Brocken Benno

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Brocken-Benno , actually Benno Schmidt (born May 22, 1932 ), from Wernigerode is a record hiker who has climbed the Brocken in the Harz Mountains more than eight thousand times.

Life

He grew up in the Harz Mountains and was out and about in the forests of the mountains at an early age. From 1947 to 1950 he completed an apprenticeship in the district office of the Wernigerode district in Wernigerode . He later completed a technical college degree, which he graduated as a commercial economist. Schmidt worked as the head of the planning department in the district office for trade and supply in the Wernigerode district . From 1983 he was division director in the consumer cooperative.

He often stayed with friends in the Harz forests. He often hiked from Wernigerode to the Brocken. These migrations stopped abruptly in 1961. The summit of the Brocken was near the inner-German border and access had not been possible since 1961 at the same time as the Berlin Wall was being built. The mountain, which lies in the border area between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany , was declared a restricted military area and equipped with wiretapping systems directed towards the west.

Benno Schmidt also entered the restricted border area during the GDR era. Although he had an official permit, it was only valid for the respective locations, not for the forest areas. In the 1970s he was arrested on one such tour in the Ilsetal . In the end he received an official reprimand for this. He received a severe reprimand when he became aware of contacts to the West that he had not specified. Since then he has been a surveillance target for the State Security .

The Brocken was only accessible to civilians on December 3, 1989, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Brocken-Benno was one of several hundred people that day who pushed for access. In June 1990 Brocken-Benno was bitten in the leg by one of the Soviet watchdogs near Brocken train station .

After the Brocken was freely accessible again, Benno Schmidt resumed his hikes on the Brocken, initially not about records, but about experiencing nature. On August 26, 1995, he made his thousandth ascent and on that day was given the nickname Brocken-Benno by hiking friends of the Harz Club Wernigerode . On the Day of German Unity in 2016, he reached the summit for the eight thousandth time and continues to climb the mountain almost every day, even when there is a storm.

Brocken-Benno was repeatedly reported in the press. In 1997, 1998 and 2000 he was honored with entries in the Guinness Book of Records as “the most capable hiker on the Brocken”. He has also been accompanied by celebrities such as Reinhold Messner , Christian Wulff and Edmund Stoiber on his ascent and descent .

Brocken-Benno is an active hiking guide in the Harz Mountains and is committed to nature and environmental protection in the Harz National Park . He is also the special ambassador for the Harz hiking nobility .

Schmidt is married and has two daughters. His wife Helga had also made over a thousand ascents in 2016.

Awards

Brocken-Benno was awarded the badge of honor of the state of Saxony-Anhalt in 2009.
On July 25, 2018 Benno Schmidt on the Brocken was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Saxony-Anhalt by Saxony-Anhalt's Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff for his great voluntary commitment to the Brocken and the entire Harz region .

Works

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brocken-Benno celebrated his 80th birthday and his 6666th ascent of the Brocken with hundreds of hiking friends , 2012.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Torsten Hampel: A resin and a soul . Der Tagesspiegel , March 2, 2018.
  3. ↑ 6000 km on foot every year. After suffering from a heart disease, Bernhard Heym from Blankenstein sets out on hiking trails every day . In: Ostthüringer Zeitung . December 29, 2016, p. 14 .
  4. ↑ Benno Schmidt, Brocken Benno , Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag Braunschweig 2018, ISBN 978-3-926701-89-3 , page 37
  5. ↑ Benno Schmidt, Brocken Benno , Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag Braunschweig 2018, ISBN 978-3-926701-89-3 , page 35
  6. ↑ Benno Schmidt, Brocken Benno , Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag Braunschweig 2018, ISBN 978-3-926701-89-3 , page 24
  7. ↑ Benno Schmidt, Brocken Benno , Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag Braunschweig 2018, ISBN 978-3-926701-89-3 , page 24 f.
  8. ↑ Benno Schmidt, Brocken Benno , Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag Braunschweig 2018, ISBN 978-3-926701-89-3 , page 33
  9. ^ Benno Schmidt, Brocken Benno . Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag, Braunschweig 2018, ISBN 978-3-926701-89-3 , page 48.
  10. ↑ Regina Urbat: From today's perspective, “pure carelessness”. People's Voice . January 18, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Jürgen Bock: "I only stop when I fall over". Stuttgart news . March 19, 2010. Retrieved January 29, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Ministerialblatt for the State of Saxony-Anhalt 20/10 , July 19, 2010, accessed on January 30, 2017 (PDF)
  13. ↑ Press release of the State Chancellery of Saxony-Anhalt from July 25, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Brocken Benno
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmidt, Benno (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mountaineer and record hiker
DATE OF BIRTH May 22, 1932