In the town records (Stadtbuch) of Osterwieck an entry for the Brocken was found in the year 1495 under the Latin name of mons ruptus, which means broken hill. Its Low German name, broken, as the mountain had become named in 1176 in the Saxon World Chronicle and also in English, means broken. On the one hand, this explanation of its meaning can be attributed to the fact that the two mountains, Kleiner Brocken and Großer Brocken, were formed by the breakup of a single massif. On the other hand, its meaning may refer to the serious erosion of the mountain. In other words, it refers to the fact that the Brocken was eroded or broken down to its present size.