The Brocken
Encyclopedia
The Brocken, Blocksberg or Bocksberg, is the highest peak of the Harz
mountain range and also the highest peak of Northern Germany
; it is located near Schierke
in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt
between the rivers Weser
and Elbe
. Although its altitude of 1141 metres (3,743.4 ft) is below alpine
dimensions, its microclimate
resembles that of mountains of about 2000 m (6,561.7 ft). The peak above the tree line tends to have a snow cover from September to May, and mists and fog
s shroud it up to 300 days of the year. The mean annual temperature is only 2.9 °C (37.2 °F). It is the easternmost mountain in Northern Germany; travelling East in a straight line, the next prominent elevation would be within the Ural Mountains
.
The Brocken has always played a role in legends and has been connected with witches and devil
s; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
took up the legends in his play Faust
. The Brocken spectre
is a common phenomenon on this misty mountain, where a climber's shadow cast upon fog creates eerie optical effects.
Today the Brocken is part of the Harz National Park
and hosts a historic botanical garden of about 1,600 alpine mountain plants. A narrow gauge steam railway, the Brocken Railway, takes visitors to the railway station at the top on 1125 m (3,690.9 ft).
FM-radio and television broadcasting make major use of the Brocken. The old TV tower, the Sender Brocken
, is now used as hotel and restaurant. It also has an observation deck, open to all tourists.
in the borough of Wernigerode
, whose main town lies about 12 km east-northeast of the mountain. The state boundary with Lower Saxony
runs past the Brocken some 2 km to the west. At the southeastern foot of the Brocken lies the spa resort of Schierke
.
Somewhat to the north below the summit of the Brocken is a reservoir, the Brockenteich, constructed in 1744. On or near the mountain are the source areas of the rivers Bode, Ecker
, Ilse and Oder
. The rounded summit of the Brocken is treeless, but vegetated with dwarf shrubs.
, Königsberg
and Kleiner Brocken ("Little Brocken") .
Before 1989 the height of the Brocken was recorded in almost all the relevant maps and books as . A survey of the summit at the beginning of the 1990s based on the current reference system, however, gave the height as just . In order to provide a reference point for the old data, in the mid-1990s granite boulders were set on the highest point of the Brocken, which not only matched the old given height, but exceeded it by about a metre. A bench mark of "1142 m" was recorded on the summit stone. This height on the upper plate refers to the line on the lower plate.
(called Brocken granite), an igneous rock. The granitic plutons
of the Harz - the Brocken, Ramberg and Oker plutons - emerged towards the end of the Harz mountain-building phase of the Upper Carboniferous, about 300 million years ago. First, alkaline magma
intruded into the overlying sediments, crystallized out and formed gabbro
and diorite
massifs, such as the Harzburg gabbro. A little later, silica-rich granitic magma rose, some intruding into voids and gaps in the older rocks, but most being created by the melting of existing sediments. On the boundary between granite and host rock, the so-called contact zone, a great variety of transitions may be seen. For example, the summit of the Achtermannshöhe
consists of contact-metamorphosed hornfels
of the contact zone that, here, lies over the Brocken granite. The subsequent erosion of the Harz mountains that followed the uplifting of the Harz during the Upper Cretaceous saw the disappearance of the protective hornfels summit, thus exposing the granite that had crystallized underground during the Upper Carboniferous. The alleged hardness of Brocken granite is not the reason for the height of the mountain, but the geological fact that it was well protected by its weather-resistant hornfels crest for a long time before erosion set in.
Only in recent geological times, since the tertiary
period, did the typical, rounded, "woolsack weathering" of granite outcrops and granite boulders of the Brocken take place. Such blockfield
s are very rare in Central Europe outside the Alps and are subject to conservation measures. They originated mainly under periglacial conditions, i.e. during the course of the ice age
s, and their retreat. Today's blockfields of Brocken granite, as well as other rocks in the Harz National Park, particularly in the Oder valley, are therefore at least 10,000 years old. Physical weathering, such as frost shattering, has played a key role in their formation, resulting in giant piles of loosely-stacked rocks. In 2006, the granite blockfields of the Brocken, together with 76 other interesting geotopes, were designated as a "National Geotope".
The Brocken is a place of extreme weather conditions. Due to its exposed location in the north of Germany its peak lies above the natural tree line. The climate
on the Brocken is like that of an alpine location or even that of Iceland
's 1,600 – 2,200 m zone. This is due to its short summers and very long winters, with many months of continuous snow cover, strong storms and low temperatures even in summer.
Due to its significant height difference compared with the surrounding terrain the Brocken has the highest precipitation of any point in northern central Europe, with an average annual precipitation (1961–1990) of 1,814 millimetres. Its average annual temperature is 2.9 °C.
The Brocken weather station has recorded the following extreme values:
The Brocken also holds the record for the greatest number of days of mist and fog in a single calendar year in Germany - 330 days in 1958
- and has an average of 120 days of snowfall per year.
and the Alps
.
The Brocken is the only mountain in Germany's Central Uplands
whose summit lies above the treeline, so that only very small spruce
grow there and much of it is covered by a dwarf shrub heathland. In the Brocken Garden, established in 1890, flora is nurtured by National Park employees and visitors are allowed to view it as part of regular guided tours. The garden does not just display plants from the Brocken, but also high mountain flora from other regions and countries.
Amongst the typical species of the Brocken that are rarely if ever found elsewhere in North Germany and which occur above about are the variant of the Alpine Pasqueflower
known as the Brocken flower or Brocken anemone (Pulsatilla alpina subsp. alba), hawkweed
s like the Brocken Hawkweed (Hieracium negrescens) and the Alpine Hawkweed (Hieracium alpinum), vernal grasses (Anthoxanthum), the Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla), the Tormentil (Potentilla tormentilla), the Alpine Clubmoss (Diphasiastrum alpinum), the lichens, Iceland Moss
(Cetraria islandica) and Reindeer Lichen (Cladonia rangiferina). The Crowberry
is also referred to here as the Brocken Myrtle (Brockenmyrte).
On the raised bogs around the summit of the Brocken there are e.g. Cottongrasses, Sundew
s and the Dwarf Birch
(Betula nana).
(Anthus aquaticus) and the Ring Ouzel
both breed in the area around the summit.
The Viviparous Lizard
occurs on the Brocken in a unique, dark-colored variant, Lacerta vivipara aberr. negra. The common frog
(Rana temporaria) can also be found here. Insects are very numerous. There are many beetles including ground beetle
s such as Amara Erratica, and hundreds of species of butterfly
. The Cabbage White
here only produces one generation per year compared with two in the lowlands.
Some mammal and bird species that occur here are relicts of the ice age
, including the Northern Bat
(Eptesicus nils soni), the Alpine shrew
(Sorex alpinus) and the Ring Ouzel.
of the mountain area. In 1736 Count Christian Ernst of Stolberg-Wernigerode
had the Wolkenhäuschen ("Clouds Cabin") erected at the summit, a small refuge that is still preserved. He also had a mountain lodge built at the southern slope, named Heinrichshöhe after his son Henry (Heinrich) Ernest. The first inn on the Brocken summit was built around 1800.
Between 1821 and 1825 Carl Friedrich Gauss
used the line-of-sight to the Inselsberg within the Thuringian Forest
and the Hoher Hagen mountain near Göttingen
for triangulation
in the course of the geodesic
survey
of the Kingdom of Hanover
.
