Brocken station
Encyclopedia
Brocken station is the terminus on the summit of the Brocken, the highest mountain in the Harz
in central Germany. It lies in the state of Saxony-Anhalt
and is the end point of the Brocken Railway operated by the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways.
.
. Initially trains only ran during the summer months due to the harsh winter weather conditions. Following the destruction in the final days of the Second World War the line to the Brocken was closed and only reopened again on 14 May 1949. From 1950 the station was also serve in the winter. At that time station was very busy. In July 1960 it received 90,000 passengers.
With the construction of border defences between East
and West Germany
that ran close to the Brocken, public train services to the mountain ended on 13 August 1961. Brocken station acted as accommodation for the Border Troops of the GDR. In the period to 1987, only a few materiel goods trains called at the station. After the political changes
following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Brocken Railway was reopened in 1991 and Brocken station was once again used as a railway station.
Harz
The Harz is the highest mountain range in northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart , latinized as Hercynia. The legendary Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz...
in central Germany. It lies in the state of Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt is a landlocked state of Germany. Its capital is Magdeburg and it is surrounded by the German states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of...
and is the end point of the Brocken Railway operated by the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways.
Location
The railway station also known in German as the Brockenbahnhof lies only a few metres below the summit of the Brocken at a height of 1,125 metres. It is the highest railway station in Germany that is served by a railway without a rack systemRack railway
A rack-and-pinion railway is a railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with this rack rail...
.
History
The line to the Brocken was opened on 4 October 1898. The present station building was built in 1924 of graniteGranite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
. Initially trains only ran during the summer months due to the harsh winter weather conditions. Following the destruction in the final days of the Second World War the line to the Brocken was closed and only reopened again on 14 May 1949. From 1950 the station was also serve in the winter. At that time station was very busy. In July 1960 it received 90,000 passengers.
With the construction of border defences between East
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
and West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
that ran close to the Brocken, public train services to the mountain ended on 13 August 1961. Brocken station acted as accommodation for the Border Troops of the GDR. In the period to 1987, only a few materiel goods trains called at the station. After the political changes
Die Wende
marks the complete process of the change from socialism and planned economy to market economy and capitalism in East Germany around the years 1989 and 1990. It encompasses several processes and events which later have become synonymous with the overall process...
following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Brocken Railway was reopened in 1991 and Brocken station was once again used as a railway station.