The area around the Scharfenstein was used from 1420 as a cattle pasture by the settlement at Ilsenburg, for which the first herdsman's house was built. The cattle farm was still being managed in 1816 from Stapelburg. Around 1875, Count Otto of Stolberg-Wernigerode has a forester's lodge built that, together with the forest settlement that emerged in the 1920s, developed into a popular stop for hikers en route to the Brocken as well as a restaurant and place to stay.