In the north of Germany there is the Harz mountain range. These are medium in height, but very picturesque mountains. The main attraction of the Harz is the highest mountain Brocken. It is believed that witches from all over the world have flocked here on Walpurgis Night for centuries.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe climbed to the top of this mountain three times. The path of the great poet has not been forgotten there. It is designated for tourists as the Goetheweg ("Goethe Trail").
The ascents of the German classic have become not only a part of his personal biography - there are many scenes in Faust with descriptions of the beauties of the Harz and the famous Walpurgis Night.
On Broken, witches are pulled in a row.
The oats have risen, the barley is not harvested.
There Urian, prince of obscurantism, Flaunts at the skies.
Promotional video:
A squadron flies through the air
The goats and riders stink.
Famous in Harz, 50-year-old artist Rainer Erth, winner of many international exhibitions of cartoonists, was inspired by the Walpurgis Night scene to such an extent that he depicted Goethe and the devil as two drinking companions. It is not known whether the nomadic plot about the conspiracy with Satan of the outstanding masters of pen, brush and lyre is appropriate in this case. But the fact that Goethe gained worldwide fame by creating "Faust" with its weighty satanic content is obvious.
It is noteworthy that the "Goethe Trail" eventually became part of the Harzer Hexenstieg (literally "witch's ascent in the Harz") - a path that winds a hundred-kilometer serpentine along the mountain range from the town of Osterode to Thale through Brocken.
This road makes the summit one of the most popular in Europe. There are more than enough people who want to climb it.
Who sees how Harz
Brocken is not the only mountain in the area. Other peaks rise next to it, yielding nothing to it - about a hundred meters. But even to call Broken a giant mountain with its modest height - 1141 meters - can only be conditional.
The multitude of granite slabs, laid with pyramids, involuntarily suggests that these structures served some kind of confessional purposes. However, not really bothering with esotericism, geologists mistake them for news from the Ice Age, and landscape specialists - for part of the Harz National Park. Climatologists note the similarity of the local climate to Iceland, which is thousands of kilometers from the Harz.
Dwarf birches evoke an analogy with the deserted Russian North.
The railway laid here in March 1899 with the terminal station Brocken near the summit clearly indicates that this is not a mountainous country completely cut off from the world.
Different owners, different goals
In the Harz area, power was constantly changing. Real naturalists followed the mythical witches. Ladies flew in for the Sabbath once a year, while scholars have been active all year round since the 17th century. The former exchanged their experience of conducting black affairs, and the latter conducted environmental monitoring, studied the flora and fauna of Brocken.
In the middle of the 19th century, military events began. The Prussian General Staff settled on Brocken. It was replaced by the creators of the tourist area, who laid out the first alpine gardens in Germany and built a hotel.
During the First World War, an observatory was created on Brocken, with a powerful television station becoming its neighbor 20 years later. In 1945, after the Americans bombed the objects at the top, US servicemen came here for two years, and after them, according to the decisions of the Yalta Conference, Red Army servicemen first set foot on the mountain.
The Soviet part of the Broken history was the longest - 33 years.
Since August 1961, Mount Brocken, which was located in the border zone of the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany, was inaccessible to tourists and civilians in general. The soldiers arrived at the summit and installed two powerful listening devices.
One belonged to Soviet army intelligence, and Mount Brocken became Moscow's westernmost patrol. The other was subordinated to the 3rd department of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR. In secret documents, radio surveillance objects were named "Yenisei" and "Urian". This part of the biography of Mount Brocken ended on December 3, 1989. Since that time, the peak again became accessible to civilians, and the traditional inhabitants of Broken, hereditary witches, became the owners of the mountain.
Wherever you spit - solid evil
Each country has its own Broken. It is believed that the events described in Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita took place on Lysaya Gora near Kiev. They say that an incomprehensible silence reigns here all year round, and the tracks of giant hooves are imprinted on the slopes.
However, clarification is required. In Kiev and its environs, "Bald Mountains", according to various sources, from five to nine. Near one of them, in due time, several beheaded cock skeletons were found, popularly called dead beer, - attributes of a witch's sacrifice. Other "Bald Mountains" are notorious for burials of victims of plague, road robbery, Polish and Lithuanian conquerors.
The place of the Sabbath of the Kiev witches is Lysaya Gora between Sapernaya Slobodka and Verkhnyaya Telichka. Glory was created for her in different periods of history, starting with Prince Vladimir, under whom the baptism of Russia took place. In the 10th century, by his decree, pagans were exterminated here.
Well, in the Caucasus, you don't even need to ask about anything. The name is too telling - Mount Ushba, translated from Georgian - "witches sabbath". Its height is 4690 meters. Climbing it is not easy even for an experienced climber. A rare witch will not want to fly to the top of this world's most difficult four-thousander in the Shkheldin gorge! The Witch Mountain on the Curonian Spit, near the village of Juodkrante, is also attractive for evil spirits - this is in Lithuania …
Outlandishness for outrageous women
But all the same, witches, as they say, synchronize their watches according to Broken time. The climate here is unusual. The difference between summer and winter temperatures is 40-50 degrees. Fog - 306 days a year. Why is it not beyond? Only evil spirits, which do not care about fogs and fierce winds, are here.
The "Satanic European Parliament" has been sitting here for many centuries. The ladies set the tone. Barely arriving and jumping off the panicles, they say, warming themselves up with a magic potion, they begin to compete in sexual perversions along with evil spirits with tails and hooves.
Erotic pleasures on Brocken alternate with “annual reporting”: where and how many abominations were made, what contribution was made to the cause of extermination of the human race.
In the European format
The witch today has many faces. In the period between arrivals to Broken, the sorceress is busy with business. Brother Buzeya, the queen of witches of Romania, owns all the arsenal of means: she will tell about the past and the future, and he will cure ailments, and bewitch the dear.
German woman Diana Nizius calls herself not a witch, as this suggests the fires of the Middle Ages, but a connoisseur of ancient rituals. In ordinary life, she is a natural scientist. It does not harm the neighbors, does not send drought and floods, does not cook potions. But the idea that some people have supernatural powers is supported. True, without specifying how much she herself possesses them. The Sabbat on Broken ignores, also without explaining why. Perhaps afraid of the evil eye of stronger colleagues.
How the witches start on the Broken Sabbath is known from the investigation of the Swiss commission, which was ordered by the then King Charles XI in 1669 to study this issue. Then the sorcerers from the town of Mora were tried, who allegedly kidnapped children and sent them to the Broken gathering.
Taking brooms, the witches gathered at the village crossroads, came to the nearby mountain and shouted loudly into the blackness of the cave: "Antesser, come and take us to Blokula!" Blokula was called the mountain corresponding to Broken, and Antesser was called the devil, who was in charge of the Sabbath gatherings. He appeared in the guise of an old man, picked up the guests and instantly carried them through the air to Blokula, and he was helped by a crowd of devils who took the form of black goats.
Means of transport
Witches prancing on anything! On goats, forest or swamp vermin, chairs, hogs … A 16th century German engraving depicts witches riding on spears, sticks, shovels and demons in the form of animals. It is unknown for sure whether Gavroche from Hugo's novel Les Miserables knew about these obscenities, but the sharp-witted boy spoke quite definitely about why the witch had a broomstick. Let's turn to the original source: “Jumping over the stream, he turned to the bearded doorkeeper, who was standing with a broom in her hands and worthy to meet Faust on Broken:“Madam! Do you always ride your own horse?"
In the European popular consciousness, the image of a witch riding a broomstick has formed. Is this accidental? Let's remember: it is on it that dirt and cobwebs, so dear to the heart of any evil spirits, most often settle in the house.