A measurement carried out by the military staff of Prussia
in 1850 found the Brocken's height to be at its present level of 1141.1 metres. After the first Brocken lodge had been destroyed by a fire, a new hotel opened in 1862. The Brocken Garden, a botanical garden
, was laid out in 1890 by Professor Albert Peter of Göttingen University on an area of 4600 m² (49,514 sq ft) granted by Count Otto of Stolberg-Wernigerode. It was Germany's first Alpine garden.
The narrow gauge
Brocken Railway was opened on 27 March 1899. Brocken station
is one of the highest railway stations in Germany lying at a height of . Its gauge is 1000 mm. In 1935 the Deutsche Reichspost
made the first television
broadcast from the Brocken using a mobile transmitter and, in the following year, the first television tower in the world was built on the mountain; carrying the first live television
broadcast of the Summer Olympics
in Berlin
. The tower continued functioning until September 1939, when the authorities suspended broadcasting on the outbreak of World War II
.
In 1937 the Brocken, together with the Wurmberg
, Achtermann
and Acker-Bruchberg
were designated as the Upper Harz (Oberharz) nature reserve
.
During an air attack by the U.S. Air Force
on 17 April 1945 the Brocken Hotel and the weather station were destroyed by bombing. The television tower, however, survived. From 1945 until April 1947, the Brocken was occupied by US
troops. As part of the exchange of territorial (specified at the Yalta Conference
) the mountain was transferred to the Soviet occupation zone. Before the Americans left the Brocken in 1947, however, they disabled the rebuilt weather station and the television tower.
The ruins of the Brocken Hotel were blown up in 1949. From 1948 to 1959 part of the Brocken was reopened to tourists. Although a pass was required, these were freely issued. From August 1961 the Brocken, which lay in East Germany's border zone, immediately adjacent to West Germany
, was declared an out-of-bounds area and was therefore not open to the public. Extensive military installations were built on and around the summit was exploited. The security of the area was the responsibility of the border guards of the 7th Schierke
Border Company, which was stationed in platoon strength on the summit. For accommodation, they used Brocken railway station. The Soviet
Red Army
also used a large portion of territory. In 1987, the goods traffic on the Brocken Railway ceased due to poor track conditions.
The Brocken was extensively used for surveillance and espionage purposes. On the summit were two large and powerful listening posts. One belonged to Soviet military intelligence, the GRU and was also the westernmost outpost of Moscow; the other was Department III of the Ministry for State Security
in the GDR. The listening posts were codenamed "Yenisei" and "Urian". Between 1973 to 1976 a new modern television tower was built for the second channel of the GDR-TV
. Today it is used by the public Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen
(ZDF) TV network. The Stasi
(East German secret police) used the old tower until 1985, when they moved to a new building – now a museum. To seal the area, the entire Brocken plateau was then surrounded by a concrete wall, built from 2,318 sections, each one 2.4 tons in weight and 3.60 metres high. The whole area was not publicly accessible until December 3, 1989. The wall has since been dismantled, as have the Russian barracks and the domes of their listening posts. Today the old tower beside the lodge again is home to a weather station of the Deutscher Wetterdienst.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall on 3 December 1989 the Brocken was again open to the public during a demonstration walk. With German reunification
there was a gradual reduction in border security facilitiess and military installations from 1990. The last Russian soldier left the Brocken on 30 March 1994. The Brocken summit was renaturalised at a cost of millions of euros. It is now a popular tourist destination for visitors to the Harz.
As a protected area
since 1939 and due to the decades of restricted access the unique climate of the Brocken provided outstanding conditions. The massif is partly still covered with primary forest extremely rare in Germany. It provides perfect conditions for endangered and nearly extinct species like the Eurasian Lynx
, Wildcat
s and Capercaillie
s. The Brocken was therefore declared part of a national park
in 1990.
. Hitherto the region had just been described as the Harz. This was primarily because, until then, the focus had been mining. The first record of a placename that resembles the present name of the mountain goes back, however, to the year 1176 when it is referred to as broke in the Saxon World Chronicle (Sächsischen Weltchronik). Another early written reference to the mountain, this time as the Brackenberg, appears in 1490 in a letter from Count Henry of Stolberg. Other early documented names of the Brocken were, in 1401, the Brockenberg, in 1424 the Brocberg, in 1495 mons ruptus (Latin), in 1511 the Brogken and Brockin, in 1531 the Brogken, in 1540 the Brokenberg and, in 1589, the Brackenberg.
In Old Saxon-Germanic times, a large portrait of Wodin is supposed to have been found on the Brocken. In addition, animal and human sacrifices were offered by the Saxons to their supreme god, Odin, on the blockfield
s of the summit until they renounced them as part of their baptismal vows when Christianity spread to the region under Charles the Great.
As far as the origin of the name is concerned, there are several interpretations:
In the town records (Stadtbuch) of Osterwieck
an entry for the Brocken was found in the year 1495 under the Latin
name of mons ruptus, which means "broken hill". Its Low German
name, broken, as the mountain had become named in 1176 in the Saxon World Chronicle and also in English
, means "broken". On the one hand, this explanation of its meaning can be attributed to the fact that the two mountains, "Kleiner Brocken" and "Großer Brocken", were formed by the breakup of a single massif. On the other hand, its meaning may refer to the serious erosion of the mountain. In other words it refers to the fact that the Brocken was eroded or "broken down" to its present size.
But the most likely derivation of the name comes from the shape of the mountain as a whole. A Brocken in German is a large, shapeless mass. The size of the Brocken may thus have given it its name. Since the term "block" has a similar meaning, this could also be the derivation of its alternative name, the Blocksberg. The true origin of the name Blocksberg, however, should not be seen as "block" in the sense of "mass", but rather the German word Block (as in block of wood) in witchcraft.
Another theory holds that the name "Brocken" is derived from Bruch, a word used in northern Germany for bog
or moor
, which commonly used to be spelt as Bruoch or Brok. It is however doubtful that this fact was primarily responsible for its name. Another possibility is that its name is derived from the fields of boulders strewn over the summit and the slopes of the mountain. This derivation for the name Brocken is, however, unlikely because such blockfields are also found on other mountains in the Harz. Moreover, the regions concerned were hardly known at the time when the term was used. Another presumption is based on the reference in a letter written in 1490 by Count Henry of Stolberg-Wernigerode, where he uses the term Brackenberg. However the suggestion that this referred to old, unusable timber, which was called Bracken, is disputed.
, Drei Annen Hohne
, Schierke
and the Brocken. The trains are regularly hauled by steam locomotive
s.
At the summit is the Brockenhaus with a museum on the history of the mountain and the Brocken Garden (a botanical garden), which is managed by the Harz National Park
. In addition there are restaurants and the Brocken Hotel, which is run by the Brocken publican (Brockenwirt), Hans Steinhoff. Important publicans in the past included Johann Friedrich Gerlach from 1801 to 1834, Carl Eduard Nehse between 1834 and 1850, who brought out a map of the Brocken in 1849 and the Brocken Register (Brockenstammbuch) in 1850, as well as Rudolf Schade from 1908 to 1927, who considerably increased the repute and the size of guest facilities on the Brocken.
