In the realm of the dwarfs – Grounded in folk belief

Many Erdställe are surrounded by legends and myths that can be several centuries old.

Particularly the conception that the Erdställe are the dwelling places of dwarfs (‘Zwerge’, in vernacular German also called ‘Ratzeln’, ‘Schrazen’, or ‘Schrate’) is quite common. The dwarfs were friendly towards humans, this idea says, and were supplied with food by the locals. Not only in the south German region, dwarfs are closely associated with mining – which is interesting, inasmuch as the Erdställe are constructed by following professional mining engineering techniques.

Other legends linked to the Erdställe claim that two places were connected by an immensely long underground passage, and in some of the tunnels, virgins or fairies are said to have been heard, singing beautiful songs.

The ‘Schrazelloch’ in the basement of the Schießl-Hof was first mentioned in writing in Franz Xaver von Schönwerth’s book Aus der Oberpfalz – Sitten und Sagen (‘From Upper Palatinate – Customs and Legends’), published in three volumes, 1856–1856:

‘The Stoinbügerl, Steinbühel, is a fairly tall hill near Neukirchen-Balbini. On its top stands a single large tree, a pear tree, which in clear weather can be seen from the Frauenberg in Amberg. It is very old, and its branches turn barren, but it may not be chopped down. Also, Ratzellöcher traverse this hill. One of them opens out into the cellar of Sch. Bräuers [today’s Schießl-Hof], it is about 3 feet high, 2 feet wide, and is arched overhead. There, the Razeln were in the house as well, doing household chores in exchange for some leftover food, such as washing the dishes. – A similar Razelloch can be found at Wolf’s place.’ [By this, he probably means ‘at Fuchs’ (fox) place’, Dirscherl, in Fronauer Str. 10, Stubenrauch.]

In 1879, local historian Georg Dorrer from Neunburg mentions the Erdstall in his Chronicle of Neunburg:
‘The Steinbügerl, Steinbühel, is a fairly tall hill near Neukirchen-Balbini. On its top stands a single large tree, which in clear weather can be seen from the Frauenberg in Amberg. It is very old, and its branches turn barren, but it may not be chopped down. Dwarf holes traverse this hill. One is supposed to open out into the cellar of the Schießlbräu. I went to this house, and in the cellar, its owner showed me a hole in the wall with a clearance of three feet and a width of two feet, but in front of the opening, there stood a massive stone cabbage tub that could not be easily shifted, so we only were able to shine a feeble light into the cave. The cave has a rocky and gnarled ceiling, almost like a dripstone cave, I could not see far. But the man told me that the passage ran further and gradually widened, just like the inside of a baking oven, furthermore, there were two side corridors branching off. He had gone as far as those side corridors, he said, before the tub had been placed in front of the hole, but had not dared to go any further. During the war, the previous owners of the house had hidden their belongings in the cavity.’