Sophienhof is a village in the municipality of Ilfeld in the district of

Nordhausen Nordhausen may refer to: * Nordhausen (district), a district in Thuringia, Germany ** Nordhausen, Thuringia, a city in the district **Nordhausen station, the railway station in the city * Nordhouse, a commune in Alsace (German: Nordhausen) * Narost ...

in the German federal state of

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 ...

Location

Sophienhof is situated in the so-called Hohnstein Forest (''Hohnsteiner Forst''), that once belonged to the counts of Stolberg, in northwest Thuringia only a few kilometres away from the state borders with

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 ...

and

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 ...

. The village is only accessible by motor vehicles over a secondary road from Rothesütte or from the B 81 federal road between

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 i ...

and Ilfeld. In addition, several walking trails run from surrounding villages to Sophienhof. Sophienhof has a halt on the Harz Railway, which is located in the forest to the west outside the village. There is also a Harzer Wandernadel hiking checkpoint (no. 97) in the village by the Ziegenalm cafe.

History

The village was probably established in the 17th century from a collection of foresters' huts and was first mentioned in 1645 (under another name). In 1710, Count

Christian Ernest of Stolberg-Wernigerode Christian Ernest, Count of Stolberg-Wernigerode, (2 April 1691, Gedern – 25 October 1771, Wernigerode) was a German politician and a member of the House of Stolberg. From 1710 to 1771 he governed County of Wernigerode in the Harz mountain ...

inherited the County of Wernigerode and Hohnstein Forest. In 1712, he married ''Sophie Charlotte Countess zu Leiningen-Westerburg'', after whom the village was renamed in 1720, having previously been called ''Schmerplatz''. After a preaching sites had been established in 1734 in Rothesütte and Sophienhof, a small church was built in Sophienhof which, like the church in neighbouring Rothesütte fell into ruins due to its proximity to the

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 ...

and was torn down in the 1960s. Its bell, cast in 1742, has survived and is located in a bell cradle on the cemetery. In 1747, Hans Dietrich von Zanthier was appointed as the comital Master Forester and Master Hunter with his work residence in Sophienhof. He is commemorated by a memorial rock. Sophienhof was incorporated in 1972 into the municipality of Ilfeld. Since 1 January 2012, Ilfeld has been part of the newly formed Harztor municipality.

References

Just Ludwig Günther Leopold: ''Kirchen-, Pfarr- und Schulchronik ..', 1817. {{Authority control Nordhausen (district)