The area around the Brocken is especially popular with hikers. The Goethe Way
(Goetheweg) is a well known trail that leads to the summit of the Brocken. It is named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who more-or-less followed this route in 1777. Many paths lead to the local towns of Schierke, Braunlage
and Sankt Andreasberg
. The 100 km long Harz Witches' Path also runs from the Brocken eastwards to Thale
and westwards via Torfhaus and Altenburg
to Osterode
. The "Bad Harzburg Devil's Path" runs from the Brocken to Bad Harzburg
. Mountain bike
rs also use the trails.
From Schierke from a metalled road leads to the summit, which is used by horse-drawn wagons, as well as touring
and racing cyclists. Because of the situation in the National Park, vehicles with internal combustion engines are only allowed with special permission.
Worthy of special mention is the bearer of the Badge of Honour of Saxony-Anhalt, Benno Schmidt (b. 1932) - also known Brocken Benno - of Wernigerode, who has climbed the mountain since 1989, almost daily, with more than 6,000 ascents (as at 21 May 2010) and whose feat has been registered in the Guinness Book of World Records.
with its start and finish south of Wernigerode. Both start in the valley, climb the Brocken and return. The most challenging part in each case is the last four kilometres to the Brocken summit, for which in both races, a separate mountains classification is given. This section is a concrete slab track with a steady incline of about 20% and the runners are exposed above the tree line, often to a sharp, icy wind. Of the just under 1,000 people who usually achieve it, only 50 negotiate this section without stopping to walk.
Since 2004, the Brocken Challenge, an ultra marathon 84 kilometres long from Göttingen
to the Brocken summit, has been staged in February each year. The proceeds from this event go to charity. The runs are conducted in accordance with the rules of the National Park.
The 87 kilometre-long "Brocken Climb" from Göttingen to the Brocken has taken place annually since 2003. More than 300 people take part in these two-day hikes in June.
In early May each year the Brunswick-Brocken Ultra Run takes place with 2x75 km legs spread over two days. The participants run from Brunswick to Schierke, cross the Brocken, overnight in Schierke and run back again the next day. Overall, it is therefore a 150 kilometre race.
Mosque" (Stasi-Moschee), a former surveillance installation for the Ministry for State Security
. The historic antenna equipment in the dome may be visited. Behind the building is checkpoint no. 9 on the Harzer Wandernadel
hiking trail network.
interest. From 1836 the Brockenwirt, who also ran the guest house and restaurant, kept meteorological records. The first weather station
on the Brocken was built in 1895. Technically poor and too small, it was partially demolished in 1912 and replaced with a large stone construction, the Hellman Observatory, that was not completed until the First World War. In 1917 the academic and nature lover, George Grobe, took over the running of the observation post, his daughter supporting him until his death in 1935. Today's weather station started life in 1939. Measurements were interrupted at the end of the Second World War as a result of military bombardment, but began again in 1947. On 16 March 2010 the Brocken Weather Station became a climate reference station to provide uninterrupted, long-term climatic observations.
Goethe may have gained inspiration from two rock formations on the mountain's summit, the Teufelskanzel (Devil's Pulpit) and the Hexenaltar (Witches' Altar).
The summit register entry Many stones, tired bones, prospect: none, Heinrich Heine ("Viele Steine, müde Beine, Aussicht keine, Heinrich Heine") is a popular, though unsourced phrase related to the weary ascent and the mostly foggy conditions.
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...
mountain range and also the highest peak of Northern Germany
Northern Germany
- Geography :The key terrain features of North Germany are the marshes along the coastline of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, and the geest and heaths inland. Also prominent are the low hills of the Baltic Uplands, the ground moraines, end moraines, sandur, glacial valleys, bogs, and Luch...
; it is located near Schierke
Schierke
Schierke is a village and a former municipality in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2009, it is part of the town Wernigerode.Schierke was first mentioned as Schiriken in a 1590 deed...
in the German 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...
between the rivers Weser
Weser River
The Weser is a river in north-western Germany. Formed at Hann. Münden by the Fulda and Werra, it flows through Lower Saxony, then reaching the historic port city of Bremen before emptying into the North Sea 50 km further north at Bremerhaven, which is also a seaport...
and Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
. Although its altitude of 1141 metres (3,743.4 ft) is below alpine
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
dimensions, its microclimate
Microclimate
A microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square feet or as large as many square miles...
resembles that of mountains of about 2000 m (6,561.7 ft). The peak above the tree line tends to have a snow cover from September to May, and mists and fog
Fog
Fog is a collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated...
s shroud it up to 300 days of the year. The mean annual temperature is only 2.9 °C (37.2 °F). It is the easternmost mountain in Northern Germany; travelling East in a straight line, the next prominent elevation would be within the Ural Mountains
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
.
The Brocken has always played a role in legends and has been connected with witches and devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
s; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
took up the legends in his play Faust
Goethe's Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts: and . Although written as a closet drama, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages...
. The Brocken spectre
Brocken spectre
A Brocken spectre , also called Brocken bow, mountain spectre or glockenspectre is the apparently enormous and magnified shadow of an observer, cast upon the upper surfaces of clouds opposite the sun...
is a common phenomenon on this misty mountain, where a climber's shadow cast upon fog creates eerie optical effects.
Today the Brocken is part of the Harz National Park
Harz National Park
The Harz National Park is a nature reserve in the German federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It comprises large portions of the western Harz mountain range, extending from Herzberg and Bad Lauterberg at the southern edge to Bad Harzburg and Ilsenburg on the northern slopes...
and hosts a historic botanical garden of about 1,600 alpine mountain plants. A narrow gauge steam railway, the Brocken Railway, takes visitors to the railway station at the top on 1125 m (3,690.9 ft).
FM-radio and television broadcasting make major use of the Brocken. The old TV tower, the Sender Brocken
Sender Brocken
The Brocken Transmitter is a facility for FM- and TV-transmitters on the Brocken, the highest mountain in northern Germany.The facility includes two transmission towers. The old tower was built between 1936 and 1937....
, is now used as hotel and restaurant. It also has an observation deck, open to all tourists.
Geography
Location
The Brocken rises over the Harz National ParkHarz National Park
The Harz National Park is a nature reserve in the German federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It comprises large portions of the western Harz mountain range, extending from Herzberg and Bad Lauterberg at the southern edge to Bad Harzburg and Ilsenburg on the northern slopes...
in the borough of Wernigerode
Wernigerode
Wernigerode is a town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode. Its population was 35,500 in 1999....
, whose main town lies about 12 km east-northeast of the mountain. The state boundary with Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
runs past the Brocken some 2 km to the west. At the southeastern foot of the Brocken lies the spa resort of Schierke
Schierke
Schierke is a village and a former municipality in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2009, it is part of the town Wernigerode.Schierke was first mentioned as Schiriken in a 1590 deed...
.
Somewhat to the north below the summit of the Brocken is a reservoir, the Brockenteich, constructed in 1744. On or near the mountain are the source areas of the rivers Bode, Ecker
Ecker
Ecker is a river in Germany. It may also refer to:Entertainment*Meng and Ecker As a name:*Danny Ecker*Janet Ecker*Guy Ecker*Haylie Ecker*William Ecker*Tyler Ecker*Enrique Ecker*Alexander Ecker*Johnny Ecker...
