Cloud house
The cloud house is a building on the summit of the Brocken in the Harz Mountains . It was the first known development on the highest Harz summit and has been preserved to this day despite the eventful history of the mountain.
history
The listed building was built in 1736 at the instigation of Count Christian Ernst zu Stolberg-Wernigerode . The construction costs amounted to 17 thalers. The cloud house, which is more of a covered shelter, should provide accommodation for hikers on the Brocken. The building was built of stones on a square floor plan and received a small wooden pointed roof . The cracks between the stones were filled with moss. Inside the simple house were some wooden benches. The name `` Wolkenhäuschen '' became established early on, after it was initially only referred to as a small house on the Brocken. The reason for the new name was the climatic conditions of the chunk, which is shrouded in fog on 306 days a year . The house was initially the only building on the Brocken summit and beyond that in a wide area. From 1800 the Brockenhotel followed, which was destroyed several times by fire and in 1945 by bombing.
In 1927 a plaque to commemorate Goethe's visit in 1777 was attached to the southern side of the house . On April 17, 1945, shortly before the end of World War II , the US Air Force attacked the Brocken summit and destroyed the large Brocken hotel and other facilities that had been built here . The cloud house was also damaged.
In 1954, members of the Kulturbund of the GDR restored the house and had the Goethe plaque in Ilsenburg re-cast. It was planned to transform the cloud house into a Goethe memorial.
With the construction of the wall on August 13, 1961, the Brocken, located directly on the border between GDR and FRG, was completely cordoned off and was no longer accessible to private individuals. The military stationed at the summit used the house to store building materials and to park vehicles. The Goethe board disappeared.
After the border was opened in 1989, it was quickly restored again. In 1990, Princess Maria zu Stolberg-Wernigerode inaugurated a new Goethe plaque. A portrait of Heinrich Heine was attached on November 8, 1996 a few meters from the cloud house .
Today the cloud house is densely surrounded by other buildings on the Brocken summit, such as the Brockenhotel and the Brockenhaus .
literature
- Thorsten Schmidt , Jürgen Korsch, The Brocken. Mountain between nature and technology. 5th edition. Schmidt-Buch-Verlag, Wernigerode 2006, ISBN 3-928977-59-8
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 48 ′ 0.1 ″ N , 10 ° 36 ′ 56.6 ″ E