In 1847 a minor asteroid impacted here in this remote area of Eastern Middle (or Central?) Franconia (Ost-Mittelfranken) creating this small crater. Luckily, the asteroid had two essential qualities: Firstly, it was big enough to not become a shooting star and evaporate due to friction when entering Earth's atmosphere. When it impacted it was just the right size to leave a minor cavity in the ground without causing much disruption. Had the asteroid been bigger, the crater here could easily have wiped out Franconia and the Upper Palatinate (and its residents and their successors and Ipernity users.) Secondly, the asteroid was too slow to bring with it the momentum that is required to create a noteworthy, well-known crater (like the Ries-Crater). So, for these two reasons mentioned, small Happach Crater was created without ever gaining much popularity.

Later, an energy supplier used this void to establish a water power plant, pumping water from an artificial valley basin into this top-of-the-mountain pool. They obviously were in search for the perpetuum mobile: Water that is running down pumps the water to the top. It seems to have worked. For many years, it was operated, helping the people of Franconia to keep track with the general development in Germany and not become another Nebulae (neue Bundesländer).

Heute ist der Krater unbrauchbar. Eon wird das Becken nicht weiter benutzen, der Boden ist nach wie vor durchlässig und die Reparatur wohl zu teuer (oder alternative Energien zu stark ausgebaut).