, Ilse and Oder
Oder (Harz)
The Oder is a 56 km long river in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a right tributary of the Rhume. Its source is in the Harz mountains, near Sankt Andreasberg. It flows southwest through Bad Lauterberg, Pöhlde and Hattorf am Harz...
. The rounded summit of the Brocken is treeless, but vegetated with dwarf shrubs.
Summit and subpeaks
The highest point on the Brocken reaches an elevation of . Its subpeaks include the HeinrichshöheHeinrichshöhe
The Heinrichshöhe is a subsidiary peak of the Brocken and, at , the second highest elevation in the Harz Mountains. The summit lies about 1.4 km southeast of the top of the Brocken near the Brocken Road in the Harz National Park....
, Königsberg
Königsberg (Brocken)
The Königsberg is a neighbouring peak of the Brocken and, at 1034 m above sea level the third highest elevation in the Harz mountains. It lies on a long ridge that runs from southeast to northwest about 1.5 km south of the Brocken's summit....
and Kleiner Brocken ("Little Brocken") .
Before 1989 the height of the Brocken was recorded in almost all the relevant maps and books as . A survey of the summit at the beginning of the 1990s based on the current reference system, however, gave the height as just . In order to provide a reference point for the old data, in the mid-1990s granite boulders were set on the highest point of the Brocken, which not only matched the old given height, but exceeded it by about a metre. A bench mark of "1142 m" was recorded on the summit stone. This height on the upper plate refers to the line on the lower plate.
Geology
From a geological point of view the Brocken and its surrounding terrain, the Brocken massif, consists mainly 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...
(called Brocken granite), an igneous rock. The granitic plutons
Pluton
A pluton in geology is a body of intrusive igneous rock that crystallized from magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Plutons include batholiths, dikes, sills, laccoliths, lopoliths, and other igneous bodies...
of the Harz - the Brocken, Ramberg and Oker plutons - emerged towards the end of the Harz mountain-building phase of the Upper Carboniferous, about 300 million years ago. First, alkaline magma
Magma
Magma is a mixture of molten rock, volatiles and solids that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and is expected to exist on other terrestrial planets. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and dissolved gas and sometimes also gas bubbles. Magma often collects in...
intruded into the overlying sediments, crystallized out and formed gabbro
Gabbro
Gabbro refers to a large group of dark, coarse-grained, intrusive mafic igneous rocks chemically equivalent to basalt. The rocks are plutonic, formed when molten magma is trapped beneath the Earth's surface and cools into a crystalline mass....
and diorite
Diorite
Diorite is a grey to dark grey intermediate intrusive igneous rock composed principally of plagioclase feldspar , biotite, hornblende, and/or pyroxene. It may contain small amounts of quartz, microcline and olivine. Zircon, apatite, sphene, magnetite, ilmenite and sulfides occur as accessory...
massifs, such as the Harzburg gabbro. A little later, silica-rich granitic magma rose, some intruding into voids and gaps in the older rocks, but most being created by the melting of existing sediments. On the boundary between granite and host rock, the so-called contact zone, a great variety of transitions may be seen. For example, the summit of the Achtermannshöhe
Achtermannshöhe
At , the Achtermannshöhe in the Harz National Park is the third highest mountain in Lower Saxony and the fourth highest in the Harz mountains....
consists of contact-metamorphosed hornfels
Hornfels
Hornfels is the group designation for a series of contact metamorphic rocks that have been baked and indurated by the heat of intrusive igneous masses and have been rendered...
of the contact zone that, here, lies over the Brocken granite. The subsequent erosion of the Harz mountains that followed the uplifting of the Harz during the Upper Cretaceous saw the disappearance of the protective hornfels summit, thus exposing the granite that had crystallized underground during the Upper Carboniferous. The alleged hardness of Brocken granite is not the reason for the height of the mountain, but the geological fact that it was well protected by its weather-resistant hornfels crest for a long time before erosion set in.
Only in recent geological times, since the tertiary
Tertiary
The Tertiary is a deprecated term for a geologic period 65 million to 2.6 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary...
period, did the typical, rounded, "woolsack weathering" of granite outcrops and granite boulders of the Brocken take place. Such blockfield
Blockfield
A blockfield or felsenmeer is a surface covered by block-sized angular rocks usually associated alpine and subpolar climates and periglaciation...
s are very rare in Central Europe outside the Alps and are subject to conservation measures. They originated mainly under periglacial conditions, i.e. during the course of the ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
s, and their retreat. Today's blockfields of Brocken granite, as well as other rocks in the Harz National Park, particularly in the Oder valley, are therefore at least 10,000 years old. Physical weathering, such as frost shattering, has played a key role in their formation, resulting in giant piles of loosely-stacked rocks. In 2006, the granite blockfields of the Brocken, together with 76 other interesting geotopes, were designated as a "National Geotope".
Climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
on the Brocken is like that of an alpine location or even that of Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
's 1,600 – 2,200 m zone. This is due to its short summers and very long winters, with many months of continuous snow cover, strong storms and low temperatures even in summer.
Due to its significant height difference compared with the surrounding terrain the Brocken has the highest precipitation of any point in northern central Europe, with an average annual precipitation (1961–1990) of 1,814 millimetres. Its average annual temperature is 2.9 °C.
The Brocken weather station has recorded the following extreme values:
- Its highest temperature was 28.2 °C on 12 August 2003.
- Its lowest temperature was -28.4 °C on 1 February 1956.
- In 1973 it had 205 days of snow cover.
- Its greatest depth of snow was 380 cm on 14 and 15 April 1970.
- Its highest measured windspeed was 263 km/h on 24 November 1984.
- Its greatest annual precipitation was 2,335 mm in 1981.
- Its least annual precipitation was 984 mm in 1953.
- The longest annual sunshine was 2004.5 hours in 1921.
- The shortest annual sunshine was 972.2 hours in 1912.
The Brocken also holds the record for the greatest number of days of mist and fog in a single calendar year in Germany - 330 days in 1958
- and has an average of 120 days of snowfall per year.
Flora
The harsh climate of the Brocken makes it a habitat for rare species. The mountain's summit is a subalpine zone with flora and fauna almost comparable to those of north ScandinaviaScandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
and the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
.
The Brocken is the only mountain in Germany's Central Uplands
Central Uplands
The Central Uplands is one of the three major natural regions of Germany and covers most of the land area of the country. To the north lies the North German Plain or Northern Lowland; to the south, the Alps and the Alpine Foreland.- Formation :...
whose summit lies above the treeline, so that only very small spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
grow there and much of it is covered by a dwarf shrub heathland. In the Brocken Garden, established in 1890, flora is nurtured by National Park employees and visitors are allowed to view it as part of regular guided tours. The garden does not just display plants from the Brocken, but also high mountain flora from other regions and countries.
