Charlottenhöhle

About

Charlotte Cave is a dripstone cave near Hürben, a district of Giengen, in the Swabian Jura in Baden-Württemberg. The cave is 587 meters long with side passages, lies 487.5 meters above sea level and is probably two and a half to three million years old. The Hundsloch, the entrance to the cave, was already recorded in a forest map in 1591. The population threw cadavers of domestic animals into this hole. The first excavation was made by head forester Hermann Emil Sihler in the spring of 1893 with a rope ladder. During further explorations and excavations, the cave was uncovered, opened to the public and equipped with electric lighting. The ceremonial opening took place on 17 September 1893. On 23 September Queen Charlotte of Schaumburg-Lippe visited the show cave named after her. This is used for tourism as a show cave over a length of 532 meters and is one of the information points of the UNESCO Swabian Jura Geopark, about 100 kilometers east of Stuttgart. The relatively narrow cave passage, formed by flowing water, runs through the mountain like a tube and is interrupted by more than ten spacious, often quite high halls. The cave contains rich sintering with various dripstone forms...

With the entry in the Giengen forest map of the Ulm city painter Philipp Renlin in 1591, the cave was mentioned for the first time and described as Hundsloch in the Hürbener open-field system Krauthalde. However, the exact location is missing. The name of the sinkhole with a diameter of about three meters is probably derived from the fact that the population probably threw cadavers of domestic animals into it since the Middle Ages. For this reason, the hole was not examined more closely by the locals for a long time. In 1893, the head forester of Giengen, Hermann Emil Sihler, was interested in exploring the hole for the first time. He was an experienced speleologist who had already dealt with the caves of the Swabian Alb and had discovered the Irpfel Cave near Giengen in 1892. The forest with the Hundsloch was in his territory. Sihler tried to enter the cave with a ladder in the spring of 1893, supported by the forester Gaiser and a day labor from Hürben. Since the ladder did not reach the bottom of the cave, the attempt failed.

A secretive excursion took place on Sunday 7 May 1893. Three inhabitants of the community of Hürben, the carpenters Friedrich Strauß, Jakob Beutler and Kaspar Schlumpberger, entered the cave with a 15-meter rope ladder. Friedrich Strauß jumped from the too short ladder onto a pile of bones. It was not possible to penetrate further parts of the cave, which could be recognized in an insinuating way. On 9 May another entry was made, this time with Sihler, with forester Gaiser belaying from above. In several hours, the roped men first removed the mountain of bones to such an extent that they could enter the cave proper. The first thing they discovered was a floor stalactite about two meters high, which was later called Berggeist. They advanced 163 meters to a narrow point in the treasure chamber. On the way, they discovered numerous stalactite formations. The excavation lasted about two hours. Under the direction of head forester Sihler, further cave explorations took place over the next few days, with the help of the Hürben fire department. The men were able to get an overview of the dimensions of the cave. The first reports about the discovered dripstone cave appeared in the Brenztal-Boten on 10 and 13 May. He wrote on 15 May 1893:

"With the help of the Hürben fire department, the cave was inspected in detail yesterday morning. The surprising result was that the cave has a length of about 500 meters (thus exceeds the Hohlenstein in extent) and that it extends in a westerly direction under the state forest Wasserhau towards Reuendorf, and is therefore not connected with the Kaltenburg. The cave consists partly of very spacious halls with magnificent stalactite formations and can be entered in an upright position with the exception of a short section. Besides the horse bones mentioned in No. 55, remains of the cave bear, cave hyena, and other predators were found yesterday. The cave should yield a nice haul with continued vigorous work. It is still unclear in what way of his time the horses, remains of which were found, got lost in the cave. Unfortunately, there is still no passable access to the cave, which can only be reached by means of a rope ladder, on which a distance of 16 meters has to be covered. A large company from Giengen arrived yesterday morning to visit the cave in Hürben." - Brenztal-Bote, 15 May 1893.

By resolution of the Municipal Council of 16 May, walking in the cave was strictly prohibited, as stalactites had already been stolen. Furthermore, the future course of action was discussed. The cave was explored and made accessible along its entire length at the expense of the community with the support of the Oberamtsvorstand Filser from Heidenheim an der Brenz. The lower entrance to the cave was buried except for a narrow opening, which served as the lair of a fox. From the inside, the alluvial debris was removed, exposing the former outlet of the cave stream. Thus, the cave regained a ground-level access.

