The winter sport and climatic spa of Schierke lies in the High Harz mountains, southeast of their highest summit, the Brocken.

Another winter activity in the area involves hiring or obtaining a sled and riding it down the "bob bahn" – a local tobogganing track.

The field name of Schierke was first mentioned in the records in 1590 as Schiriken (the German word schier means, in the Harz area, an utterly, unspoilt wood (blankes, reines Holz).

Hitherto there had been a sawmill in 1506, below the site of the subsequent village, in Elend, and a smelting works above the Cold Bode near the moor slags (Moorschlacken).

After World War II, however, due to its location next to the inner German border, Schierke for a long time was not accessible to the public for winter sports.

Several hotels were converted into public holiday resorts of the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB) and of the Stasi ministry.

Barracks for the Border Troops of the German Democratic Republic stood on the site of the present training centre for engineering and metallurgy.

Emblazonment: "On a field or, a stag's skull and antlers sable" ("In gold ein schwarzer Hirsch-Schädel mit Geweih im Visier").

After World War II the production at first continued in Bad Lauterberg on the western side of the inner German border, but was also resumed in Schierke from 1972 on as Volkseigener Betrieb.