The South Harz Railway Company (German: Südharz-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) or SHE was founded in 1897 and, on 15 August 1899, opened a 24 km long, winding and hilly, metre gauge railway from Walkenried via Wieda and Brunnenbachsmühle to Braunlage in the Harz Mountains of central Germany.

On 1 November 1899 a 3 km extension for goods trains was opened to the Wurmberg mountain.

From 24 August 1899 an 8 km line branched off in Brunnenbachsmühle that ran through Sorge to Tanne.

Goods trains stopped running on 3 August 1963; the Wurmberg line had not been worked since 1958.

Its operator was the Hermann Bachstein Central Office for Branch Lines (Centralverwaltung für Secundairbahnen Herrmann Bachstein), which had purchased the majority of shares in the South Harz Railway Company shortly after its foundation and which was turned into a public limited company (GmbH) in 1965.