Winnenden Autumn Market

Autumn Highlight in the Rems-Murr District

Winnenden is a town in the Rems-Murr district with just under 30,000 inhabitants, located south of Backnang and northeast of Stuttgart. The association Attraktives Winnenden e.V. brings together local retailers and restaurateurs and coordinates the most important marketing dates for the city centre — including the annual autumn market on the second Sunday in October. The festival is a deliberately curated format: not a mass festival, but a gentle autumn Sunday that showcases the historic old town in autumnal splendour and opens the shops for the open Sunday.

Pumpkin Carving on the Market Square

The visual centre is the market square with the namesake pumpkin activity. Families and children can carve pumpkins here for free — pumpkins, tools, and instructions are provided, and the finished product can be taken home. A similarly popular activity is chocolate pouring at Ulli's Confiserie: visitors pour their own chocolate bar and take it home after a short cooling phase. Both activities have been fixed components of the festival for years and are the main draw for families.

Puppet Theatre, Flea Market, and Market Stalls

On Adlerplatz, a puppet theatre performs on Sunday afternoons — usually with classic stories like Kasper and Seppel, sometimes with thematically adapted autumn stories. On the square Santo Domingo de la Calzada (Winnenden's partner city square), a flea and bric-a-brac market takes place — private individuals sell, hobby dealers present their finds. Along Marktstraße and around the town church, there are market stalls with dried flowers, autumnal decorations, jewellery, handmade candles, and pottery.

Open Sunday and Culinary Offerings

Winnenden's shops are open on the Autumn Market Sunday from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM — boutiques, bookshops, shoe shops, opticians, and specialty shops present their autumn and winter collections. The gastronomy takes advantage of the warm October sun (weather permitting) for outdoor seating: regional inns serve onion cake with Federweißer, Maultaschen, lentils, game dishes, and of course, pumpkin soup — the culinary seasonal homage to the market's focal theme.