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Photo: Andreas Tille, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The highest mountain in the Harz range and the highest mountain in Northern Germany. The quickest way to get to its 1,141m summit is by the Harz Narrow Gauge Train (Brockenbahn). It has a long history. It was built at the end of the 19th century in order to connect the Harz's mineral resources, forestry, and small industries to the rest of an economically rising Germany, as well as to promote the beginnings of tourism. Since 1899 it has been possible for passengers to travel up to the summit. Altogether the narrow gauge railway net is over 130km long.
Brocken, also sometimes referred to as Blocksberg, is a 1,141 m (3,743 ft) mountain near Schierke in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, between the rivers Weser and Elbe. The highest peak in the Harz mountain range, and in Northern Germany, it is subalpine, yet has a microclimate resembling that of mountains nearly 1,000 m (3,300 ft) higher. The elevation above its tree line tends to have snowcover from September to May, and mists and fogs shroud it up to 300 days a year. The mean annual temperature is only 2.9 °C (37.2 °F). It is the easternmost mountain in northern Germany; the next prominent elevation directly to its east is in the Ural Mountains in Russia.
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