Alharz | MDR.DE

The low mountain range in the far north of Germany has a lot to offer: enchanted forests, wild cats, wild sheep, and long, harsh winters. The Harz is a legendary meeting place for witches and a natural gem of wildlife that is hard to find anywhere else in Germany.

The Brocken, the highest mountain in the Harz region, rises more than 1,000 meters above the flat surface of the earth. Its summit is barren and windswept, and its wooded slopes are dark and rich in water. The resin is a rain catcher. Two to three times the rainfall in the surrounding area falls here. In winter, precipitation comes in the form of snow and turns the mountains into a dream-like white landscape. It can get uncomfortable at high altitudes. In the Broken area, storms often reach hurricane force and temperatures regularly drop below minus 20 degrees.

Wildcats and lynxes roam the misty forests, and mouflons and red deer live here. The lynx has long become the symbolic animal of the region. This aims to show that nature conservation and tourism can successfully coexist. Sometimes the lynx gets very close to people. But a well-camouflaged wild cat is never noticed.

Wildlife filmmaker and Harz expert, Uwe Anders, spent more than two years traveling to the Harz region to document it. He has succeeded in creating a special nature portrait with unique natural images and surprising behavioral images of the wild inhabitants of the Harz.