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 include the Sonnenberg and the slopes on the Wurmberg.

Geography
Braunlage is located on the Warme Bode, a headstream of the river Bode, close to the border with Elend in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The municipal area stretches along the south-eastern rim of the Harz National Park from an elevation of 550 m up to 971 m at the summit of the Wurmberg. Other peaks in the vicinity include the Achtermannshöhe and the Hahnenklee Crags.

Districts
The town consists of three districts:
 * Braunlage proper
 * Hohegeiß*, incorporated on 1 July 1972
 * Sankt Andreasberg**, incorporated on 1 November 2011

* with the village of Königskrug

** with the villages of Sonnenberg, Oderhaus, Oderbrück, Oderberg, Odertaler Sägemühle and Silberhütte

Transportation
Braunlage is on the Bundesstraße B4 between Braunschweig and Nordhausen and the B27 from Blankenburg to Göttingen.

Local buses run between Braunlage and the nearby communities of Bad Harzburg, Sankt Andreasberg, Schierke, Wernigerode, Hohegeiß, Bad Sachsa, Nordhausen, Bad Lauterberg, Herzberg and Clausthal-Zellerfeld.

Braunlage used to be served by the South Harz Railway Company, which provided a link to the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways via Sorge, but service ceased in 1958.

History
First mentioned as Brunla in 1227, the town started out as a pit settlement in the Harz forests. It appeared as Brunenlo in a 1253 register of the Saxon counts of Regenstein and was revived when their successors, the Counts of Blankenburg, established an ironworks here in 1561. With the extinction of the Blankenburg dynasty in 1599 Braunlage fell to the Dukes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

In the 17th century it was a small Brunswick market town in the west corner of the former Blankenburg lands. Tourism developed from the late 19th century onwards and other branches of business were forestry and a large granite quarry on the Wurmberg. Around 1910 one of the first interurban bus lines ran from Bad Harzburg up to Braunlage, served by Büssing vehicles. The Wurmberg Ski Jumps were erected in 1922 (demolished in 2014). In 1934 Braunlage received town privileges and municipal status as a health resort.

After World War II Braunlage was close to the fortified inner German border through the Harz mountains. In 1963 it became the location of the Wurmberg Gondola Lift, today with a length of 2.8 km and a height difference of 400 m to the summit station the longest in Northern Germany. On 7 May 1964 Gerhard Zucker demonstrated a flight of mail rockets on the Hasselkopf hill. One of them exploded, killing two spectators.

Since German reunification in 1990 Braunlage has again been in the centre of the Harz tourist region but it has had to cope with growing competition from the neighbouring resorts in Saxony-Anhalt.

Town council
Seats in the town council (Stadtrat) as of 2016 local elections:
 * Christian Democratic Union (CDU): 7
 * Bürgerliste (independent): 5
 * Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD): 4

Culture and sights
A museum of local history covers Braunlage's tradition as a health resort and official venue of the International Ski Federation (FIS). The townscape includes extensive spa gardens

Sports
The local ice-hockey team Harzer Wölfe is an important part of the north German ice-hockey culture.

There used to be several ski jumps on the Wurmberg, which hosted international competitions such as the FIS Ski Jumping Continental Cup until 2011. Between 2009 and 2012 the Braunlage Nude Sledging World Championships were held.

Sights
The Silberteich and the Hahnenkleeklippen on the way to Sankt Andreasberg are popular tourist destinations.

The Dicke Tannen is a protected landscape of giant spruce trees near Hohegeiß.