Kalkberg Cave

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Kalkberg Cave

In the Kalkberg Cave

In the Kalkberg Cave
Location: Germany
Height : 40  m above sea level NN
Geographic
location: 		53 ° 56 '8.9 "  N , 10 ° 19' 0.8"  E Coordinates: 53 ° 56 '8.9 "  N , 10 ° 19' 0.8"  E
Kalkberg Cave (Schleswig-Holstein)
Kalkberg Cave
Type: Plaster cave
Discovery: 1913
Show cave since: 1913
Lighting: electric, since 1919
Overall length: 2,260 meters
Length of the show
cave area: 		300 meters
Average annual number of visitors: 46,000 (2007-2011)
Current visitors: 42,238 (2011)
Website: Noctalis: Bat Center

The Segeberger Kalkberghöhle is located in the Kalkberg of Bad Segeberg , an anhydrite or gypsum rock raised by salt tectonics in the middle of the young moraine landscape of the East Holstein hill country.

Emergence

The cave was probably formed in the last 5,000 years through gradual leaching in a "standing" body of water in the area of ​​the karst water table in the Kalkberg . Therefore the Kalkberghöhle is to be regarded as a phreatic Laughöhle.

Presumably the neighboring Kleine Segeberger See, an inconspicuous body of water at the foot of the Kalkberg (but actually a sinkhole filled with water ), at least temporarily acted as a receiving water for the cave and so the leach convection through the supply of fresh water unsaturated with gypsum of the body of water kept running. This is indicated by finds of freshwater snail shells inside the cave. At some point, however, the connection between the Kleiner Segeberger See and the cave must have closed, as there is no longer any connection today.

Typical for the Kalkberg cave is the leach profile, which is clearly recognizable in large parts, and which is reminiscent of an apex triangle. In these areas, the cave is closed at the top with a horizontal ceiling that is typical of such leach caves. There are also some collapsed domes and labyrinthine corridors.

The time and circumstances of the water drainage from the cave are not known, but there are assumptions that the test drillings carried out not far from the cave - and ultimately failed - for rock salt extraction in the 1870s could have impaired the water body of the limestone mountain in such a way that it could have this decreased significantly. This assumption has not been proven. What is certain, however, is that the drilling pits were flooded by water from the Kalkberg.

However, it is also possible that a lowering of the lake level of the Great Segeberger See led to a general lowering of the groundwater level in the area of ​​the Kalkberg and in this way ultimately led to the cave running dry.

Discovery, exploration and tourist exploitation

When the workers involved in the gypsum mining in the north face made a hole in about 1912, it was initially nothing special. Smaller cavities came to light again and again in the past during gypsum mining. Only when seminarians from the teachers' seminar (Thode, Gripp and Bornhöft), which was then located in Segeberg , learned of the existence of this hole from children playing in the quarry, did they examine it more closely on March 16, 1913. Three days later, a more extensive inspection was carried out under the direction of Obersteigers Stolze and seminar instructor Röhr. Since then, 1913 has been considered the year the cave was discovered. In the same year the cave was opened for tourism and a first cave plan was drawn up. The cave was never used for mining purposes, but attempts were still made in 1931 to dig a tunnel for the purpose of gypsum mining in the area of ​​the so-called southeast corridor. However, these attempts were canceled, the resulting tunnel closed again and then gypsum mining in the entire Kalkberg area stopped.

On April 11, 1942, the remaining rocky area of ​​the Kalkberg was designated as a natural monument. This protection also included the part of the cave existing in this area. Large parts of the cave that were outside this area were not covered by this ordinance. On September 18, 1995, a new nature conservation ordinance was issued, which finally included the cave in full and also included the protection of the Kleiner Segeberger See as a protection goal.

The first zoological investigations were carried out by Erna Mohr in 1928/29 , which she carried out until 1962. For the first time, the bats in the cave were examined more closely. In 1932/33 an artificial pond with tench and goldfish stock was created in the cave . At the beginning of the 1930s there was also a short-term stocking with 6 cave olms , which, however, only died shortly after they were inserted. Later the pond was no longer artificially populated and eventually fell dry. In 1956, the University of Kiel sunk a research shaft in the cave. A fracture system was detected, which could indicate a new cave formation a few meters below the current cave.

In 1988/89 the cave system was created by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Karstkunde Harz e. V. re-mapped. Three previously unknown cave labyrinths were discovered and measured. Finally, in 1991, a research project to record the bat population in the Kalkberg cave was started by the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of the Environment in collaboration with the local NABU group , which continues to this day. The working group wildlife biology at the University of Giessen sat here include a light barrier system , a trip to the count. As part of this research project, the actual number of bats hibernating in the cave was determined for the first time - around 25,000. Today the Faunistic-Ecological Working Group of the University of Kiel (FÖAG) collects and evaluates the data on behalf of the state.

Due to the supra-regional importance of the Kalkberg Cave as winter quarters for bats, it was recognized by the European Union as a protected area in accordance with the Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive on December 12, 2004 and thus part of the Natura 2000 protected area system .

The main German event for the European Bat Night traditionally takes place in Bad Segeberg due to the importance of the Kalkberg Cave as a bat quarter (on August 29, 2009 for the thirteenth time). The extraordinarily high number of hibernating bats finally prompted the city of Bad Segeberg to build a bat information and experience center ( Noctalis ) not far from the entrance to the cave, which was opened to the public on March 2, 2006.

Working in the cave

In August 2011, an artificial pond created in the 1930s was renatured inside the cave. To this end, around 43 tons of concrete and bitumen layers were removed and manually removed from the cave before the bats returned to their winter quarters.

Data on the Kalkberg Cave

Source: Noctalis - World of Bats, Fledermaus-Zentrum GmbH
  • The Kalkberg Cave is the northernmost show cave and the northernmost karst cave in Germany.
  • After the Wimmelburger Schlotte near Eisleben (2,838 meters), which is inaccessible to the public , the Segeberger Kalkberghöhle is the second longest gypsum cave in Germany (2,260 meters) in front of the Heimkehle (1,780 meters, according to other information 2,000 meters).
  • The Kalkberg Cave is the summer home of around 800 bats .
  • It is also the winter home of around 25,000 bats of eight different species, making it one of the largest known winter quarters in Europe.
  • The Segeberger cave beetle ( Choleva septentrionis holsatica ) can only be found worldwide in the Kalkberg cave of Bad Segeberg .
  • Every year around 40,000 visitors take part in the guided tours along the 600-meter-long route, which has now been shortened to 300 meters for safety and protection reasons. The highest number of visitors was reached in the early 1950s, when up to 170,000 people marveled at the underground world of the Kalkberg every year.
  • To protect the overwintering wildlife (especially the bats), the cave is closed to visitors from October to March each year. Only those suffering from lung diseases such as asthma have access under supervision once a week during this time.

See also

literature

  • Hans Binder, Anke Luz, Hans Martin Luz: Show caves in Germany . Aegis, Ulm 1993, ISBN 3-87005-040-3 , pp. 12-13.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Work for bats and cave beetles. In: Lübecker Nachrichten. August 10, 2011.

Web links

Commons : Kalkberghöhle  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files