Amongst the typical species of the Brocken that are rarely if ever found elsewhere in North Germany and which occur above about are the variant of the Alpine Pasqueflower
Pulsatilla alpina
Pulsatilla alpina, alpine pasqueflower, or alpine anemone is an alpine plant found in the mountain ranges of central and southern Europe from central Spain to Croatia...
known as the Brocken flower or Brocken anemone (Pulsatilla alpina subsp. alba), hawkweed
Hawkweed
Hawkweed refers to any species in the very large genus Hieracium and its segregate genus Pilosella, in the sunflower family ....
s like the Brocken Hawkweed (Hieracium negrescens) and the Alpine Hawkweed (Hieracium alpinum), vernal grasses (Anthoxanthum), the Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla), the Tormentil (Potentilla tormentilla), the Alpine Clubmoss (Diphasiastrum alpinum), the lichens, Iceland Moss
Iceland moss
Iceland moss is a lichen whose erect or ascending foliaceous habit gives it something of the appearance of a moss, whence probably the name...
(Cetraria islandica) and Reindeer Lichen (Cladonia rangiferina). The Crowberry
Crowberry
Crowberry is a small genus of dwarf evergreen shrubs that bear edible fruit. They are commonly found in the northern hemisphere, from temperate to subarctic climates, and also in the Southern Andes of South America and on the South Atlantic islands of South Georgia, the Falklands and Tristan da...
is also referred to here as the Brocken Myrtle (Brockenmyrte).
On the raised bogs around the summit of the Brocken there are e.g. Cottongrasses, Sundew
Sundew
Drosera, commonly known as the sundews, comprise one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginous glands covering their leaf surface. The insects are used to supplement...
s and the Dwarf Birch
Dwarf Birch
Betula nana is a species of birch in the family Betulaceae, found mainly in the tundra of the Arctic region.-Description:...
(Betula nana).
Fauna
Several animal species have adapted to the conditions of life on the Brocken. For example, the Water PipitWater Pipit
The Water Pipit, Anthus spinoletta, is a small passerine bird which breeds in the mountains of southern Europe and southern temperate Asia across to China. It is a short-distance migrant moving to wet open lowlands such as marshes and flooded fields in winter...
(Anthus aquaticus) and the Ring Ouzel
Ring Ouzel
The Ring Ouzel is a European member of the thrush family Turdidae.It is the mountain equivalent of the closely related Common Blackbird, and breeds in gullies, rocky areas or scree slopes....
both breed in the area around the summit.
The Viviparous Lizard
Viviparous lizard
The viviparous lizard or common lizard is a Eurasian lizard. It lives farther north than any other reptile species, and most populations are viviparous , rather than laying eggs as most other lizards do.-Identification:The length of the body is less than...
occurs on the Brocken in a unique, dark-colored variant, Lacerta vivipara aberr. negra. The common frog
Common Frog
The Common Frog, Rana temporaria also known as the European Common Frog or European Common Brown Frog is found throughout much of Europe as far north as well north of the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia and as far east as the Urals, except for most of Iberia, southern Italy, and the southern Balkans...
(Rana temporaria) can also be found here. Insects are very numerous. There are many beetles including ground beetle
Ground beetle
Ground beetles are a large, cosmopolitan family of beetles, Carabidae, with more than 40,000 species worldwide, approximately 2,000 of which are found in North America and 2,700 in Europe.-Description and ecology:...
s such as Amara Erratica, and hundreds of species of butterfly
Butterfly
A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...
. The Cabbage White
Large White
The Large White , also called Cabbage Butterfly, Cabbage White, or in India the Large Cabbage White, White cabbage butterfly is a butterfly in the family Pieridae.-Distribution:...
here only produces one generation per year compared with two in the lowlands.
Some mammal and bird species that occur here are relicts of the ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
, including the Northern Bat
Northern Bat
The Northern Bat is a species of bat. An adult Northern Bat has a body length of 4.9-6.6 cm, a tail of 3.2-5.1 cm, and a wing length of 4.1-5.1 cm. The species is found across Europe and Asia, from England to Hokkaidō and south to northern India.-References: 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened...
(Eptesicus nils soni), the Alpine shrew
Alpine Shrew
The Alpine Shrew is a species of mammal in the Soricidae family. It is found in Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, the Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and...
(Sorex alpinus) and the Ring Ouzel.
History
Ascent, construction and use
The first ascent of the Brocken was documented in 1572 by the physician and botanist, Johannes Thal from Stolberg, who in his book Sylva Hercynia described the floraFlora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
of the mountain area. In 1736 Count Christian Ernst of Stolberg-Wernigerode
Stolberg-Wernigerode
The Principality of Stolberg-Wernigerode was a county of the Holy Roman Empire located in the Harz region around Wernigerode, now part of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.-History:...
had the Wolkenhäuschen ("Clouds Cabin") erected at the summit, a small refuge that is still preserved. He also had a mountain lodge built at the southern slope, named Heinrichshöhe after his son Henry (Heinrich) Ernest. The first inn on the Brocken summit was built around 1800.
Between 1821 and 1825 Carl Friedrich Gauss
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy and optics.Sometimes referred to as the Princeps mathematicorum...
used the line-of-sight to the Inselsberg within the Thuringian Forest
Thuringian Forest
The Thuringian Forest running northwest to southeast, forms a continuous stretch of ancient rounded mountains posing ample difficulties in transit routing save through a few navigable passes in the southern reaches of the German state of Thuringia. It is about long and wide...
and the Hoher Hagen mountain near Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
for triangulation
Triangulation
In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known points at either end of a fixed baseline, rather than measuring distances to the point directly...
in the course of the geodesic
Geodesy
Geodesy , also named geodetics, a branch of earth sciences, is the scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth, including its gravitational field, in a three-dimensional time-varying space. Geodesists also study geodynamical phenomena such as crustal...
survey
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
of the Kingdom of Hanover
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
.
A measurement carried out by the military staff of Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
in 1850 found the Brocken's height to be at its present level of 1141.1 metres. After the first Brocken lodge had been destroyed by a fire, a new hotel opened in 1862. The Brocken Garden, a botanical garden
Botanical garden
A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...
, was laid out in 1890 by Professor Albert Peter of Göttingen University on an area of 4600 m² (49,514 sq ft) granted by Count Otto of Stolberg-Wernigerode. It was Germany's first Alpine garden.
Narrow gauge
A narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :...
Brocken Railway was opened on 27 March 1899. Brocken station
Brocken station
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.- Location :...
is one of the highest railway stations in Germany lying at a height of . Its gauge is 1000 mm. In 1935 the Deutsche Reichspost
Reichspost
- Imperial Reichspost :* The Imperial Reichspost was the name of the postal service of the Holy Roman Empire, founded by Franz von Taxis in 1495...
made the first television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
broadcast from the Brocken using a mobile transmitter and, in the following year, the first television tower in the world was built on the mountain; carrying the first live television
Live television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
broadcast of the Summer Olympics
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. The tower continued functioning until September 1939, when the authorities suspended broadcasting on the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
In 1937 the Brocken, together with the Wurmberg
Wurmberg (Harz)
At the Wurmberg is the second highest mountain in the Harz and the highest in Lower Saxony .- Geography :The Wurmberg lies north of Braunlage, in the district of Goslar, and west of Schierke. Its summit is located due south of the Brocken and roughly 400 m south of the state border with...
, Achtermann
Achtermannshöhe
At , the Achtermannshöhe in the Harz National Park is the third highest mountain in Lower Saxony and the fourth highest in the Harz mountains....
and Acker-Bruchberg
Bruchberg
At the Bruchberg in the Upper Harz is the second highest mountain in Lower Saxony and the third highest in the Harz mountains in North Germany. It lies between Altenau and Torfhaus in the middle of the Harz National Park. The Bruchberg is more like a plateau and has no real summit...
were designated as the Upper Harz (Oberharz) nature reserve
Nature reserve
A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...
