200 million years ago the area of Lauterbach was covered by sea water.
Remains of animals living in this environment (fossiles) were exposed by limestone mining in  the suburb of Maar.
The place was abandoned only limestone high walls and an old  furnace can still be seen.
        (Limestone was decomposed in it by strong heating to produce quick lime which disintegrates forming slaked lime
          which is a useful building material.)
Recultivation such of a former limestone quarry could transform it into a  place of learning and leasure.

...

By the publication "Geology of the area of  Maar Lauterbach, Vogelsberg"
(T. Schwarz, Berlin 1987) and by using own discoveries (middle photo) it was confirmed that more than 200 million years ago the area was covered by sea water. Among others CRINOIDEA ("Sea lilies") and BRACHIOPODA ("mussel worms") were living here.
In spite of their appearance CRINOIDEA (left photo) are no plants but animals. They are related to other sea water animals like sea urchins and star fish.
They were fixed to sea bottom with their stem subdivided into houndreds of parts ("Stielglieder"). They were eating tiny plankton organisms they filtered from the water. After dying their stems disintegrated into its parts  (middle photo: pentangula and round particles of the stem collected in the Maar quarry).
BRACHIOPODA (3. and right photos) form an own phyllum of animals. In former ages they existed in huge numbers. They resemble mussels but their two shells and also their soft bodies
differ very much from those of mussels. The right photo shows a brachiopod which lived in the same period like those in the Maar quarry.