After the cave had been opened up to the back rooms, the geologist and paleontologist Eberhard Fraas from Stuttgart was able to examine it scientifically on 17 June with a group of other experts. Excavations also took place in the process. Fraas found numerous bones of ice-age animals, especially cave bears, but no prehistoric human traces. On the same day of the visit he certified "that the cave belongs to the most beautiful natural beauties of Württemberg and therefore a further opening of the cave is worthwhile in the highest degree." Furthermore, he declared: "A new natural beauty of the first rank has been opened up on our Alb and certainly no visitor will regret the walk through this magnificent cave." This encouraged the community to open the cave to the public. On 2 July 1893 the border messenger of the Amts- und Intelligenzblatt für den Oberamtsbezirk Heidenheim wrote that the cave "exceeds in extent and beauty of the stalactite formations all so far known caves of Württemberg and should probably form in a short time one of the most visited natural beauties of the area." Fraas also described his inspection of the cave there:

"We advance along the mostly flat and almost always dry path and reach the rear end of the cave, where the stalactites hanging down from the ceiling like a backdrop in connection with the stalagmites rising from the floor like giant asparaguses provide a magnificent sight. But how could all the beautiful and interesting things be described in words, which we encounter with every further step. Sometimes it is formal carpets with lace hanging from the walls, sometimes it is mighty columns and portals of honey-yellow, translucent calcite, sometimes it is dainty, glass-bright tubes that we admire and that inspire our imagination to the boldest comparisons. A seemingly never-ending labyrinth of narrow but high crevices and fissures, interrupted by wide halls, lets us advance further and further, and again and again new natural formations take hold of us." - Eberhard Fraas: Amts- und Intelligenzblatt für den Oberamtsbezirk Heidenheim, 2 July 1893.

The community asked Charlotte of Schaumburg-Lippe for permission to name the cave after her. It was probably hoped to receive a state grant for the development of the cave. Later, 1000 marks were promised. The wife of the last King of Württemberg, Wilhelm II, was invited to visit the cave. They began to completely expand the cave and make it accessible. At a narrow point in the cave, the present treasure chamber, 163 meters from the entrance, a breakthrough had to be made and a staircase built to bridge the difference in height to reach the cyclops vault. On the road below the cave, an inn was opened on 13 August in a wooden building 32 meters long.

The electrical lighting was installed by a pioneer of electrical engineering, Paul Reißer from Stuttgart, on the initiative of Oberamtmann Filser and Schultheiß Kost. He was given the task of installing the entire electrical system within 14 days so that it would be ready for the opening of the cave. Charlotte Cave is thus one of the first show caves in the world with electric lighting, after Kraus Cave in Styria, which in 1883 was the first cave in the world to be lit electrically. In Germany, the Olga Cave followed in 1884 and the Gußmann Cave in 1891.

In the cave passage, cross braces were attached to the ceiling, to which the cables and lamps were fixed on glass insulators. There were 89 carbon-filament Edison lamps hanging from a 570-meter lead cable. Direct current of 105 volts was generated by an internal combustion engine driving a generator with shunt regulator. The cost of the cave lighting was 13,130 marks, financed by a loan from the municipality.

In August 2011, the lighting of the cave was completely converted to LED technology in three months of work, whereby spotlights were used to illuminate specific sections of the inner wall instead of the entire cave. The old power lines were largely dismantled in the process. One section, where dripstones had formed on the wires, was left as an attraction.

The official opening of the cave, which was already known far beyond the borders of the municipality due to the newspaper reports, took place on 17 September 1893. Even before that, 500 to 1000 people who came on foot or by wagon had visited it on Sundays. Cave guides were hired and entrance fees were set. Numerous onlookers came to the inauguration with horse-drawn carriages and ladder wagons. A procession was accompanied by the Heidenheim town band. In his welcoming speech, Schultheiss Kost thanked Fraas for his scientific exploration of the cave. The ceremonial address was given by Oberamtmann Filser, the chairman of the cave committee, and he ceremoniously presented the cave key to the first cave guide, Beutler. As a result, the cave was opened to the public. The promised visit of the queen was made up for on 23 September 1893. By the end of the year, about 15,000 people had visited the cave. Admission was one mark for adults, which at the time was equivalent to three to four times the average hourly wage of a worker.

The queen combined her visit on Saturday 23 September 1893 with a visitation of social institutions in the city and district of Heidenheim. She traveled to Heidenheim on a special train and drove through the city in an open court carriage in pouring rain, where the densely packed public lined the decorated streets. At 3:15 p.m. the queen arrived at Hürben, which was garlanded and decorated with flags, to the ringing of bells. In addition to the queen's entourage, all district and municipal officials and boroughs had turned up to receive her. Since the road to the cave was soaked by the heavy rain, it was covered with linen over a length of several hundred meters. The queen was visibly surprised and impressed by the beauty of the cave, which had been illuminated with another 149 lamps, including 39 colored ones. She was led to the center of the cave, the King's Hall, by Fraas. Up to there the electric lighting reached. Then they went deeper into the unlit cave areas by candlelight until they reached the Kristall Cave. After half an hour, the queen left the cave and went to the new inn. At about 4:30 p.m., she drove first to the children's rescue center in Herbrechtingen and later to the train station, from where a special train with her entourage brought her back to the residence. The cost of the visit and the inauguration festivities amounted to 2000 marks.

