The Meistertrunk festival takes over Rothenburg ob der Tauber from the Friday to the Monday of Whitsun (Pentecost) weekend. In 2026 it ran from 22 to 25 May; Pentecost 2027 falls on 16 May, so the next festival is expected on 14–17 May 2027. The centrepiece is the historical play ‘Der Meistertrunk’, written in 1881 and performed several times over the weekend by local amateur actors in the Kaisersaal of the town hall. It dramatises October 1631, when the Catholic League army under Tilly took the Protestant town during the Thirty Years’ War and, according to legend, agreed to spare it if a councillor could drain a huge ceremonial tankard in one go.
Outside the theatre the whole town joins in. On the Sunday afternoon a procession of more than 800 costumed participants with horses and wagons moves through the old town, an encampment of 17th-century soldiers and camp followers is set up outside the walls, the Rothenburg shepherds’ dance (Schäfertanz) is performed on the market square, and a historic crafts market with musicians and jugglers fills the streets. The festival is listed in the Bavarian register of intangible cultural heritage and, since 2016, in Germany’s national inventory.
Access to the old town during the festival days requires a festival badge (Festzeichen) sold at the gates, and the play is ticketed separately through the organisers’ website; performances sell out well ahead of Whitsun. The play is also staged outside the main festival: in 2026 there are performances on 5 September (15:30 and 18:00) during the Imperial City Festival Days (Reichsstadt-Festtage, 4–6 September), preceded by a free ‘long night of the Meistertrunk’ at the town hall on 4 September, and again on 3 October (15:30 and 18:00).
Rothenburg is reached by regional train via Steinach (the station is a ten-minute walk from the walls) and is on the Romantic Road bus route. Accommodation inside the walls is booked months ahead for Whitsun.
