The term first appeared in 1608 in a report to Duke Maximilian of Bavaria. In 1613 there is a report for the first time of forest clearing grazing on the Rukowitzberg. Until the 1950s, or later in many places, cattle, mainly young bulls, were kept during the summer months (June to September) in the highlands of the Bavarian Forest. There were sometimes legal disputes between different villages over grazing and pannage rights. The herdsmen were permanently employed by the respective village and had a right to live with their families in a local herdsman's house, which they built themselves. Some of them had a legendary reputation, especially Matthias Stormberger, hero of the novel, Mühlhiasl - Der Waldprophet by Paul Friedl, who lived in Rabenstein and was often identified as the forest prophet, Mühlhiasl. Hans Watzlik created a literary monument to another fabled forest herdsman from the Lusen area in his novel Der wilde Eisengrein.