Location: Lower Saxony Map
Area: 247 km²
Harz National Park is a protected natural area located in the Lower Saxony region in Germany. Harz National Park covers an area of 247 km². Unlike many other nature reserves these lands are virtually uninhabited by men other than several dozens of park rangers.
Geographical location
The Harz National Park is
located in the western part of the Harz (see Upper Harz) and extends
from Wernigerode and Ilsenburg in the north to Herzberg and Bad
Lauterberg in the south. In its peripheral areas, the park is
located at heights of 230 m in the north to 270 m in the south and
rises to 1141.2 m above sea level. NHN at the summit of the Brocken.
The headwaters of several rivers such as the Bode, the Oder or
the Ilse are located in the area of the national park. The Oder
flows through the Oderteich and feeds the Oder dam located on the
southeastern border of the park. Other dams and standing waters
within or on the edge of the national park include the
Eckertalsperre and the Silver Pond. The highest peaks are the
Brocken, the Bruchberg and the Achtermann.
History
Today's
cross-border Harz National Park was created on January 1st 2006
through the merger of the Harz National Park in Lower Saxony and the
Hochharz National Park in Saxony-Anhalt. Since the merger, Andreas
Pusch has been the head of the large conservation area.
The
Hochharz National Park was set up on October 1, 1990 two days before
German reunification on the basis of a Council of Ministers
resolution of the GDR government on the national park program. The
park encompassed the eastern high Harz around the Brocken between
Eckertalsperre, Hohnekamm and Schierke, later extended to Ilsenburg.
The region is characterized by little-touched flora and fauna, which
is mainly due to the so-called "Brocken Urwald" forest, which has
not been used for forestry for centuries, and the location directly
on the former German-German border. In the GDR era, the Brocken was
accessible with an easy-to-obtain pass until 1961. From August 13,
1961, it became a restricted area, so it was no longer used for
tourism. Since the 1970s, forest problems such as bark beetles or
fungal infestation have also appeared in the Harz. In the course of
the spirit of optimism at the time of reunification, they were also
the ones who initiated the establishment of the national park. On
January 1, 1991, the national park administration in Wernigerode
began its service under the direction of Hubertus Hlawatsch. Peter
Gaffert acted as Hubertus Hlawatsch's successor from 1995 until the
merger with the western Harz National Park (2006).
The Lower
Saxony part of the park was launched on January 1, 1994 after four
years of preparation. Wolf-Eberhard Barth was the founding director.
Although the two countries have been talking about a joint national
park project since the fall of the Wall, it took another twelve
years to implement.
The Harz National Park belongs to the
European umbrella organization EUROPARC Federation, a network of
national parks, biosphere reserves and nature parks. Among other
things, he deals with the exchange of information, training, public
relations and lobbying. The German section EUROPARC Deutschland e.
V. of this umbrella organization has also organized the network of
many large protected areas in Germany.
In 2005 the national
park was included in the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in
Protected Areas.
The national park currently employs 160
people who work in the national park administration offices in
Wernigerode (headquarters), the branch in Sankt Andreasberg OT
Oderhaus and in the area. The head office is home to the following
departments: general administration, nature conservation, research
and documentation and public relations. The forest treatment and
game population regulation department is located in Sankt
Andreasberg. The employees of the national park guard, who are also
known as rangers, give tours and take on tasks in public relations
and environmental education, right through to looking after
information points and national park houses.
In addition, the
National Park Education Center is located in the National Park House
in Sankt Andreasberg. The education center and the rangers work
closely together. The main task of the education center is to create
wilderness areas.
A nostalgic way of getting here is to take the
Harzquer / Brocken Railway from Wernigerode or Nordhausen, for
detailed information, see the Brocken article.
Suitable
places for arrival and, if necessary, accommodation are in Lower
Saxony: Bad Harzburg, Altenau, St. Andreasberg, Herzberg and
Braunlage, in Saxony-Anhalt Ilsenburg and Wernigerode. Specific
travel information can be found in the local articles.
Cyclists on the Weser-Harz-Heide-Radweg pass the national park area
on the section from Herzberg to Riefensbeek-Kamschlacken.
Around the park
The best way to explore the national park is on foot. In winter,
cross-country skis are also a popular means of transport due to the
attractive network of trails. In many places there are parking
spaces for hikers from which you can take day trips. The park can
also be easily reached by environmentally friendly local public
transport. The extensive network of hiking trails in the area of
the national park is well marked. Nevertheless, it makes sense to
use a hiking map so that you can orientate yourself better.
There are no trails in the national park. In order to protect
nature, entering the forest or park away from designated paths /
trails is not permitted. Instructions from rangers in the area must
be followed in this regard. In the park live z. Sometimes very shy
wild animals such as the lynx and the wild cat, which need
appropriate retreats. Wild animals, which are often "frightened" in
winter, use an unnecessarily large amount of energy to escape from
humans in deep snow. If this happens more often, such "overactive"
escape behavior can lead to death, especially in severe winters.
Even supposedly rare individual disturbances on disused, closed
hiking routes therefore add up.
Notes on Openstreetmap in
this regard: In the free wiki world map, some paths are shown in the
park area that have been closed due to the nature conservation
reasons mentioned above. For "normal users" of Openstreetmap,
however, these routes may not be immediately recognizable as blocked
routes on the map. The symbol for "blocked route" in
Openstreetmap-Mapnik is an overlaid, wider red dashed line. This
applies e.g. B. for the quiet zones on the much-visited Brocken (see
also the literature section there or sketch on the right). These
routes are usually no longer included in regular hiking maps.