The Trudenstein is a rock formation and popular hiker's destination in the

Harz Mountains The Harz (), also called the Harz Mountains, is a Mittelgebirge, highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The nam ...

of central

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is located in the federal state of

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...

Location and surrounding area

The Trudenstein lies beside the Glashütten Way on the wooded southern slopes of the Hohnekopf ridge about two kilometres northeast of the village of

Schierke Schierke is a village and a former municipality in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2009, it is part of the town Wernigerode. Situated within the Harz mountain range in the valley of the river Bode, at the rim ...

in the

Harz National Park Harz National Park is a nature reserve in the Germany, German federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It comprises portions of the western Harz mountain range, extending from Herzberg am Harz, Herzberg and Bad Lauterberg at the southern ...

. Two kilometres to the east, is the village of

Drei Annen Hohne Drei Annen Hohne is the name of a small settlement within the municipal area of Wernigerode in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The place is located about southwest of the town within the Harz mountains, on the northeastern edge of the Harz National Park ...

that, like Schierke, is part of the borough of

Wernigerode Wernigerode () is a town in the Harz (district), district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the Wernigerode (district), district of Wernigerode. Its population was 32,181 in 2020. Wernigerode is located southwes ...

. The

Brocken Railway The Brocken Railway () is one of three tourist metre gauge railways which together with the Harz Railway and Selke Valley Railway form the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways railway network in the Harz mountain range of Germany. It runs from the station ...

, an important heritage line, runs past the rocks immediately to the south, below a granite quarry. The rocks of the Trudenstein are composed of

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

and their summit lies at an elevation of 671 m.

Tourism

The Trudenstein is a popular hiking destination that is easily reached from Drei Annen Hohne on marked trails. The summit of the rock formation has been made accessible to the general public using ladders. From the top there is a commanding view of large parts of the East and South Harz. In good weather, the nearby

Wurmberg Wurmberg is a municipality in the district of Enz in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Geography Wurmberg is located on the so-called Platte, a Karst mountain range in the northern Black Forest (Schwarzwald). Municipality The municipality Wur ...

mountain, the villages of Schierke and

Elend Elend may refer to: * Elend, Saxony-Anhalt Elend is a district of the town of Oberharz am Brocken in the Harz (district), Harz District, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It lies in the Bode valley in the High Harz in central Germany, at a height of . T ...

and the Stöberhai mountain, 15 kilometres away, may be seen. The Trudenstein is No. 17 in the system of checkpoints that form the

Harzer Wandernadel The Harzer Wandernadel is a system of hiking awards in the Harz mountains in central Germany. Hikers (or mountain bikers) can earn awards at different levels of challenge by walking to the various checkpoints in the network and stamping their ...

hiking network.

History

The name ''Trudenstein'' is derived from the appearance of the rocks which is supposed to resemble a

drude In German folklore, a drude (, , pl. ''Druden'') is a kind of malevolent nocturnal spirit (an alp, kobold or hag) associated with nightmares, prevalent especially in Southern Germany. Druden were said to participate in the Wild Hunt and we ...

, an old German, witch-like figure associated with dreams. In 1783

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

walked past the Trudenstein during one of his visits to the Harz and, in 1811,

Caspar David Friedrich Caspar David Friedrich (; 5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a German Romanticism, German Romantic Landscape painting, landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation, whose often symbolic, and anti ...

drew a sketch of the rocks. They are also said to have inspired the group of rocks in the foreground of his painting, ''Der Watzmann''.tour9
auf Wernigerode.de, accessed on 24 November 2010 Ladders were first erected on the summit of the Trudenstein in 1894.

References

Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie, Landesamt für Vermessung und Geoinformation Sachsen-Anhalt: Digitale Topographische Karte 1:50 000
Saxony-Anhalt Viewer
, accessed on 24 November 2010 {{Coord, 51, 46, 20, N, 10, 41, 48, E, type:landmark_region:DE-ST, display=title Harz Wernigerode Rock formations of Saxony-Anhalt Rock formations of the Harz

Location and surrounding area

Tourism

History

See also

References