In a world record attempt in ringing a cowbell, fans of alpine farming in the Allgäu made a loud statement. “We set an outstanding world record with 2,357 bells. It was unbelievable,” said Bad Hindelang’s tourism director, Max Hillmeier.
The large participation shows the importance of the bells as a cultural asset in the district of Oberallgäu. “This is a great testimony to the Allgäu alpine economy and shows its importance here for our region,” said Hillmeier. “That makes up our DNA and is our region-specific identity.”
According to Hillmeier, the participants in the record attempt were mainly farmers, mountain farmers and alpine people from the region. But other residents had also borrowed clamps from farmers to support the campaign. Alps are the mountain pastures in the Allgäu. According to Hillmeier, there are 46 Alps in Bad Hindelang alone with an area of around 8000 hectares, which is 56 percent of the municipal area. In other parts of Bavaria, the pasture is called Alm.
Application for entry in the Guinness Book of Records
The bells and 20 alphorns sounded between two runs of the FIS Telemark World Cup final. Telemark is a special downhill skiing discipline. With the notarized number, the Hindelangers now want to apply for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. The model for the experiment was an action from Switzerland, where 640 cowbells rang out in Boswil in 2009. But the two are only comparable to a limited extent: Strictly speaking, the cowbells that are common in the Allgäu are not bells.
Bells are forged from sheet metal while bells are cast. Cowbells and cowbells therefore differ in shape and sound. Only on special occasions such as the cattle drive at the end of the summer season is a magnificent bell hung from the cattle in the Allgäu.
A record attempt was also made in Rinchnach in Lower Bavaria in 2009. At that time 1370 participants were counted, but this attempt was not included in the Guinness Book of Records. The action was based on the custom in the Bavarian Forest of “leaving the wolf out”, in which the participants make noise in the autumn with a kind of oversized cowbell.
