Benneckenstein () is a town in the district of Harz, in

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Since 1 January 2010, it has been part of the town of

Oberharz am Brocken Oberharz am Brocken () is a town in the Harz District, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was formed on 1 January 2010 by the merger of the town of Elbingerode with the municipalities of the former ''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'' ("collective municipal ...

. Benneckenstein is in the eastern

Harz The Harz () is a 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 name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...

, 14 km southeast of

Braunlage Braunlage () is a town and health resort in the Goslar district of Lower Saxony in Germany. Situated within the Harz mountain range, south of the Brocken massif, Braunlage's main business is tourism, particularly skiing. Nearby ski resorts inclu ...

, and 24 km south of

Wernigerode Wernigerode () is a town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode. Its population was 35,041 in 2012. Wernigerode is located southwest of Halberstadt, and is picturesquely s ...

Location

Benneckenstein lies in the

Lower Harz The Harz () is a 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 name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...

within the Harz/Saxony-Anhalt Nature Park. It is located between the villages of Tanne to the north, Trautenstein to the east-northeast and Stiege to the east (all in Saxony-Anhalt), Rothesütte to the south (in

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

Hohegeiß Hohegeiss (german: Hohegeiß) is a health resort and winter sports village in the Harz mountains range in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 July 1972 Hohegeiss has been part of the town of Braunlage, in the district of Goslar. Geography Hohegeis ...

to the west (in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

) and Sorge to the north-northwest (in Saxony-Anhalt). The village lies at a height of about 500 to Sachsen-Anhalt-Viewer
/ref> on the upper reaches of the

Rappbode The Rappbode is a right-hand, southwestern tributary of the River Bode in the Harz mountains in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. In its lower reaches it is impounded by the Rappbode Dam, the largest dam in the Harz. The Rappbode rises east of ...

. Following the former

Inner German Border The inner German border (german: Innerdeutsche Grenze or ; initially also ) was the border between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. Not including the ...

to the west is the border with

and to the south that with

; about 3.3 km south-southwest of the village is the

tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...

for the three states which is marked by the ''

Drei-Länder-Stein The is a boundary stone at the tripoint of the German federal states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia near the mountain in the Harz. Location The is located in the South Harz at the tripoint of the three aforementioned states and ...

''. The organist, composer and music theorist

Andreas Werckmeister Andreas Werckmeister (November 30, 1645 – October 26, 1706) was a German organist, music theorist, and composer of the Baroque era. He was amongst the earliest advocates of equal temperament, and through this advocacy was highly influential to ...

was born in Benneckenstein in 1645.

Leisure

The secluded forest village of ''Grüntal'' (515 m), with its

forester's lodge A forester's lodge, forester's house or forester's hut is the residence of a forester, usually one who is in charge of a forest district. History Woodcutters' huts are as old as forestry itself. To begin with, temporary accommodation was usually ...

and a few holiday homes, is located by a clearing northeast of Benneckenstein and is also checkpoint 49 in the

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

hiking network.''Stempelstelle 49 / Grüntal''
at www.harzer-wandernadel.de. Retrieved 1 Nov 2017.

References

Former municipalities in Saxony-Anhalt Oberharz am Brocken Towns in the Harz {{Harz-geo-stub