Wolkenhäuschen, Cultural heritage monument in Wernigerode, Germany

The Wolkenhäuschen is a small stone shelter on the summit of the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz. It stands on a square plan with walls of stacked stone, the gaps filled with moss, and a small pointed wooden roof. Inside are simple wooden benches.

The Wolkenhäuschen was built in 1736 on the order of Count Christian Ernst zu Stolberg-Wernigerode at a cost of 17 talers, as the first known structure on the Brocken summit. It served as a shelter for hikers. Damaged in the US air raid of 17 April 1945, it was restored by members of the Kulturbund of the GDR in 1954. After the border opened in 1989 it was restored again, and in 1990 Maria Fürstin zu Stolberg-Wernigerode unveiled a new Goethe plaque.

The name Wolkenhäuschen (little cloud house) was adopted early, replacing the plain description "small house on the Brocken", because the summit lies in fog on 306 days a year. The building is a square dry-stone shelter with a small pointed wooden roof, its gaps stuffed with moss, and wooden benches inside. A plaque on the south side commemorates Goethe's visit in 1777; it was re-cast in Ilsenburg in 1954 and renewed in 1990 by Maria Fürstin zu Stolberg-Wernigerode.

The Wolkenhäuschen stands on the Brocken summit at 51.80000, 10.61570, now closely surrounded by the new Brockenhotel and the Brockenhaus museum. The summit was sealed off to private visitors from 13 August 1961 until the border opened in 1989, and the house served the stationed military as a store for building material and a shelter for vehicles. Access today follows the rules of the Brocken summit area.

The name was not chosen by its builders: it replaced the earlier label "small house on the Brocken" because the summit lies in fog on 306 days a year. The stone hut cost 17 talers in 1736, and the gaps between its stones were stuffed with moss.