The Ferdinand Stone commemorates the last free-living wolf that was killed by Count Ferdinand zu Stolberg-Wernigerode and is located on the Schindelstieg above Ilsenburg.
The hunt for the wolf and the subsequent celebration on 29.03.1798 seem to have been strange. Count Ferdinand invited the entire hunting party to a celebration, which they gladly accepted. The hunters and marksmen came to the festival house together and were accompanied by 16 young girls, who brought a lamb from each sheep farm in gratitude.
A hunter presented the count with the wolf’s pelt, along with the following verse:
Here is the pelt of the monster that Ferdinand slew; the hunter offers him his thanks. The deer, now grazing safely and peacefully, brings the shepherd’s flock a little lamb as a token of gratitude.
C. G. Friedrich Brederlow reports in his Harz travel guide of 1846 that a claw was nailed above the door of the inn built in 1776 in honor of the princely relative Friedrich Erdmann von Köthen-Pless, with a note underneath stating that Count Ferdinand had killed a wolf nearby in 1798.
The Ferdinandstein can be reached via the Gasthaus Plessenburg HWN 7 and the signposted path to the Schindelstieg. From the Ferdinandstein, you can hike back to Ilsenburg via the Bremer Hütte HWN 6.
