WERNIGERODE  , a

town of Germany, in the province of Prussian Saxony, 13 M. by rail S.W. of Halberstadt, picturesquely situated on the Holzemme, on the north slopes of the Harz Mountains . Pop . (1905) 13,137 . It contains several interesting Gothic buildings, including a fine town hall with a timber facade of 1498 . Some of the quaint old houses which have escaped the numerous fires that have visited the town are elaborately adorned with wood-carving . The gymnasium, occupying a modern Gothic building, is the successor of an ancient grammar-school, which existed until 1825 . Brandy, cigars and dye-stuffs are among the manufactures of the place . Above the town rises the chateau of the prince of Stolberg-Wernigerode . A pavilion in the park contains the library of 117,000 volumes, the chief feature in which is the collection of over 3000 Bibles and over 5000 volumes of hymnology . Wernigerode is the chief town of the county (Grafschaft) of Stolberg-Wernigerode, which has an extent of 107 sq. m., and includes the Brocken within its limits . The counts of Wernigerode, who can be traced back to the early 12th century, were successively vassals of the margraves of Brandenburg (1268), and the archbishops of Magdeburg (1381) . On the extinction of the family in 1429 the county fell to the counts of Stolberg, who founded the Stolberg-Wernigerode branch in 1645 .

The latter surrendered its military and fiscal

independence to Prussia in 1714, but retained some of its sovereign rights till 1876 . The counts were raised to princely rank in 1890 . See Forstemann, Die Graflich-Stolbergische Bibliothek in Wernigerode (Nordhausen, 1866), and G . Sommer, Die Grafschaft Wernigerode (Halle, 1883) .