An old tradition finds new life as Germans flock to forests to collect
mushrooms
[October 11, 2025] By
KIRSTEN GRIESHABER
POTSDAM, Germany (AP) — Wolfgang Bivour carefully emptied a basket of
freshly collected mushrooms onto a forest floor covered with fallen
autumn leaves. Brown-capped porcini and bay boletes lay beside slimy
purple brittlegills and honey-colored armillaria — and, among them, the
lethal green death caps.
Bivour, one of Germany's most famous fungi connoisseurs, described the
different species just collected in an oak and beech forest on the
outskirts of Potsdam in eastern Germany. Surrounding him were 20 people
who listened attentively, among them university students, retirees and a
Chinese couple with their 5-year-old daughter.
Across Germany, the traditional forest art of mushroom hunting is
enjoying a revival, fed by the coronavirus pandemic restrictions, which
pushed people from cramped apartments into forests, and by the growing
popularity of the vegan lifestyle. A growing interest in the use of
medicinal fungi is also playing a role.
While people in rural areas have gone mushroom picking for ages, city
dwellers are now also discovering its joys.
Mushroom hunting was necessity for many in Germany in the difficult
years after World War II, when people scoured forests for anything
edible. But when West Germany's economy started booming in the 1950s,
and economic conditions also improved in East Germany, many turned away
from the practice.
In recent years, images of mushrooms have gone viral on social media,
and a hobby once considered uncool has become a chic lifestyle pastime.
Guided tours on mushroom hunting are hugely popular
Bivour, a 75-year-old retired meteorologist, said the tour he led on a
recent, drizzly autumn day wasn't “primarily about filling your basket —
although it’s always nice to find something for the dinner table.”
Instead, he said, it was “about teaching people about the importance of
mushrooms in the ecosystem and, of course, about biodiversity.”
Bivour is sometimes sought out by hospitals when they have cases of
suspected mushroom poisonings.
He has also been giving mushroom tours in the Potsdam region southwest
of Berlin for more than five decades.
When the members of his group showed him mushrooms, he identified them
with their German and sometimes their Latin names. He spoke about their
healing powers or toxicity, gave suggestions on how to prepare some of
them, offered historical anecdotes. He invited them to smell and taste
the ones that were not poisonous.
Karin Flegel, the managing director of Urania, a Potsdam institution
that organizes Bivour's tours, said his classes are filling up
instantly.
“We’ve noticed a huge increase in interest in mushrooms,” she said.
Bivour said he, too, had noticed the surge of interest in his longtime
hobby. He began sharing his best finds on Instagram and Facebook, has
written books on the subject, and even hosts a popular podcast, the Pilz-Podcast,
using the German word Pilz for mushroom.
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Wolfgang Bivour 75, a mushroom hunting tour leader, instructs
mushroom pickers on how to hunt mushrooms in a forest in Potsdam,
Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
 Fears of poisonous mushrooms
Many people are embracing their new passion with caution, afraid of
accidentally picking and eating poisonous mushrooms.
While the poisonous red-capped, white-dotted fly agaric can be
easily identified, the very toxic green death cap is sometimes
confused with the common button mushroom, or champignon, which is
the most widely sold mushroom in stores across the country.
Each year, several people die after eating death caps, often
immigrants from the Middle East who are not familiar with the local
mushroom varieties.
Tim Köster, a 25-year-old university student from Berlin who joined
the excursion with his girlfriend, said he had never foraged for
mushrooms as a child, and is often satisfied with the white button
mushrooms in the stores. But he also wants to be able to find and
prepare his own porcini mushrooms — considered the most popular
delicacy among Germany’s more than 14,000 different kinds of
mushrooms.
While porcini are often served in risotto or pasta in Italian
cuisine, in Germany porcini, as well as bay boletes, are often fried
in butter and eaten on toasted sourdough bread with salt and pepper.
As Köster stood amid an abundance of yellow and red fall foliage,
he said that the tour was a good start. But asked if he was ready to
start collecting mushrooms on his own, he said: “I don’t dare yet.”
Instead, he said he considers picking mushrooms and taking them to
an expert to verify that they are edible. Experts often offer their
knowledge on fall weekends at markets or community colleges where
people can bring their bounty and make sure they haven't
accidentally pick poisonous pieces.
Margit Reimann, a 42-year-old who participated in the tour with her
mother, said she was surprised to learn how many edible mushroom
varieties there are.
But despite her newly acquired knowledge, she plans to stick to the
familiar ones — porcini, butter mushrooms, slippery jacks and bay
boletes — when going out to the woods with her kids. During the
excursion she learned that colors and grain patterns can't always be
clearly determined.
“I think that if enjoyed in moderation, many of them would be a
culinary experience, but I still don’t trust myself," she said.
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