From the Kickelhahn, the Goethe hiking trail leads downhill to the Großer Hermannstein. After climbing the rock, you will be rewarded with a breathtaking view.

The cave in the rock was carved out artificially and probably served as a guardroom for a castle on the rock in the Middle Ages. Goethe visited it several times and described it as:

"(it is) my beloved abode, where I want to live and stay".

Goethe worked and drew here. He also took Frau von Stein to this cave when she visited him in Ilmenau in the summer of 1776. Where words were not enough, he supplemented them with drawings: of the cave in Hermannstein, of the steaming valleys near Ilmenau, of the Manebacher and Stützerbacher Grund. You can admire some of these drawings in the Jagdhaus Gabelbach museum.