Joanne's long walks: Via Romea Germanica Day 18: Wernigerode

Visiting the Harz is a bit like going to see a friend's place who has taken on some seriously deep renovation work: you know the end result will be awesome, but right now it’s a bit of a shock when you arrive

- Pieter de Pous (on Twitter, 2024)

Another diversion from the Via Romea Germanica awaited me this morning in the Harz: the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen, a narrow-gauge railway line served by steam trains and vintage diesel railcars that is little known outside Germany and was for many years hidden behind the Iron Curtain.

The Harzer Schmalspurbahnen

The first narrow-gauge railway line in the Harz was opened in the Selke Valley in 1887. In 1898 the Nordhausen-Wernigeroder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft began operating special services on the line from Wernigerode to the Brocken. In 1949 both companies were taken over by East German Deutsche Reichsbahn.

Harzer Schmalspurbahnen GmbH took over operation of the railway in 1993, and now operates Germany's largest narrow gauge railway network, with a total length of 140.4 km and 44 stations and stops served by more than ten steam locomotives, seven diesel railbuses and three trams. The network is notable for its significant use of steam locomotives, a side effect of the lack of investment during the years when the line was operated by Deutsche Reichsbahn, between 1945 and 1993; most of the steam locomotives in the fleet were built during the 1950s.

The Man in Seat 61, my favourite guide to rail travel worldwide, provides extensive information on how and where to travel on these trains here. All of the lines in the network are included in the Deutschland Ticket, except for the section from Derei Annen Hohne to the top of the Brocken, a special tourist day trip that costs more than fifty euros.

I wasn't bothered about going to the top of a mountain that is only just over a thousand metres high anyway; I just wanted to experience the steam trains! So I got off at Drei Annen Hohne, bought a souvenir pin and key ring to attach to my backpack, paid 70 cents to use the public toilets, and then stayed in the station for half an hour, watching the steam trains come and go.

The train schedule specifies what type of train will be used on each trip, and so I knew that the return to Wernigerode would be on a 1970s diesel railcar (or railbus); these serve the line between Wernigerode and Nordhausen (also on my route, on the other side of the mountains), which people actually ride to go places, and not just for fun.

Not a particularly efficient means of transportation, though: it took the narrow-gauge railcar 45 minutes to travel 13.5 kilometres back down to Wernigerode.

As the above map shows, at Drei Annen Hohne I was actually not far from Königshütte, my destination for today; but I didn't want to skip any bits of the Via Romea Germanica, so I rode the railcar back to Wernigerode Westertor station and started walking from there.

Wernigerode Westertor railway station

Westertor

I walked through the historic city centre, below the 19th-century castle, and out of the town along a path beside a brook. The pavement ended and the path became a trail through the woods, still following the stream, with the road on the other side.

I unfortunately had to leave this idyllic path - which would have taken me all the way back to Drei Annen Hohne - and follow a gravel road steadily gaining elevation. Before going far along this road, I stopped to eat my lunch in a shelter beside the road, under the watchful eye of a forest guardian!

The Harz: a forest in transition

As I climbed higher, the devastated state of the forests in the Harz became increasingly apparent. The Harz has historically been a mining area, and vast numbers of trees were felled to produce charcoal for the mining industry, particularly between the 1930s and 1950. Women tree-planters were employed to replant the area with fast-growing spruce trees, which, however, are not native to the area, and are vulnerable to the bark beetle that causes spruce dieback. Healthy spruce trees in their native habitat and climate normally produce something in their sap that protects them against this disease, but with the warmer weather of recent years, the beetle has thrived, spreading from tree to tree and causing vast swathes of forest to die.

Standing dead spruce trees (photo taken from the train)

Cleared area (photo taken feom the train)

The dying and dead spruce are being cut down for use as lumber, clearing areas where the deciduous trees native to the area can grow back. But in the meantime, the forests of the Harz are patchy, and not always pretty!

More information on what is happening in the forests of the Harz is available here.

Dead spruce tree between healthy, native deciduous trees

New growth

I spent the remainder of the day in this landscape, walking on gravel roads which I imagine must be used for logging, though there was no traffic on them on a Sunday afternoon, only a few mountain bikers. I came to a boundary marker, Dreiherrenstein, which originally marked the boundary between the territories of three different principalities, now three municipalities.

Shortly after this my route turned off the gravel logging road to cut across pastureland, which seemed like a nice idea at first - until I came to a peat bog!

It wasn't as bad as it looked, and after this wet patch the ground rose and became drier. I spotted a rocky eminence, Galgenberg, with people at the top, and made a brief detour. It was worth it, not only for the view but for the stamp - each point of interest in the Harz has a wooden box containing a stamp and an inkpad. Families can buy a sort of passport to fill up with stamps from all the attractions in the area, and when you have a certain number of stamps you earn a badge. This game helps keep children interested and motivates them to walk. 😁 For me, it provides plenty of interesting stamps to add to my pilgrim credential!

I walked through the town of Elbingerode and was glad I hadn't decided to stop there; there was nothing particularly attractive about it, and the town's few places of business were all shut on Sunday afternoon, apart from the kebab shop. Elbingerode is a mining town, and on my way out of the village I walked past a huge limestone quarry.

A few more kilometres along a gravel road brought me to Trogfurther Brücke, built in 1739/40 as a stone bridge over the river Bode on a road first mentioned in 919. Blown up by the SS in 1945, this bridge was replaced by a modern bridge in the same year, but became superfluous with the construction of the Königshütte Dam to create a drinking water reservoir in 1956.

I followed the reservoir to its end, and then followed the river Bode to the village of Königshütte, where a wobbly footbridge took me to the other side and my accommodation for the evening at Pension Am Felsen.

I certainly wouldn't be able to afford to walk to Rome if I stayed somewhere like this every night, but it sure is nice to arrive and have someone draw you a pint of beer while you fill in your registration form, then enjoy a hot dinner and an amazing shower before retiring to a comfy bed!