of Dairy Queen, See’s Candy, Jazwares and Brooks Running all said very little has changed since Abel was promoted other than they now report to NetJets CEO Adam Johnson who is overseeing 32 retail and service businesses.
“I think this is a very deeply rooted culture that Warren has created, and I believe the transition to Greg is going to be rooted in those values that Warren has for 60 years instituted and will continue,” Brooks CEO Dan Sheridan said.
For years Buffett always said he was having too much fun running Berkshire to ever retire, but once the shock of his announcement in the final minutes of last years meeting wore off the company’s executives quickly agreed this plan for the transition was better so Buffett can still be around to advise Abel.
“Berkshire is as strong today as it’s ever been and Warren is still part of it,” DQ CEO Troy Bader said as his staff sold Dilly Bars to shareholders. “Warren is still present. So that’s the greatest combination right now, to be able to have that transition in leadership where Greg and Warren can still work together.”
Abel is known to be a more demanding and hands-on boss than Buffett ever was, but he does that by challenging Berkshire’s CEOs to strengthen their competitive advantages while taking care of their customers. Abel asks tough questions and offers advice that his CEOs appreciate, but he doesn’t tell them exactly what to do.
And with Buffett remaining Berkshire’s chairman and its largest shareholder it’s unlikely that Abel will make any drastic changes. So shareholders shouldn’t expect Berkshire to start paying a dividend or that Abel will suddenly split the company up. Instead, Abel will continue building on the foundation Buffett established over 60 years.
Robotti said the performance of Berkshire’s businesses should be much more important to shareholders than the entertainment value of the annual meetings.
“My hope and expectation are they’re picking people who have competency in running a business and not necessarily public speakers and presenters,” Robotti said.
Berkshire said Saturday morning that its profits more than doubled in the first-quarter to $10.1 billion, or $7,027 per Class A share, as the value of its investments grew and most of its businesses improved.
The paper value of Berkshire’s investments always has a major impact on its bottom line, and it did record a $5.8 billion gain on the stocks it did sell. The value of the portfolio did slip to just over $288 billion.
Berkshire’s massive cash pile continues to grow, and it hit $397.4 billion at the end of the first quarter.
Most of Berkshire’s varied businesses reported better operating earnings this year. The insurance unit that includes Geico and a number of other companies reported an underwriting profit of $1.7 billion, up from $1.34 billion last year. Profits also grew somewhat at BNSF railroad and Berkshire’s utility and manufacturing companies.
Portraits of Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett, left, and CEO Greg Abel sit in a semi truck at the Pilot display in the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 2, 2026, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Shareholders arrive inside the CHI Health Center Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 2, 2026, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Shareholders enter the CHI Health Center Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 2, 2026, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Shareholder Anna Larsen, 16, left, of Underwood, Iowa, poses for photo with her friend Ainsley Roberts, 17, in the Hello Kitty portion of the Squishmallows display in the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 2, 2026, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Shareholder Alex Vacca of Milwaukee poses for a photo in a foam hat in the Justin display od the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 2, 2026, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Author and former Omaha World-Herald reporter Steve Jordan signs copies of his book at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders event on Friday, May 1, 2026 in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)
A Berkshire Hathaway shareholder takes a selfie in front of a Pilot truck stops semi truck with pictures of Berkshire's top two executives behind the wheel: new CEO Greg Abel and Chairman Warren Buffett on Friday, May 1, 2026 in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)
Berkshire Hathaway shareholders stand in line to purchase Squishmallows versions of the company's top executives: CEO Greg Abel, Chairman Warren Buffett and former Vice Chairman Charlie Munger on Friday, May 1, 2026 in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)
Berkshire Hathaway shareholders line up to buy products at the Pampered Chef booth behind a cutout of longtime CEO Warren Buffett who stepped down in January on Friday, May 1, 2026 in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)
Shareholders line up to take pictures with depictions of Berkshire Hathaway's new CEO Greg Abel and Chairman Warren Buffett on Friday, May 1, 2026 in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)
