Germany's mysteries: Mystic caves under Devil's Chair

It's only a little climb, a little walk. And then, in the middle of a sandstone rock, a church opens up that is even older than any of the many, many churches in the area. Whoever visits the Klusberge in a mountain range west of the town of Halberstand suddenly finds himself in an old painting by Caspar David Friedrich.

Yellow stone rises high from the green forest, picturesque steep rocks rise from the mountain in front of the city gates. Already thousands of years ago there was an observatory here, from which the course of the stars was observed. Later, monks hollowed out the rock and used the caves as a prayer room. Then Russian soldiers came and marked the walls with the names of their hometowns.

Above the Goldbach, near the Spiegels-mountains, the Klusfelsen form a unique testimony to German history. Almost 1000 years after they were first mentioned in a document, the sandstone rocks are threatened by wild growth of trees, weathering and vandalism, but today they are still there: The Klusfelsen, the Fünffingerfelsen (Five Finger Rock) and the Teufelsstuhl (Devils Chair) stretch into the sky as if they were a part of the legendary Elbsandsteingebirge in Saxony.

That's impressive, but actually the Klusfelsen are even more amazing, with all of their cavities scratched into the sandstone by human hand. The infinite number of scratches letters from an infinite number of decades on the wall of the rooms that were used as living space and cult site centuries ago. The extension of the Klusberge is just 600 meters in north-south direction and also only 1.5 kilometers in east-west direction. But the human remodeling of the sandstone, formed from Cretaceous deposits, only leaves every visitor stunned at every turn. 

On the one hand, wind and weather have worn away the rocks and produced sharp rock needles. On the other hand, there is a smell of history everywhere. In one of the first documented mentions from the year 1070, it is reported that permission was granted by the Münzeberg monastery in nearby Quedlinburg, as the owner of the Klusfelsen at the time, to build a hermitage here. The builder, a "Klausner" (hermit) in German, gave the mini-mountain its name Klusberge.

It means "Hermit's mountains"

But he was not the first inhabitant of the rocky terrace overlooked by the Klusfelsen, from which one can see far into the country.

In the immediate vicinity, a much older grave was recently discovered. About 3500 years ago two women were buried here. Rich ornaments in the grave indicate their special origin and position. One can imagine that the contemporaries of the women already used the Klusberge at that time, which lie in direct line of sight of two sanctuaries named Fuchsklippe and Ziegenkopf.

Then, 500 years ago, a brotherhood of shepherds took over the caves in the rock, which also cutted a new chapel in the stone. They held masses for the souls of deceased shepherds and prayers for the souls of the living here. The small cave with the carved cross can still be seen today if you look closely. Only, as everywhere, the walls have already become somewhat thin.

Very mystical Devil's Chair

Maybe that's why the whole area under the five-fingered rock, which used to be called the Devil's Chair, becomes very mystical. At the top of the terrace, there is a gaping hole in the rock, a few visitors have brought loud music, they drink beer and dance wildly. Are they invoking the good spirits? Or are they commemorating the poor Soviet soldiers who were stationed nearby here until 30 years ago and who immortalized not only their names and hometowns in the walls, but also the number of days they still had to spend in Germany?

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