Starting from Torfhaus, the Goethe Way runs along the Abbegraben stream past the Great Torfhaus Moor (Großer Torfhausmoor) heading southeast, to below the Quitschenberg mountain - and the crags of Luisenklippen before reaching the Kaiser Way (Kaiserweg). After a few hundred metres where it shares the path with the latter route, the Goethe Way branches off to the east. Following a northeastern curve over the Quitschenberg it circles the Brockenfeld Moor, the source of the rivers Abbe and Cold Bode. Shortly after the Eckersprung it crosses the border into Saxony-Anhalt. At the depot station the Goethe Way meets the Brocken Railway. Until the closure of the former border region by East Germany in 1961, the Goethe Way next ran on a straight line to the northeast over the Königsberg, past the Hirschhornklippen crags, and up to the summit of the Brocken. Today, the path runs along the New Goethe Way (Neuer Goetheweg) opened in 1991 running in an arc along the railway line up to the Brocken Road. Here, it crosses the natural tree line and reaches the Brocken plateau shortly after crossing the road.