"My head towers high in the middle of the village
in praise and honor of the old custom.
My dress is red and blue
and bears the symbols of our craftsmen".
that's what it says on the sign at the bottom of the maypole.
The history of the maypole goes hand in hand with the founding of the "Beelzebuben" from a club of ten young men from Scharel in 1975. On April 31, 1975, the first decorated maypole, at that time still a birch tree, was put up in front of the Beelzebuben meeting point at the Schulte am installed station.
From the idea of creating a longer-lasting tree, it was agreed that it should be a distinctive and special maypole beyond the borders of Scharrel. In June '78, two of the group went on vacation with their girlfriends at Ammersee in Bavaria and inspected and photographed every maypole in the area.
In 1979 the time had come for the first maypole, a wooden mast 9 m long in the colors blue and yellow, decorated with two female figures in Saterland costumes and a tied wreath at the top, towered into the Scharrel sky.
Until 1983, the maypole was expanded with various motifs.
In 2000, the weather-worn wooden mast was replaced by an 18 m high steel mast and was now given the red and blue colors of the Oldenburg region.
For the 30th anniversary of the Beelzebuben in 2005, the maypole was given its current appearance and was extended to a height of 25.5 metres.
Craftsmen's symbols, club coats of arms, coats of arms of the surrounding communities, historic buildings and various motifs as well as the wreath at the top and a weathercock adorn the maypole.
Every year on the last weekend in April the maypole is safely erected and at the beginning of October it is dismantled with the help of the Scharrel volunteer fire brigade. This special spectacle is followed by many onlookers.