The Erdmannshöhle is a stalactite or flowstone cave in the village Hasel between Schopfheim and Wehr, 20 km east of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.
In the Baroque the Republic of Venice sent mineralogical prospectors to the countries north of the Alps to look for the raw materials which were necessary for glassmaking.
These prospectors were called "Venetians" everywhere else and only in the Black Forest they were called "Stumm-Männle" (meaning "dumb little men", because they did not speak with the local people) were mostly very small, wore an ankle-long tunic with a hood like the cowl of a monk and carefully avoided contact.
Erdmännlein - or its variant Erdmännchen - is also the German word for meerkat, a cute little animal that can resemble a tiny man.
[3] Caves are seldom in the Black Forest, because in the predominant rock types, which are granite and buntsandstein, its formation is rare.