Elend is a district 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 ...
in the
Harz District, 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 th ...
,
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 ...
. It lies in the
Bode valley
The Bode Gorge (german: Bodetal) is a long ravine that forms part of the Bode valley between Treseburg and Thale in the Harz Mountains of central Germany. The German term, ''Bodetal'' (literally "Bode Valley"), is also used in a wider sense to r ...
in the
High Harz in central Germany, at a height of . This part of the valley is known locally as ''Elendstal''. Elend is located near the former
Inner German Border between West and East Germany.
Geography
About 3 kilometres west of the village is the nature reserve of
Kramershai.
Climate
History
Walther Grosse
Walther is a masculine given name and a surname. It is a German form of Walter, which is derived from the Old High German ''Walthari'', containing the elements ''wald'' -"power", "brightness" or "forest" and ''hari'' -"warrior".
The name was fir ...
mentions fields ''under the Elend Road'' (''unter dem elendischen Wege'') for the first time in a manuscript of field names in the ''
Amt'' of Elbingerode for 1483. In a ''
Vogt
During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...
ei'' account for the ''Amt'' of
Elbingerode (Harz)
Elbingerode is an ''Ortsteil'' of Oberharz am Brocken in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The former town was incorporated into the newly established municipality on 1 January 2010.
Geography
It is situated in the eastern ...
dated 1506/07 there is an entry which states: ''"Income from the sawmill at Elend in the Forest XII March"'' (''Innome von der Sagemoln zum Elende deß Forst XII Mar
').
[ Landeshauptarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Abteilung Magdeburg, Rep. H Stolberg-Wernigerode, H.A. A 33 Fach 1-5 No. 2, Sheet 12r] There are a lot of indications that this sawmill had existed for some time before that.
On 1 January 2010, the municipality of Elend merged with the municipalities of
Sorge,
Stiege and
Tanne, as well as the towns of
Elbingerode (Harz)
Elbingerode is an ''Ortsteil'' of Oberharz am Brocken in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The former town was incorporated into the newly established municipality on 1 January 2010.
Geography
It is situated in the eastern ...
,
Hasselfelde
Hasselfelde is a town in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated in the eastern Harz, approximately 17 km south of Wernigerode. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Oberharz am Brocken. Hasselfelde has 2,390 ...
and
Benneckenstein (Harz), forming the town
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 ...
.
Hiking
Not far from Elend is the
Helenenruh, a rocky ridge with outstanding views, which is checkpoint no. 21 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.
Notable people
*
Friedrich Krebs (1832–1905), first chief apostle of the
New Apostolic Church
*
Hartmut Esser (born 1943), sociologist, professor at the
University of Mannheim
The University of Mannheim (German: ''Universität Mannheim''), abbreviated UMA, is a public research university in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1967, the university has its origins in the ''Palatine Academy of Sciences'', ...
References
Sources
* Karlheinz Brumme: ''Elend. Chronik eines Harzdörfchens unterm Brocken'', Blankenburg, Wernigerode, o. J.
008* Dietmar Schultke: ''Der DDR-Alltag in der Grenzkompanie Elend'', in: 'Keiner kommt durch - Die Geschichte der innerdeutschen Grenze und Berliner Mauer, Aufbau-Verlag Berlin, 4. Auflage 2008
External links
{{Authority control
Former municipalities in Saxony-Anhalt
Oberharz am Brocken
Villages in the Harz