Pommerlesloch

The Pommerlesloch is a vertical cave in the Muschelkalk zone of the Upper Gäu, east of the northern Black Forest. It lies in woodland between the villages of Mötzingen and Unterjettingen, about fifty kilometres southwest of Stuttgart. The cave entrance sits close to the boundary where the main Muschelkalk meets the Lettenkeuper layer in the Trigonodus dolomite. Local legend says the cave was named after a dachshund called Pommerle that once fell into it. Geologists believe the shaft formed when waters of different calcium contents mixed and dissolved the rock more quickly. The entrance is fenced and covered with a metal grille to keep walkers safe. The oval opening measures roughly two and a half by three metres across, narrowing to one by one and a half metres further down. Inside, the shaft drops in several steps, the first reached after only a few metres. A short horizontal squeeze with a small step leads into a room several metres wide. Among the loose rocks below lies another shaft, its first section tight but passable. Dripping water appears here for the first time. The shaft ends at a ledge overlooking a large chamber where sinter formations and a few stalactites cling to the walls. Vertical passages at the chamber floor continue the descent to a total depth of about fifty-one metres. The cave has claimed at least two lives. Around 1910 a student from Nagold teachers’ college fell in, and in the final days of the Second World War a man died there under unclear circumstances. In 1965 a hiker plunged into the shaft; after three days his shouts were heard by children at play, and rescuers brought him out alive from the first ledge.