Welcome to the mountain wilderness of the Harz National Park

The Harz National Park is located in the western part of the Harz Mountains, covers around 25,000 hectares of mountain forest around the Brocken and is one of the most important nature and tourism areas in northern Germany.

Location

• The national park extends in the western Harz Mountains from Wernigerode and Ilsenburg in the north to Herzberg and Bad Lauterberg in the south.
• It straddles the borders of Lower Saxony (Goslar and Göttingen districts) and Saxony-Anhalt (Harz district).
• Towns and villages near or in the park include Altenau, Braunlage, Bad Harzburg, Herzberg (with Lonau and Sieber), Ilsenburg, Schierke and Wernigerode.

Extent and altitude

• The area covers around 24,700 hectares (247 km²), which corresponds to around 10 per cent of the total area of the Harz Mountains.
• The altitude ranges from around 230 metres in the north and 270 metres in the south to the 1,141 metre high Brocken, the highest point.
• This results in a total difference in altitude of over 900 metres, creating many different habitats in a small area.

Natural features

• The national park is one of the largest forest national parks in Germany with extensive deciduous and coniferous forests, rocks, cliffs, moors and mountain streams.
• The Brocken has a harsh, almost high alpine climate with tundra-like dwarf shrub heaths above the natural tree line at around 1,100 metres.
• Millennia-old raised bogs, water-rich streams and a visible "forest change" are characteristic: dead spruce trees are slowly giving way to a self-developing, near-natural mountain forest wilderness.

Tourist value

• The national park is a key tourist destination in the Harz Mountains; the Brocken alone attracts around 1.75 million visitors per year, with an estimated 4 million for the park as a whole.
• Around 10 million overnight stays and several million arrivals are recorded in the national park region every year; experiencing nature is the main motive for over 90 per cent of guests.
• Hiking (e.g. Harzer-Hexen-Stieg), the Brocken railway, viewpoints, moorland and forest adventure trails, guided ranger tours and winter sports activities in the neighbouring villages are popular.

Importance as a tourist destination

The national park increases the tourist appeal of the entire Harz Mountains and ranks with the region among the leading low mountain range destinations in Germany, behind the Black Forest and the Bavarian Forest.
It combines nature conservation and recreation: extensive, increasingly wild forests, rare habitats such as moors and the legendary Brocken make it particularly valuable in ecological, cultural and economic terms.

The Harz National Park is home to a very diverse animal world - from large mammals such as red deer and lynx to thousands of species of insects in moors, streams and forests.

Mammals

• Red deer, roe deer and wild boar, which use large areas of forest as their habitat, are common.
• The lynx was successfully reintroduced in 2000 and has a stable population in the Harz Mountains, which is now spreading beyond the Harz Mountains. The shy wildcat has consistently used the Harz Mountains as a refuge and can now be found again in large numbers.
• Other typical mammals include smaller species such as foxes, badgers and various bat species, which benefit from old forests and deadwood structures.

Birdlife

• Characteristic species include the peregrine falcon, black stork, black woodpecker, pygmy owl, boreal owl and nutcracker.
• Common forest birds such as blackbirds, chaffinches, willow warblers, warblers and wrens characterise the acoustic backdrop of the forests.
• The ring ouzel, which is usually found in the Alps or in the far north, breeds on the Brockenkuppe.
• Specialists such as the dipper, which is adapted to fast-flowing, cool mountain waters, live in streams.

Amphibians, reptiles and fish

• Due to acidic moors, few still waters and large stands of spruce, amphibians and reptiles are generally less species-rich.
• Robust species such as the grass frog, alpine newt, smooth newt, wood lizard, common toad, fire salamander, slow worm and grass snake are adapted.
• Cold and oxygen-loving fish species live in streams and rivers and benefit from shady, cool waters.

Invertebrates and arthropods

• Invertebrates such as insects, spiders and other arthropods are the "secret rulers" of the national park and form the basis of many food chains.
• To date, over 4,000 species of arthropods have been recorded, including around 1,400 species of beetles, almost 900 species of butterflies and 42 species of dragonflies, as well as more than 400 species of spiders.
• The Harz moors are home to specialised species such as the alpine emerald dragonfly and rare butterflies such as the cranberry grey moth and raised bog fritillary, which are dependent on moorland plants.

Habitats and dynamics

The fauna benefits from a mosaic of mountain spruce forests, beech forests, moors, mountain streams and boulder slopes, each of which harbours its own species communities.

Deadwood, fallen trunks and forest dynamics create hiding places and hunting grounds for species such as lynx, wildcats, birds and numerous invertebrates.

Large predators such as the lynx and currently returning wolves show that the Harz Mountains once again offer suitable, largely unfragmented habitats for demanding wild animals.