.
During an air attack by the U.S. Air Force
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
on 17 April 1945 the Brocken Hotel and the weather station were destroyed by bombing. The television tower, however, survived. From 1945 until April 1947, the Brocken was occupied by US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
troops. As part of the exchange of territorial (specified at the Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
) the mountain was transferred to the Soviet occupation zone. Before the Americans left the Brocken in 1947, however, they disabled the rebuilt weather station and the television tower.
The ruins of the Brocken Hotel were blown up in 1949. From 1948 to 1959 part of the Brocken was reopened to tourists. Although a pass was required, these were freely issued. From August 1961 the Brocken, which lay in East Germany's border zone, immediately adjacent to 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....
, was declared an out-of-bounds area and was therefore not open to the public. Extensive military installations were built on and around the summit was exploited. The security of the area was the responsibility of the border guards of the 7th Schierke
Schierke
Schierke is a village and a former municipality in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2009, it is part of the town Wernigerode.Schierke was first mentioned as Schiriken in a 1590 deed...
Border Company, which was stationed in platoon strength on the summit. For accommodation, they used Brocken railway station. The Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
also used a large portion of territory. In 1987, the goods traffic on the Brocken Railway ceased due to poor track conditions.
The Brocken was extensively used for surveillance and espionage purposes. On the summit were two large and powerful listening posts. One belonged to Soviet military intelligence, the GRU and was also the westernmost outpost of Moscow; the other was Department III of the Ministry for State Security
Ministry for State Security
Ministry for State Security or Ministry of State Security may refer to several state security ministries:*Ministry of State Security of the People's Republic of China*Ministry for State Security *Ministry for State Security...
in the GDR. The listening posts were codenamed "Yenisei" and "Urian". Between 1973 to 1976 a new modern television tower was built for the second channel of the GDR-TV
Broadcasting in East Germany
Rundfunk der DDR was the radio broadcasting organisation for the German Democratic Republic from 1952 until German reunification...
. Today it is used by the public Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
(ZDF) TV network. The Stasi
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
(East German secret police) used the old tower until 1985, when they moved to a new building – now a museum. To seal the area, the entire Brocken plateau was then surrounded by a concrete wall, built from 2,318 sections, each one 2.4 tons in weight and 3.60 metres high. The whole area was not publicly accessible until December 3, 1989. The wall has since been dismantled, as have the Russian barracks and the domes of their listening posts. Today the old tower beside the lodge again is home to a weather station of the Deutscher Wetterdienst.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall on 3 December 1989 the Brocken was again open to the public during a demonstration walk. With German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
there was a gradual reduction in border security facilitiess and military installations from 1990. The last Russian soldier left the Brocken on 30 March 1994. The Brocken summit was renaturalised at a cost of millions of euros. It is now a popular tourist destination for visitors to the Harz.
As a protected area
Protected area
Protected areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognised natural, ecological and/or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the enabling laws of each country or the regulations of the international...
since 1939 and due to the decades of restricted access the unique climate of the Brocken provided outstanding conditions. The massif is partly still covered with primary forest extremely rare in Germany. It provides perfect conditions for endangered and nearly extinct species like the Eurasian Lynx
Eurasian Lynx
The Eurasian lynx is a medium-sized cat native to European and Siberian forests, South Asia and East Asia. It is also known as the European lynx, common lynx, the northern lynx, and the Siberian or Russian lynx...
, Wildcat
Wildcat
Wildcat is a small felid native to Europe, the western part of Asia, and Africa.-Animals:Wildcat may also refer to members of the genus Lynx:...
s and Capercaillie
Capercaillie
The Western Capercaillie , also known as the Wood Grouse, Heather Cock or Capercaillie , is the largest member of the grouse family, reaching over 100 cm in length and 6.7 kg in weight. The largest one ever recorded in captivity had a weight of 7.2 kg....
s. The Brocken was therefore declared part of a national park
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
in 1990.
Name and significance
The widespread use of the name "Brocken" did not occur until towards the end of the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. Hitherto the region had just been described as the Harz. This was primarily because, until then, the focus had been mining. The first record of a placename that resembles the present name of the mountain goes back, however, to the year 1176 when it is referred to as broke in the Saxon World Chronicle (Sächsischen Weltchronik). Another early written reference to the mountain, this time as the Brackenberg, appears in 1490 in a letter from Count Henry of Stolberg. Other early documented names of the Brocken were, in 1401, the Brockenberg, in 1424 the Brocberg, in 1495 mons ruptus (Latin), in 1511 the Brogken and Brockin, in 1531 the Brogken, in 1540 the Brokenberg and, in 1589, the Brackenberg.
In Old Saxon-Germanic times, a large portrait of Wodin is supposed to have been found on the Brocken. In addition, animal and human sacrifices were offered by the Saxons to their supreme god, Odin, on the blockfield
Blockfield
A blockfield or felsenmeer is a surface covered by block-sized angular rocks usually associated alpine and subpolar climates and periglaciation...
s of the summit until they renounced them as part of their baptismal vows when Christianity spread to the region under Charles the Great.
As far as the origin of the name is concerned, there are several interpretations:
In the town records (Stadtbuch) of Osterwieck
Osterwieck
Osterwieck is a historic town in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is situated on the river Ilse, north of Wernigerode and the Harz mountain range. On 1 January 2010 the municipalities of the former Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Osterwieck-Fallstein merged in Osterwieck.The...
an entry for the Brocken was found in the year 1495 under the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
name of mons ruptus, which means "broken hill". Its Low German
Low German
Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...
name, broken, as the mountain had become named in 1176 in the Saxon World Chronicle and also in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, means "broken". On the one hand, this explanation of its meaning can be attributed to the fact that the two mountains, "Kleiner Brocken" and "Großer Brocken", were formed by the breakup of a single massif. On the other hand, its meaning may refer to the serious erosion of the mountain. In other words it refers to the fact that the Brocken was eroded or "broken down" to its present size.
But the most likely derivation of the name comes from the shape of the mountain as a whole. A Brocken in German is a large, shapeless mass. The size of the Brocken may thus have given it its name. Since the term "block" has a similar meaning, this could also be the derivation of its alternative name, the Blocksberg. The true origin of the name Blocksberg, however, should not be seen as "block" in the sense of "mass", but rather the German word Block (as in block of wood) in witchcraft.
Another theory holds that the name "Brocken" is derived from Bruch, a word used in northern Germany for bog
Bog
A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....
or moor
Moorland
Moorland or moor is a type of habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, found in upland areas, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils and heavy fog...
, which commonly used to be spelt as Bruoch or Brok. It is however doubtful that this fact was primarily responsible for its name. Another possibility is that its name is derived from the fields of boulders strewn over the summit and the slopes of the mountain. This derivation for the name Brocken is, however, unlikely because such blockfields are also found on other mountains in the Harz. Moreover, the regions concerned were hardly known at the time when the term was used. Another presumption is based on the reference in a letter written in 1490 by Count Henry of Stolberg-Wernigerode, where he uses the term Brackenberg. However the suggestion that this referred to old, unusable timber, which was called Bracken, is disputed.
