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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. [edit] 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 and a height difference of 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. [edit] Demographics
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