Kaltenstein

Cold stones

Kaltenstein is a large rock that can be found in the Hoxberg Forest, near the village of Zollstock (city of Lebach in Saarland ). He is very well known in the Lebach area - mainly because of the sagas and legends that are told about him. Around the Kaltenstein there is the Kaltensteinpfad, a popular mountain bike and hiking trail.

geology

The two large stones are conglomerate rocks from the Rotliegendem , that is, a solid mixture of pebbles and sandstone that formed around 270 million years ago. They are part of the Remigiusberg formation, which stretches on the Hoxberg from the ridge to the Theel .

Myths and legends

The witch saga

Allegedly, the Hoxberg and especially the Kaltenstein are said to have been a meeting place for witches in the 16th century . The Kaltenstein is said to have been the magical center of the witches. Here the witches held supposedly gruesome rituals and bowled with the devil.

The treasure saga

This says that rich treasures are hidden under the Kaltenstein, which were already sacrificed to the gods in times of paganism. Druids are said to have buried them there once, when Christianity was spreading, which could indicate an already Celtic origin of the legend. On the first night of May , the dwarfs who live in Hoxberg celebrate a festival of joy around the Kaltenstein, where said treasure shows itself and sparkles in the starlight. However, it could only come to light forever if the bells of the Trinity Church began to ring by themselves on Good Friday. Then the stones would turn three times around their own axis and reveal the treasure to humanity. These dwarfs are also reported to come out of the mountain at night, to turn the upper stone on top of the lower one at midnight, and then to disappear back into the mountain.

Work of the National Socialists

After the National Socialists came to power, there was a revival of the Celtic cult in Germany. In Lebach , the representation of the Kaltenstein was propagated as a Celtic site and pagan priests who would hide a treasure there from Christian missionaries. However, there are no oral or written sources from the time before 1935 that report such a Celtic site on the Kaltenstein. National Socialist youth groups such as the Hitler Youth and school classes from Lebach and the surrounding area carried out hikes to the Stein during the time of the Nazi regime, after the author Otto Schmitz wrote a story about the boulder in the Hoxberg Forest that was appropriate to the Nazi ideology. Due to the understanding of the role played by the dwarves in the saga , their origin is more likely to be found in the late Middle Ages , if not in the Romantic period rather than in the Celtic period .

Christian traces

There are several walls on the stone and indentations for candles and figures of saints to represent the "seven sorrows of Mary". A large wooden cross stands on the surface of the stone. The Kaltensteinpfad, which leads around the Kaltenstein, could once have been a way of the cross.

The Kaltenstein Path

poem

The Lebach author Richard Folz wrote the following poem about the Kaltenstein:

The Kallenschdään

Ómm Zóllschdock schdett the Kallenschdään,
sè hann gesaat ... the gääng is drähn.
He misjudges Méddachlóuden heeren,
then he can deny him kääner dat.
As Kénner, mier dat séihn wanted,
when mier dò dróff schdehn órrer knéin.
Wòor'n aan Karfräidaach émmer dòò,
… hann draan pushed ónn draan gezòò.
Mér kónnt dé Glock quite däitlich,
- dään Kallenschdään dut dat nét schdeeren!
Then sénn mier tróurich hääm gezòò
ónn hann gesaat: “Dier hann gelòò!”
Dòò hann sé äärnschd dé Schdier gerónzelt,
… very hääwes awwer ah melted:
“Dier Kénner, - if ää'd heeren gääng,
gääng ach the Kallenschdään are tearing!

Individual evidence

↑ Source: Information boards on the cold stones
↑ As handed down in 1925 by Otto Schmitz, Lebach, and written down as legend no. 239 by Karl Lohmeyer : The sagas of the Saar from their sources to the mouth . Minerva-Verlag, Saarbrücken 1954.

49.3921 6.89127Coordinates: 49 ° 23 '31.56 " N , 6 ° 53' 28.57" O

[1] Source: Information boards on the cold stones

[2] As handed down in 1925 by Otto Schmitz, Lebach, and written down as legend no. 239 by Karl Lohmeyer : The sagas of the Saar from their sources to the mouth . Minerva-Verlag, Saarbrücken 1954.