from a member of my fan club:

Dear Tony,

I hope you remember me when I bought those gold bars from you. I promised to inform you whenever I find some news about caverns in Germany. That's the reason for my email today. I hope the informations are interesting and new for you.

In the internet is a report about the old German schist / shale mine named Nuttlar in the Sauerland, near the small village Bestwick in the south west of Germany. They closed it suddenly in 1985 because of bankruptcy of the owner. The mine workers left the pit and left all their things, machines, jackets, etc. All is still there as if they would return in a moment.

It needed 7 years to flood the mine. The three first floors are not flooded and you can visit them. The last 2 floores are flooded and you can visit them if you are an expert of cavern diving. During January and March it is not allowed to dive because of the protection of the bats.

http://www.spiegel.de/reise/deutschland/bergwerk-nuttlar-in-bestwig-tauchen-mit-tunnelblick-a-914935.html 

Watch the nice photos! What a bizarre world deep down there. I know it is not a natural cavern, but maybe it is interesting for you. Hope you have not heard about it before. Near this mine in a town named Warstein is another dripstone cavern and a wild animal zoo.

http://www.bergwerktauchen.de/ 

http://www.bergwerktauchen.de/bilder-videos/ise-trip-video 

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuttlar 

http://www.bunker-nrw.de/php/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2083 

I know you can read German. If you need help however, please let me know and I try my best to translate it for you even though my English is not the best.

I hope all is well at your end and I wish you all the best.

Best regards,
Annette

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This is flooded part of

Ostwig (Dachschieferbergwerk Ostwig) Slate Mine (Germany)

which is already on the AditNow database. You'll find some more photos there. Dachschieferbergwerk Ostwig is the correct name. The name of the village should be Bestwig. The closure wasn't that sudden and was a bit more complicated in the end.

I'll try to add some more information as soon as I've got time.

More threads on this mine and old photos are here:

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/community/viewtopic.aspx?t=6352&txtSearch=nuttlar&lblnWhere=all&lblnMatch=any 

http://www.mine-explorer.co.uk/bbs/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=4479&posts=8#M95521 

Cracking archive pics you have posted on ME. Any chance you could upload them to the archive album on here :flowers:

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http://www.chrono24.com/en/omega/index.htm , among Omega watches, Breitling and others.
Anyway, need to check out this mine sometime.

Thanks for sharing the article !