Tourism
Today a narrow gauge railway, the Brocken Railway, once more shuttles between WernigerodeWernigerode
Wernigerode is a town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode. Its population was 35,500 in 1999....
, Drei Annen Hohne
Drei Annen Hohne
Drei Annen Hohne is a village that lies on the edge of the Harz National Park in the Harz mountains of central Germany. Administratively it is part of the borough of Wernigerode in the district of Harz within the German state of Saxony-Anhalt....
, Schierke
Schierke
Schierke is a village and a former municipality in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2009, it is part of the town Wernigerode.Schierke was first mentioned as Schiriken in a 1590 deed...
and the Brocken. The trains are regularly hauled by steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
s.
At the summit is the Brockenhaus with a museum on the history of the mountain and the Brocken Garden (a botanical garden), which is managed by the Harz National Park
Harz National Park
The Harz National Park is a nature reserve in the German federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It comprises large portions of the western Harz mountain range, extending from Herzberg and Bad Lauterberg at the southern edge to Bad Harzburg and Ilsenburg on the northern slopes...
. In addition there are restaurants and the Brocken Hotel, which is run by the Brocken publican (Brockenwirt), Hans Steinhoff. Important publicans in the past included Johann Friedrich Gerlach from 1801 to 1834, Carl Eduard Nehse between 1834 and 1850, who brought out a map of the Brocken in 1849 and the Brocken Register (Brockenstammbuch) in 1850, as well as Rudolf Schade from 1908 to 1927, who considerably increased the repute and the size of guest facilities on the Brocken.
The area around the Brocken is especially popular with hikers. The Goethe Way
Goethe Way
Goethe Way is the name given to a number of footpaths or trails that run through various regions in Germany and the Alps as well as a railway station on the Brocken Railway. They are all named after the German poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.- Harz :Torfhaus–Brocken* Length: ca...
(Goetheweg) is a well known trail that leads to the summit of the Brocken. It is named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who more-or-less followed this route in 1777. Many paths lead to the local towns of Schierke, Braunlage
Braunlage
Braunlage is a town and health resort in the Goslar district in Lower Saxony in Germany. It lies within the Harz mountain range, south of the Brocken.Nowadays Braunlage's main business is tourism, particularly ski tourists...
and Sankt Andreasberg
Sankt Andreasberg
Sankt Andreasberg is a town and a former municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 November 2011, it is part of the town Braunlage. It is situated in the Harz, approximately 7 km west of Braunlage proper, and 20 km east of Osterode am Harz.- History :Sankt...
. The 100 km long Harz Witches' Path also runs from the Brocken eastwards to Thale
Thale
Thale is a town in the Harz district in Saxony-Anhalt in central Germany.-Geography:It is situated on the river Bode, approximately 8 km west of Quedlinburg. It is the terminus of the Magdeburg–Thale railway.- History :...
and westwards via Torfhaus and Altenburg
Altenburg
Altenburg is a town in the German federal state of Thuringia, 45 km south of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district.-Geography:...
to Osterode
Osterode am Harz
For the town in East Prussia formerly called Osterode, see Ostróda.Osterode am Harz often simply called Osterode, is a town in south-eastern Niedersachsen on the south-western edge of the Harz mountains. It is the seat of government of the district of Osterode. The town is twinned with Scarborough,...
. The "Bad Harzburg Devil's Path" runs from the Brocken to Bad Harzburg
Bad Harzburg
Bad Harzburg is a town in central Germany, in the Goslar district of Lower Saxony. It lies on the northern edge of the Harz mountains and is a recognised saltwater spa and climatic health resort.- Location :...
. Mountain bike
Mountain bike
A mountain bike or mountain bicycle is a bicycle created for off-road cycling. This activity includes traversing of rocks and washouts, and steep declines,...
rs also use the trails.
From Schierke from a metalled road leads to the summit, which is used by horse-drawn wagons, as well as touring
Bicycle touring
Bicycle touring is cycling over long distances – prioritizing pleasure and endurance over utility or speed. Touring can range from single day 'supported' rides — e.g., rides to benefit charities — where provisions are available to riders at stops along the route, to multi-day...
and racing cyclists. Because of the situation in the National Park, vehicles with internal combustion engines are only allowed with special permission.
Worthy of special mention is the bearer of the Badge of Honour of Saxony-Anhalt, Benno Schmidt (b. 1932) - also known Brocken Benno - of Wernigerode, who has climbed the mountain since 1989, almost daily, with more than 6,000 ascents (as at 21 May 2010) and whose feat has been registered in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Sport
Two well-known running events pass over the Brocken: the Ilsenburg Brocken Run (beginning of September, 26 kilometres, of which 12 kilometres uphill, has taken place since the 1920s) and the Brocken Marathon which is part of the Harz Mountain RunHarz Mountain Run
The Harz Mountain Run is a mountain run, that has taken place since 1978 in October in Wernigerode in central German and since 1990 has had a marathon route known as the Brocken Marathon, in its programme. Other competitions include a 22 km run and an 11 km run. In 2007 a 5 km run...
with its start and finish south of Wernigerode. Both start in the valley, climb the Brocken and return. The most challenging part in each case is the last four kilometres to the Brocken summit, for which in both races, a separate mountains classification is given. This section is a concrete slab track with a steady incline of about 20% and the runners are exposed above the tree line, often to a sharp, icy wind. Of the just under 1,000 people who usually achieve it, only 50 negotiate this section without stopping to walk.
Since 2004, the Brocken Challenge, an ultra marathon 84 kilometres long from Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
to the Brocken summit, has been staged in February each year. The proceeds from this event go to charity. The runs are conducted in accordance with the rules of the National Park.
The 87 kilometre-long "Brocken Climb" from Göttingen to the Brocken has taken place annually since 2003. More than 300 people take part in these two-day hikes in June.
In early May each year the Brunswick-Brocken Ultra Run takes place with 2x75 km legs spread over two days. The participants run from Brunswick to Schierke, cross the Brocken, overnight in Schierke and run back again the next day. Overall, it is therefore a 150 kilometre race.
Buildings on the Brocken
Transmission site
Since the 1930s various radio and television transmitters have been erected on the Brocken, see Brocken Transmitter.Brocken House
Brocken House (Brockenhaus), the modern information centre for the Harz National Park, is located in the converted "StasiStasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
Mosque" (Stasi-Moschee), a former surveillance installation for the Ministry for State Security
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
. The historic antenna equipment in the dome may be visited. Behind the building is checkpoint no. 9 on the Harzer Wandernadel
Harzer Wandernadel
The Harzer Wandernadel is a network of checkpoints for walkers in the Harz mountains in North Germany. It includes a system whereby the hiker can earn badges at different levels by walking to the various checkpoints in the network and recording them...
hiking trail network.
Weather station
The extreme weather conditions of the Brocken are of special meteorologicalMeteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
interest. From 1836 the Brockenwirt, who also ran the guest house and restaurant, kept meteorological records. The first weather station
Weather station
A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for observing atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind...
on the Brocken was built in 1895. Technically poor and too small, it was partially demolished in 1912 and replaced with a large stone construction, the Hellman Observatory, that was not completed until the First World War. In 1917 the academic and nature lover, George Grobe, took over the running of the observation post, his daughter supporting him until his death in 1935. Today's weather station started life in 1939. Measurements were interrupted at the end of the Second World War as a result of military bombardment, but began again in 1947. On 16 March 2010 the Brocken Weather Station became a climate reference station to provide uninterrupted, long-term climatic observations.
