The northern German Hermann’s Cave below the 1.141 a.s.l meters high
Brocken peak in the centre of the Harz Mountains (Saxony-Anhalt) was discovered by
chance during road construction work at the village Rübeland in the year 1866. It was
explored and a first map was presented with first cave descriptions 1889 by the
geologists Prof. Dr. J.H. Kloos and Prof. Dr. M. Müller from the Brunswick University.
In 1890 the cave became one of the historically opened European show caves and is
one of the largest tourist caves in Germany counting about 75.000 visitors per year.
Palaeontological and archaeological pioneering research was made by the biologist
Prof. Dr. W. Blasius from the Brunswick Natural History Museum, who was active
from 1892 to 1901 with opening a small museum in front of the cave. The Hermann’s
Cave bear den belongs to one of the three bone-rich important and most northern
European cave bear den sites being situated opposite the Baumann’s Cave and not far
from the Unicorn Cave in the Harz Mountain. In contrast to the other two mentioned
caves, which were used by cave bears and carnivores such as Neanderthals in the
Middle Pleistocene, the Hermann’s Cave was accessible for cave bears, carnivores and
even humans due to the starting pre-LGM glaciations of the Brocken peak and cave
entrance collapse processes only in the Late Pleistocene. At this time, Ice Age steppe
lions and Late Palaeolithic Cromagnon humans hunted different cave bear species deep
in the cave.
Keywords: Hermann’s Cave, Harz Mountain, northern Germany, large show
cave, discover and excavation history, Kloos and Blasius, cave bear den, Late
Pleistocene, lions and Late Palaeolithic hunters.