When the initial enthusiasm for the cave waned and the number of visitors decreased, the income was no longer sufficient to cover the expenses, especially the high electricity costs. Graduate engineer Carl Gaulé from Stuttgart was asked to clarify whether more cost-effective lighting was possible. In his report of 23 November 1902, he weighed up the advantages and disadvantages of torches, magnesium flares, acetylene gas systems, acetylene gas hand lamps and electric lighting and came to the conclusion that the latter was the most practical type of lighting. On 3 June 1903 a fire occurred in the engine house, destroying the engine, dynamo, and other accessories.

The municipal administration then decided to lease the cave to the innkeeper Friedrich Föll from Herbrechtingen for 30 years from 3 August 1905. There was still a residual loan of 5650 marks from the development period of the cave, which the leaseholder had to take over. In return, he received the insurance sum from the engine house fire in the amount of 7568 marks. With this money he purchased a new engine and dynamo in 1906. In 1934, the lease was not renewed and the cave became the responsibility of the local government again as of 1 April 1935.

In 1957, on the initiative of the mayor Ernst Bosch, work began on renewing the lighting in the cave. In the process, the light sources were relocated in such a way that they could no longer be seen and specifically illuminated the stalactites. By 1965, 203 lamps and two floodlights had been installed. In the winter of 1976/1977, the electrical installation was brought up to the latest safety standards. The dripstone cave has been part of the UNESCO Swabian Alb Geopark since 2004. In August 2005, the information center HöhlenHaus of the Hürben Cave and Heritage Society was inaugurated at the foot of the cave. The HöhlenHaus is one of 26 information centers of the Swabian Alb Geopark.

The HöhlenErlebnisWelt was created around the cave center with a time travel trail at the entrance to Charlotte Cave. In the immediate vicinity of the HöhlenHaus, the HöhlenSchauLand, a multimedia museum, has been in existence since July 2008. The costs of both facilities, including the design of the outdoor area, amounted to about 1.8 million euros, with the European Union (EU) and the state of Baden-Württemberg together contributing 1.2 million euros.

From April to August 2011, the complete lighting system of the cave was replaced by LED lighting. For this purpose, several hundred new lamps were installed on the initiative of the city of Giengen and the Giengen-Hürben Cave and Heritage Society. The project was supported by the LEADER funding program of the European Union.

With the entry in the Giengen forest map of the Ulm city painter Philipp Renlin in 1591, the cave was mentioned for the first time and described as Hundsloch in the Hürbener open-field system Krauthalde. However, the exact location is missing. The name of the sinkhole with a diameter of about three meters is probably derived from the fact that the population probably threw cadavers of domestic animals into it since the Middle Ages. For this reason, the hole was not examined more closely by the locals for a long time. In 1893, the head forester of Giengen, Hermann Emil Sihler, was interested in exploring the hole for the first time. He was an experienced speleologist who had already dealt with the caves of the Swabian Alb and had discovered the Irpfel Cave near Giengen in 1892. The forest with the Hundsloch was in his territory. Sihler tried to enter the cave with a ladder in the spring of 1893, supported by the forester Gaiser and a day labor from Hürben. Since the ladder did not reach the bottom of the cave, the attempt failed.

A secretive excursion took place on Sunday 7 May 1893. Three inhabitants of the community of Hürben, the carpenters Friedrich Strauß, Jakob Beutler and Kaspar Schlumpberger, entered the cave with a 15-meter rope ladder. Friedrich Strauß jumped from the too short ladder onto a pile of bones. It was not possible to penetrate further parts of the cave, which could be recognized in an insinuating way. On 9 May another entry was made, this time with Sihler, with forester Gaiser belaying from above. In several hours, the roped men first removed the mountain of bones to such an extent that they could enter the cave proper. The first thing they discovered was a floor stalactite about two meters high, which was later called Berggeist. They advanced 163 meters to a narrow point in the treasure chamber. On the way, they discovered numerous stalactite formations. The excavation lasted about two hours. Under the direction of head forester Sihler, further cave explorations took place over the next few days, with the help of the Hürben fire department. The men were able to get an overview of the dimensions of the cave. The first reports about the discovered dripstone cave appeared in the Brenztal-Boten on 10 and 13 May. He wrote on 15 May 1893: