Upper Harz

51.81666666666710.366666666667Koordinaten: 51 ° 49 '0 "N, 10 ° 22' 0" E

As the Upper Harz, the western and higher part of the German low mountain range resin is referred to. In many parts it reaches more than 800 m above sea level. NHN addition, at its eastern edge in the High Harz he reached at the summit of the Brocken maximum of 1141.2 meters above sea level. It extends in Lower Saxony and Saxony -Anhalt.

Geography

The exact location of the Upper Harz can be defined differently under different viewpoints. In a narrower sense, the term refers only to the Upper Harz seven Upper Harz mining towns ( Clausthal, Zellerfeld, Andreas Berg relaxed Sunday, Lautenthal, Wilde man and reason) in today's state of Lower Saxony. This area was dominated for centuries by very productive silver mining and is distinguished by its own dialect from (see below). It is based primarily on the geological conditions of the region around Clausthal- Zellerfeld ( Clausthal Kulmfaltenzone ), extends to the northwest resin and is bounded on the east by the Sösemulde and the field - Bruchbergzug. The mining district Sankt Andreas Berg here occupies a special position, as it is located east of the quarry mountain. Especially the Upper Harz mining the area has a lasting impact and left its traces in the places and landscapes ( see, eg, Upper Harz Water Regale ). In Clausthal- Zellerfeld, in the heyday of the mining industry as the " capital of the Upper Harz " (Max Biffart: Germany: its people and its customs ) denotes also the Municipality Upper Harz has its headquarters

" The west lying on boulders in the geographical sense as generic resin designated part of the mountain is divided into mountain and hüttenmännischer respect in the Upper Harz, ie the plateau of Clausthal, with this city and Zellerfeld and the mining towns Altenau, Lautenthal, Wild man, reason and Andreas Berg, and the Communion sub- resin, that is, the Rammelsberg near Goslar and the huts which process the same ores, and at the northern foot of the mountain, with ocher, Langelsheim etc. are. [ ... ] The actual Upper Harz, now a part of the Prussian State and the district of the Higher Mountain Office Clausthal -forming, the area west of the break mountains in Devon and carbon mountain towers ligand transitions, which are distributed in certain groups or gear trains. "

Another division into upper and lower resin refers to the function of the resin as a natural watershed. Thus, it is called the Upper Harz, " by assuming the Brocken as Central Point, everything that in W [ most ], Lower Harz, which is the same in O [ most ]. [ ... ] What drains from the western mountains, part of the current areas of the Weser, which from the eastern to the the same. " (Johann Samuel Ersch, Johann Gottfried Gruber: General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts) Even Heinrich Heine already used in its Harzreise 1824 the Brocken as a separation point and noted that the " " lower Harz ", as they call the east side of the Brocken, as opposed to the west side of the same, [ ... ] " upper Harz "means" ( Heinrich Heine: the Harz Journey ). This definition expands the " montane " Upper Harz Mountains eastward approximately to the border with Saxony -Anhalt, so that, for example, Brown situation or Hohegeiß can also be counted for the Upper Harz, as well as the high-altitude mountain ranges:

" The Upper Harz includes approximately 2000 feet mesa of Clausthal and Andreas Berg and almost twice as high ridges and peaks of the so-called field and fracture of the Brocken mountain, and [ ... ]. "

To the east of the slightly lower and gently coasting towards the east Unterharz connects. As a high resin which is only slightly populated region around the Brocken ( 1141 m), Bruchberg, Worm Mountain, peat house and farm is called, which is higher than 800 m. The high resin encompasses most of the Harz National Park.

Upper Harz dialect

A special feature of the Upper Harz is, or was, the Upper Harz dialect. Unlike the Lower Saxon, ostfälischen and Thuringian dialects of the surrounding countryside, it is here a erzgebirgische dialect, which dates back to the settlement of miners in the 16th century.

The Upper Harz dialect is limited to a few places and thus a linguistic island in the resin represents the best known are Altenau, Sankt Andreas Berg, Clausthal- Zellerfeld, Lautenthal and Clausthal. Today you can hear in the Upper Harz dialect in daily life only slightly. Mainly members of the older generations, they still dominate, so that to maintain are occasionally reprinted article in Upper Harz dialect in the newspapers (eg in the local section of Goslar 's newspaper ).

To illustrate the chorus of a song Sankt Andreas Berger home follows:

Customs and traditions

• Easter fire: In the Upper Harz Osterfeuer be built with a wooden frame, a spruce is in the middle. This dominates the coated twigs and spruce green wood construction by several meters. Traditionally, visitors to " blackened ", so stained with the soot of charcoal face. In Wild Man also has three -meter-long Easter torches are swung at the Easter fire.
• Carolers: In the days of mining mainly attracted to the 10 - to 18 -year-old Pochjungen with the carolers ( in black coats and hats ) through the streets in order to make the singing a little extra income. The Pochjungen worked from the tenth - fourteenth later - years in the Pochwerken and parted there the ores from gangue ( 12 working hours). It was not until the 18th birthday, she could run through the mining training and work in the mines. The carolers was maintained after the decline of mining in the Upper Harz few more years of the most ecclesiastical choirs. Today the Singgemeinschaft the Martini church in Sankt Andreas Berg resigns as last Carolers in the Upper Harz on to major holidays in the traditional clothes.
• The mountain festival of miners traditionally used to thank God for the past year to commemorate those who died in mining accidents by the miners and to pray for another successful year mountain. It takes place annually on the Saturday before the Monday instead, begins with a parade, which leads to a (now ecumenical ) service. After the service, most miners go to the Schärperfrühstück for socializing. Until the 1970s, the mountain festival was an all-male affair today and women in procession, church and Schärper are approved and the festival has in most former mining towns still very important.
• The Midsummer is celebrated on 24 June each year. Presumably, he was introduced by the immigrant miners from the Erzgebirge. It will be decorated with green spruce meadow flowers and eggs chains and set up in the streets. The children and young people move from tree to tree through the streets. There are coffee, cocoa and cake. They dance to popular ways to the locust tree. Here, the song " Tripp Trapp cheese Napp, today is Midsummer Day " is heard. In the evening there is a common festival of adults. Partial meet even today neighborhoods to common fixed on the road.

Conflict resin

The former city Elbingerode and the former municipalities of the administrative community Brocken- high resin in the district of Harz joined on 1 January 2010 as part of local government reform in Saxony -Anhalt to a unified community collectively, the " am Brocken City Upper Harz " is named. Against these names there are violent protests from the Samtgemeinde Upper Harz in Lower Saxony. This is due, their protests on the one hand so that the risk of confusion is great in the largely same name. Furthermore, the area in question had never been to the Upper Harz belonging, but is part of the Lower Harz and not lie " on the Brocken ". Once in a first fast-tracked the Municipality Upper Harz subject, this was in April 2010 that they would now file a new lawsuit in the main proceedings against the naming of the Lower Harz community. The Administrative Court of Magdeburg dismissed in July 2011, the action of " Samtgemeinde Upper Harz " because of a naming violation back again. A previous application of the velvet municipality on a temporary injunction was rejected by the Administrative Court. The appeal lodged a complaint with the Supreme Administrative Court of Saxony- Anhalt was unsuccessful.