Harztor

Niedersachswerfen is a village and a former municipality in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2012, it is part of the municipality Harztor.

The South Harz Nature Park (German: Naturpark Südharz) is located in the county of Nordhausen in north Thuringia, Germany. The act designating this nature park in the Harz Mountains came into force on 31 December 2010 and thus founded the fifth nature park in Thuringia. It has an area of 267 km². The park is managed by the South Harz Tourist Association (Südharzer Tourismusverband e.V.) in conjunction with the Kyffhäuser Nature Park. The nature park covers parts of the southern foothills of the Lower Harz, the gypsum karst landscape of the adjacent Zechstein belt and the transition region with the North Thuringian bunter sandstone country. In the south, the park is bounded by the valley of the River Helme; on the other sides by the state border of Thuringia. Its western boundary is part of the German Green Belt. To the east is the South Harz Karst Landscape Biosphere Reserve (in Saxony-Anhalt), to the north, the Harz/Saxony-Anhalt Nature Park and to the northwest, the Harz Nature Park (in Lower Saxony). The entire Harz is a so-called major nature reserve (Großschutzgebiet) in which the Harz National Park is also located. Within the nature park there are ponors, karst springs, subsidence lakes and dolines as well as steep gypsum cliffs. Thanks to the many caves, numerous species of bat - including the barbastelle - live in the beech woods, where they find suitable places to roost. It is also home to the wildcat and lynx. Areas of dry grassland with orchids are the remnants of old meadows and pastures on the karst surfaces. The highest point in the South Harz Nature Park is the Großer Ehrenberg (635.5 m above sea level (NN)).

Ilfeld is a village and a former municipality in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated at the south foot of the Harz, at the entrance to the Bährethal, 8 miles (13 km) north from Nordhausen by the railway to Wernigerode. Since 1 January 2012, it has been part of the municipality of Harztor.

Hohnstein/Südharz is a former Verwaltungsgemeinschaft ("collective municipality") in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany. The seat of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft was in Ilfeld (part of Harztor). It was disbanded in July 2018 and all member municipalities merged into the town of Harztor.The Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Hohnstein/Südharz consisted of the following municipalities: Buchholz Harztor Harzungen Herrmannsacker Neustadt/Harz

The Gänseschnabel is a natural monument north of Ilfeld in Thuringia, Germany. It is a striking, free-standing rock pillar made of porphyry, which resembles the beak of a goose (or duck) and from which there is a comprehensive view of the Behre valley looking towards Netzkater. There is a legend connected with the Gänseschnabel about a spellbound goose girl who had fallen in love with a monk from the monastery at Ilfeld. A witch went to transform the monk in a rock when he waved to her from the other side of the valley. As the goose girl burst into tears, the witch turned her to stone as well.

The Kohnstein is a hill in Thuringia, Germany, 2 kilometres southwest of the village of Niedersachswerfen and 3 kilometres northwest of the centre of the town of Nordhausen. Gypsum mining created tunnels in the hill that were later used as a fuel/chemical depot and for Nazi Germany factories, including the Mittelwerk V-2 rocket factory that used Mittelbau-Dora slave labour.

Mittelwerk ([ˈmɪtl̩.vɛʁk]; German for "Central Works") was a German World War II factory built underground in the Kohnstein to avoid Allied bombing. It used slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp to produce V-2 ballistic missiles, V-1 flying bombs, and other weapons.

Mittelbau-Dora (also Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen-Dora) was a Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany. It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, supplying slave labour from many Eastern countries occupied by Germany (including evacuated survivors of eastern extermination camps), for extending the nearby tunnels in the Kohnstein and for manufacturing the V-2 rocket and the V-1 flying bomb. In the summer of 1944, Mittelbau became an independent concentration camp with numerous subcamps of its own. In 1945, most of the surviving inmates were sent on death marches or crammed in trains of box-cars by the SS. On 11 April 1945, US troops freed the remaining prisoners. The inmates at Dora-Mittelbau were treated in a brutal and inhumane manner, working 14-hour days and being denied access to basic hygiene, beds, and adequate rations. Around one in three of the roughly 60,000 prisoners who were sent to Dora-Mittelbau died. Today, the site hosts a memorial and museum.

The Poppenberg is a tree-covered hill east of Ilfeld in the Harz mountains of Germany, at an elevation of 601 metres. Since 1897, there has been a 33-metre-high (108 ft) steel lattice observation tower on the summit. The tower was built by the Nordhausen branch of the Harz Club and was named after Otto, Prince of Stolberg-Wernigerode. In good weather, it has an extensive view over the South Harz, the Goldene Aue and the Kyffhäuser. The Poppenberg is no. 92 in the system of check points in the Harzer Wandernadel network of walking trails.

Poppenberg Observation Tower (German: Aussichtsturm Poppenberg "Poppenberg Observation Tower") is a steel German lattice observation tower that is used for observation, at the same time, for communication. It is a truss tower located in the summit of Poppenberg. It is one of the oldest steel lattice towers in Germany and was built in the year 1897. It was later on refurbished in 1994. The tower was built by the Nordhausen branch of the Harz Club. The tower was also named after Otto, Prince of Stolberg-Wernigerode. It has an antenna that is 33 metres long.

The Sandlünz is a hill in the Harz Mountains of Germany. It is 516.2 m above sea level (NN) and located near Netzkater in the county of Nordhausen in the state of Thuringia.

Harzungen is a village and a former municipality in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany. Since July 2018, it is part of the municipality Harztor. During World War II a concentration camp with 4000 inmates was built in this city. It was a subcamp of Mittelbau-Dora who was itself a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp.