In the Upper Harz, the opening of the German-German border on the 1141-meter-high Brocken is to be commemorated on Saturday. The Heimat-, Wander- und Naturschutzbund Harzklub has invited to the annual commemoration event on the highest peak of the Harz Mountains. According to him, there should be two parallel hikes on the Brocken plateau, where a memorial stone commemorates the opening of the Brocken border system. The hikes should start at the same time in Schierke (Saxony-Anhalt) and in Torfhaus (Lower Saxony). Wernigerode's Lord Mayor Tobias Kascha (SPD) also wants to take part in the event.

On December 3, 1989, one of the last bulwarks on the German-German border fell on the highest mountain in northern Germany under the motto "Free citizens, free chunks". According to the Harzklub, border troops opened the gate in the 2.7-kilometer-long wall that protected the facilities on the Brocken hilltop around noon. Several thousand demonstrators had previously demanded the opening of the border and the return of "Father Brocken" after a march.

After the Wall was built in 1961, the Brocken was not accessible to visitors as a popular excursion destination until the day the border was opened. The Harz summit was a restricted military area. The state security, GDR border troops and Russian military kept him as a post on the inner-German border, barbed wire and walls blocked hikers out. The Russians left the mountain plateau in 1994.

Information about the hikes of the Harz Club