Linkenboldshöhle

Linkenbold Cave

Useful Information

The plains around the cave, the cave is located in the hill in the middle of the image.

Location:	K7103 between Albstadt-Onstmettingen and Hausen. Park on the country road 1 km from the Onstmettingen town sign, do not obstruct agricultural traffic. Alternatively, barbecue & adventure playground Schneckenbuckel 500 m further on. 1 km/15 minutes' walk on a single-lane gravel road. (48.276127, 9.030651)
Open:	Ascension Day 9-17. Open Monument Day 10-17. [2025]
Fee:
Classification:	Karst Cave
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:	L=139 m, T=8 °C, A=906 m NN.
Guided tours:	D=30 min.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	Die Linkenboldshöhle bei Onstmettingen, So war es in Onstmettingen, Heft 12, 1994 Gustav Schwab (1823): Die Neckarseite der schwäbischen Alb Stuttgart, 1823 Linkenboldslöchlein DOI archive.org
Address:	Schwäbischer Albverein e.V., Ortsgruppe Onstmettingen, Wilfried Köhler, Eulenweg 7, 72461 Albstadt, Tel: +49-7432-21557. E-mail: Höhlenwart Siegbert Haiber, Tel: +49-7432-22780. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1761	description of a visit to the cave by the head bailiff of Balingen and a citizen of Onstmettingen.
1764	the famous mechanic priest Phillip Matthäus Hahn mentions the cave in a biography.
1810 or 1811	mention in the unpublished manuscript Topography of Ebingen by Dr W. F. Schäffler.
1823	description in Gustav Schwab: Die Neckarseite der schwäbischen Alb.
1824	Linkenboldshöhle is mentioned several times in Ueber die Höhlen der Würtembergischen Alp, in connection with observations on the basalt formations of this mountain range by Prof. Schübler.
1875-76	development of the cave.
24-JUN-1876	on St John’s Day, ceremonial opening of the cave.
1939	Linkenbold-Aktien-Gesellschaft dissolved, and the municipality takes over the cave.
1974	Local group Onstmettingen of the Swabian Albverein e.V. takes over the care of the cave.
1975	Reopened.

Description

The Linkenboldshöhle is a small horizontal cave on the Alb plateau. Its location under a hilltop at the same level as the surrounding plain is remarkable. It was discovered through a shaft which was open to the surface. This was in 1761, when the head bailiff of Balingen and a citizen of Onstmettingen climbed through the shaft into the cave with the help of a ladder and ropes. We know this because the head bailiff wrote a report. After that, the cave was fairly quiet, although it was mentioned from time to time. For example by the famous mechanic priest Phillip Matthäus Hahn in a curriculum vitae. The most important description was by Gustav Schwab, a famous local nature lover, in his book Die Neckarseite der Schwäbischen Alb. However, Schwab was not in the cave himself, he merely reproduces a description by a source. However, as this description was printed and found many readers, the cave became known to a wider circle of people for the first time. The description can be found below; we have modernised old-fashioned special characters to make it easier to read.

In 1875, a Linkenbold-Aktien-Gesellschaft (Linkenbold joint-stock company) was founded with the aim of opening up the cave for tourist use. It is conceivable that the opening of the show cave Olga Cave in the same year encouraged this. It was of course difficult to visit comfortably through the shaft, but it was known that one end of the passage was very close to the surface. So the construction of a tunnel was planned to provide easy access, and in just 6 months the cave was developed with paths and opened up. It was opened on 24-JUN-1876. Although it was well visited at the beginning, this quickly declined. In the 1880s and 1890s, several show caves were opened on the Alb and became competitors. At the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, Linkenbold-Aktien-Gesellschaft was finally dissolved and the municipality took over the cave. It was closed during the war and was not reopened afterwards. Unfortunately, the barred door with which it was closed was broken open at some point. As a result, most of the existing stalactites were chipped away over time. In addition, rubbish was deposited and visitors with pitch torches caused soot stains. In 1974, the Onstmettingen branch of the Swabian Albverein e.V. took over the care of the cave. After cleaning up and the installation of electric lighting, it has been open to the public again on a small scale since 1975.

The legends surrounding the Linkenboldshöhle cave are interesting. Even the name Linkenbold is interpreted quite differently. Schwab describes that the name refers to the devil and is common in the Alb and the Black Forest. He also claims that the name Leinbold has the same meaning in the Harz Mountains. In any case, the locals were of the opinion that someone or something must live in such a dark hole. But there is also the variant that the Linkenbold is an earth spirit. Funny is that the translator which we used to translate the following test translated this name either as left-handed devil or as Left-handed Goblin.

Linkenboldslöchlein.
I received the following description of this cave, of which I have not been able to learn anything in detail up to now, at just the right time through the kindness of an eyewitness, one of the few who have visited it for 66 years:
‘In the spring of 1801 I learnt in Onstmettingen, Balingen Oberamtes, that there was a cave about a quarter of an hour from the village, which was called the Linkenboldslöchle and which had last been visited about 40 years ago by the Oberamtmann of Balingen with a citizen of Onstmettingen, who had left a small medicine bottle filled with oil at the end of the cave as a sign that he had been in the cave. Having been made aware of this and the popular legend that the brave army (the devil) lived in this cave, I enquired after the head bailiff’s companion to find out more about the cave; An 80-year-old man came and described the cave to me exactly as he had seen it about 40 years ago, saying that one had to protect oneself properly from the Linkenbold and that a ladder of about 40 rungs was needed to get into the cave through the vertical hole. I now found an opening about 5 feet in diameter and about 30 feet deep vertically, which was filled with a stone vault about 10 feet deep at the bottom (as it seemed to me from stones thrown down bit by bit). Here the cave divided into 2 branches, one of which I followed to a length of about 800 feet, where I found the bottle completely incrusted. This branch often had a width of 5 to 8 feet and always sank downwards; on its walls I found the most beautiful stalactites I have ever seen in caves and several clear springs. I was able to follow the other branch for about 80 feet, where the stalactites so narrowed the whole that I had to crawl, and after knocking them away with a hammer, I came to a larger cavity about 30 feet in diameter, which ended in a small hole blocked by stalactites more than a foot thick, between the openings of which I stuck the light and saw another cave, but into which I could not work my way on account of the stalactites being too thick, as my hammer was too small. I was only able to persuade a young peasant boy to follow me into the cave, despite the fact that a lot of people accompanied me to the cave, all of them were afraid of the Linkenbold, and when I descended, they thought I was either a sorcerer or even the devil.’

The Linkenbold also appears in the Black Forest and in the Harz Mountains (here under the name Leinbold) as the leader of the army of courage, the same one who visits us from Saxony under the name Samiel.

Gustav Schwab (1823): Die Neckarseite der schwäbischen Alb