In the Bavarian Forest National Park a brief, but intense storm event on 1 August 1983 created large windfall areas. The windfall ecosystems within the protection zone of the park were left develop without interference; outside this zone windfall areas were cleared of dead wood but not afforested. A set of permanent plots (transect design with 10 x 10 m plots) was established in 1988 - and resampled in 1993 and 1998 - in spruce forests of wet and cool valley bottoms as well as in mixed mountain forest of slopes in order to document vegetation development. - On cleared areas an initial raspberry (Rubus idaeus) shrub community was followed by pioneer birch (Betula pubescens, Betula pendula) woodland, a sequence well-known from managed forest stands. In contrast to this, these two stages were restricted to root plates of fallen trees in uncleared windfalls; here shadetolerant tree species of the terminal forest stages established rather quickly from saplings that had already been present in the preceeding forest stand. - Soil surface disturbances are discussed as causal to the "management pathway" of forest development, whereas the "untouched pathway" by relatively low disturbance levels. Browsing by game (red deer, roe deer) acts as an additional differentiating agent: Rubus stands provide excellent food and shelter, so that tree regeneration within them is particularly affected by browsing, while fallen trees restrict access of browsers.
