Броккен: Высшая точка Северной Германии

Highest peak of the Harz mountain range in Northern Germany

The Brocken, also sometimes referred to as the Blocksberg, is the highest peak in the Harz mountain range and also the highest peak in Northern Germany; it is near Schierke in the German state of Saxony Anhalt between the rivers Weser and Elbe. Although its elevation of is below alpine dimensions, its microclimate resembles that of mountains of about The peak above the tree line tends to have a snow cover from September to May, and mists and fogs shroud it up to 300 days of the year. The mean annual temperature is only It is the easternmost mountain in northern Germany; travelling east in a straight line, the next prominent elevation would be in the Ural Mountains in Russia. The Brocken has always played a role in legends and has been connected with witches and devils; 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
FM radio and television broadcasting make major use of the Brocken. The old television tower, the Sender Brocken, is now used as hotel and restaurant. It also has an observation deck, open to tourists.

The Brocken rises over the Harz National Park in the district of Harz, whose main town of Wernigerode lies about east northeast of the mountain. The state boundary with Lower Saxony runs past the Brocken some 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.

The highest point on the Brocken reaches an elevation of Its subpeaks include the Heinrichshöhe , 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.

From a geological point of view the Brocken and its surrounding terrain, the Brocken massif, consists mainly of granite (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, spheroidal weathering of granite outcrops and granite boulders of the Brocken take place. Such blockfields 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 ages, and their retreat. Today's blockfields of Brocken granite, as well as other rocks in the Harz National Park, particularly in the Oker 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 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 Scandinavia 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 are nurtured by national park employees; 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), hawkweeds 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, sundews and the dwarf birch (Betula nana).

Several animal species have adapted to the conditions of life on the Brocken. For example, the water pipit (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 beetles such as Amara erratica, and hundreds of species of butterfly. The cabbage white here produces only one generation per year compared with two in the lowlands. Some mammal and bird species that occur here are relics of the ice age, including the northern bat (Eptesicus nils soni), the alpine shrew (Sorex alpinus) and the ring ouzel.

The first documented ascent of the Brocken was in 1572 by the physician and botanist, Johannes Thal from Stolberg, who in his book Sylva Hercynia described the flora 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 on 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 Großer Inselsberg in 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 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 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. 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 United States Army Air Forces 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 territory (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 a military exclusion zone and was therefore no longer open to public access. Extensive military installations were built on and around the summit. 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 the 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 stations, which could capture radio traffic in almost all of Western Europe. One belonged to Soviet military intelligence, the GRU, and was also the westernmost outpost of the Soviets in Germany; the other was Department III of the Ministry for State Security in the GDR. The listening posts were codenamed "Yenisei" and "Urian". Between 1973 and 1976 a new modern television tower was built for the second channel of the GDR's television service, the Deutscher Fernsehfunk. Today it is used by the public Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) television 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 in weight and high. The whole area was not publicly accessible until 3 December 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. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, beginning 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 facilities 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, wildcats and capercaillies. The Brocken was therefore declared part of a national park in 1990.

Two well known running events pass over the Brocken: the Ilsenburg Brocken Run (beginning of September, , of which uphill, has taken place since the 1920s) and the Brocken Marathon which is part of the Harz Mountain 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 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 "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 Braunschweig Brocken Ultra Run takes place with 2 ×  legs spread over two days. The participants run from Braunschweig to Schierke, cross the Brocken, overnight in Schierke and run back again the next day. Overall, it is therefore a race.

Since the 1930s various radio and television transmitters have been erected on the Brocken, see Brocken Transmitter.

Brocken House (Brockenhaus), the modern information centre for the Harz National Park, is located in the converted "Stasi 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. (number) 9 on the Harzer Wandernadel hiking trail network.

The extreme weather conditions of the Brocken are of special meteorological 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 running 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.