The Erdmannshöhle is a stalactite or flowstone cave in the village Hasel between

Schopfheim Schopfheim is a town in the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Wiese, 10 km north of Rheinfelden, and 13 km east of Lörrach. The town is the birthplace of Gisela Oeri, Max Picard, and A ...

and

Wehr Wehr may refer to: * WEHR, a former radio station owned by Penn State University * Wehr, Baden-Württemberg, Germany * Wehr, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany * Wehr, a village in Selfkant, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany People with the surname * D ...

, 20 km east of

Lörrach Lörrach () is a town in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to the French and the Swiss borders. It is the capital of the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg. It is the home of a number of large employers, including the ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

.Black Forest
The Erdmannshöhle in Hasel
/ref>

Name

The word Erdmannshöhle is comparable to earth man's hole and composed of the three

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...

s Erde (earth), Mann (man) and Höhle (cave). Erdmann is also a German forename and a surname. As a forename it was often given to show the connection with the earth. In the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

sent mineralogical prospectors to the countries north of the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

to look for the raw materials which were necessary for

glassmaking Glass production involves two main methods – the float glass process that produces sheet glass, and glassblowing that produces bottles and other containers. It has been done in a variety of ways during the history of glass. Glass container ...

. These prospectors were called "Venetians" everywhere else and only in the Black Forest they were called "Stumm-Männle" (meaning "dumb little men", because they did not speak with the local people) were mostly very small, wore an ankle-long tunic with a hood like the cowl of a monk and carefully avoided contact. These mysterious migrants who worked underground, entered with an empty sack which was filled when they came out of the mountain are obviously the prototype of what the legend turned into the "little men of the earth" who were seeking or hiding treasures in the dark galleries of the mountains.

Legend

In the present case there is a legend which speaks of ''Erdmännlein'': this is the

diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...

of ''Erdmann''. Männlein can be translated as ''manikin'' or ''little man'' (dwarf). ''Erdmännlein'' - or its variant ''Erdmännchen'' - is also the German word for

meerkat MeerKAT, originally the Karoo Array Telescope, is a radio telescope consisting of 64 antennas in the Meerkat National Park, in the Northern Cape of South Africa. In 2003, South Africa submitted an expression of interest to host the Square Kilom ...

, a cute little animal that can resemble a tiny man. According to the legend the "little men of the earth" who gave their name to the Erdmannshöhle were small men which were hardworking and kind and above all helpful.Hasel
Tourism
/ref>

Description

Caves are seldom in the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

, because in the predominant

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

types, which are

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

and

buntsandstein The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphy, lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphy, allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the Subsurface (geology), subsurface ...

, its formation is rare. Very different is the situation in the mountain massif of the Dinkelberg between

High Rhine The High Rhine (german: Hochrhein) is the name used for the part of the Rhine that flows westbound from Lake Constance to Basel. The High Rhine begins at the outflow of the Rhine from the Untersee in Stein am Rhein and turns into the Upper Rhine ...

, Wiese valley and

Wehra Wehra is a river of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It passes through Todtmoos and Wehr and flows into the Rhine downstream of Bad Säckingen. See also *List of rivers of Baden-Württemberg A list of rivers of Baden-Württemberg, Germany: A * Aa ...

valley where

muschelkalk The Muschelkalk (German for "shell-bearing limestone"; french: calcaire coquillier) is a sequence of sedimentary rock strata (a lithostratigraphic unit) in the geology of central and western Europe. It has a Middle Triassic (240 to 230 million ye ...

predominates which allows the formation of holes by erosion processes. The Erdmannshöhle in Hasel is one of the oldest caves of its type in Germany. The measured total length of the cave is 2185 meters, the part of the cave open to sightseeing is 360 meters long.Hasel
Erdmannshöhle
/ref> The largest stalactite in the cave, which is mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records, has a height of more than 4 meters and is 2 meters thick at the bottom. Its estimated age is about 135000 years.

External links

Welcome to the realm of the little men of the earth! German

English video

Erdmannshoehle-Hasel-stalactite-cave on www.blackforest-tourism.com; English

Opening hours; German

Entrance fees; German

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erdmannshohle Caves of Germany Show caves in Germany Black Forest Geography of the Black Forest Landforms of Baden-Württemberg Lörrach (district) Baden