Photo: Axel Hindemith · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Brocken (German pronunciation: [ˈbʁɔkn̩] ), 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 would be in the Ural Mountains in Russia.
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 two-part tragic 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 Brocken is part of 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...
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