Literary mentions
- Goethe described the Brocken in his Faust, first published in 1808, as the center of revelry for witches on Walpurgisnacht (April 30; the eve of St WalpurgaSaint WalpurgaSaint Walpurga or Walburga , also spelled Valderburg or Guibor, was an English missionary to the Frankish Empire. She was canonized on 1 May ca. 870 by Pope Adrian II...
's Day).
- Now to the Brocken the witches ride;
- The stubble is gold and the corn is green;
- There is the carnival crew to be seen,
- And Squire Urianus will come to preside.
- So over the valleys our company floats,
- With witches a-farting on stinking old goats.
Goethe may have gained inspiration from two rock formations on the mountain's summit, the Teufelskanzel (Devil's Pulpit) and the Hexenaltar (Witches' Altar).
- Another famous visitor on the Brocken, author Heinrich HeineHeinrich HeineChristian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
, wrote the book Harzreise ("A Harz Journey") published in 1826. He says:
- The mountain somehow appears so Germanically stoical, so understanding, so tolerant, just because it affords a view so high and wide and clear. And should such mountain open its giant eyes, it may well see more than we, who like dwarfs just trample on it, staring from stupid eyes.
The summit register entry Many stones, tired bones, prospect: none, Heinrich Heine ("Viele Steine, müde Beine, Aussicht keine, Heinrich Heine") is a popular, though unsourced phrase related to the weary ascent and the mostly foggy conditions.
- The teacher Heinrich PröhleHeinrich PröhleProf. Dr. Christoph Ferdinand Heinrich Pröhle was a German literary historian, teacher , writer, and folk tale—fairy tale collector .-Disambiguation of Heinrich:The given name »Heinrich« occures in several cases among the...
collected the Brockensagen talesTalesTales can refer to:*the plural of tale*Tales , a series of role-playing games*Tales , an album by Marcus Miller*Tales of Silversleeve, an album by Cathy Davey*Tales of the Unexpected , an Anglia television series...
and legendLegendA legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
s as well as the etymologyEtymologyEtymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
of the geographic names in the HarzHarzThe 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...
. He carefully examined the Teufelskanzel and the Hexenaltar, mentioned above. - Slothrop and Geli Tripping experience the famous Brocken Spectre in Thomas PynchonThomas PynchonThomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
's novel Gravity's RainbowGravity's RainbowGravity's Rainbow is a postmodern novel written by Thomas Pynchon and first published on February 28, 1973.The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II and centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military, and, in particular, the quest...
, as the Mittelbau-DoraMittelbau-DoraMittelbau-Dora was a Nazi Germany labour camp that provided workers for the Mittelwerk V-2 rocket factory in the Kohnstein, situated near Nordhausen, Germany....
labour camp in the Harz mountains north of Nordhausen from 1943 was the home of the V2 rocket production. In David Foster WallaceDavid Foster WallaceDavid Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories, and a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California...
's Pynchon-influenced Infinite JestInfinite JestInfinite Jest is a 1996 novel by David Foster Wallace. The lengthy and complex work takes place in a semi-parodic future version of North America, and touches on tennis, substance addiction and recovery programs, depression, child abuse, family relationships, advertising and popular entertainment,...
the characters Remy Marathe and Hugh Steeply also experience the Brocken spectre on a ridge in the desert outside Tucson.
The Brocken in popular culture
- "Black Sabbath", the first track of the debut album of the early occult rock band CovenCoven (band)Coven is an American rock band formed in the late 1960s, composed of vocalist Jinx Dawson, bassist Oz Osborne , Chris Neilsen on guitar, Rick Durrett and later John Hobbs on keyboards, and drummer Steve Ross...
, starts with the line "They journeyed far to Brocken Mountain pinnacle". - The progressive metalProgressive metalProgressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal originating in the United Kingdom and North America in the late 1980s...
band Fates WarningFates WarningFates Warning is an American progressive metal band, formed in 1982 by vocalist John Arch, guitarists Jim Matheos and Victor Arduini, bassist Joe DiBiase, and drummer Steve Zimmerman in Hartford, Connecticut. Fates Warning has experienced numerous line-up changes...
titled their debut album Night on BröckenNight on BröckenNight on Bröcken is the debut album by Fates Warning, released in September 1984. In 2002, Metal Blade Records released a remastered version of this album which contained bonus tracks....
(note the "Heavy metal umlautHeavy metal umlautA metal umlaut is a diaeresis that is sometimes used gratuitously or decoratively over letters in the names of hard rock or heavy metal bands—for example those of Mötley Crüe and Motörhead...
"). The title track refers to Witches SabbathSabbath (witchcraft)The Witches' Sabbath or Sabbat is a supposed meeting of those who practice witchcraft, and other rites.European records indicate cases of persons being accused or tried for taking part in Sabbat gatherings, from the Middle Ages to the 17th century or later.- Etymology :The English word “sabbat”...
on Walpurgis Night. - The song "Born in a Burial Gown" by Cradle of FilthCradle of FilthCradle of Filth are an English extreme metal band, formed in Suffolk in 1991. The band's musical style evolved from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic black metal, and other extreme metal styles, while their lyrical themes and imagery are heavily...
(from the album Bitter Suites to SuccubiBitter Suites to SuccubiCradle of Filth's Bitter Suites to Succubi is essentially an EP—or "transitional mini album" as the band's singer Dani Filth would have it; bridging the gap between Midian and Damnation and a Day while the band negotiated their label change from Music for Nations to Sony...
) contains an allusion to the Brocken's history as a witches' gathering-place. - The indie rockIndie rockIndie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band LiarsLiars (band)Liars is a three-piece band formed in 2000 consisting of Angus Andrew , Aaron Hemphill , and Julian Gross...
' album They Were Wrong, So We DrownedThey Were Wrong, So We DrownedThey Were Wrong, So We Drowned is the second album released by noise rock band Liars, released in 2004.The album takes the form of a very loose concept album concerning witchcraft upon The Brocken during Walpurgis Night, and tales of witch trials in the area around the Harz Mountains in Germany...
is a concept album loosely based on tales of the gatherings of witches on The Brocken as well as witch trials. - The novel Cloud Castles by Michael Scott RohanMichael Scott RohanMichael Scott Rohan is a Scottish fantasy and science fiction author.He had a number of short stories published before his first books, the science fiction novel Run to the Stars and the non-fiction First Byte. He then collaborated with Allan J...
features the Brocken as the home and body of ChernobogChernobogChernobog is a Slavic deity, about whom much has been speculated but little can be said definitively. The name may also be given as Crnobog, Czernobóg, Černobog, Црнобог, Zernebog and Чернобог, meaning black god... - Bibi BlocksbergBibi BlocksbergBibi Blocksberg is a German audio theatre series for children, created in 1980 by Elfie Donnelly. The main character is a girl called Bibi Blocksberg, who is a witch. As of winter 2008, there have been 92 episodes. The original title of the series was Eene meene Hexerei. This title was used for the...
, a German audio drama for children about a witch, refers to an alternate name for the Brocken (Blocksberg).