Overview
- The boulder was officially named “Bramfels” on Wednesday by Umweltsenatorin Katharina Fegebank after a citywide call for name ideas.
- Crews found the granite block at about seven meters depth during work for the future U5 Bramfelder Dorfplatz station and lifted it out with a mobile crane.
- The stone now sits at the edge of the U5 site, with project leaders saying they hope to keep it near the new station once a final location is approved.
- Measurements put the rock at roughly 22 tonnes and about eight cubic meters, making it Hamburg’s fourth-largest known glacial erratic, according to the Environmental Authority.
- The Geological Survey dates the boulder to the Saale glaciation around 200,000 years ago, carried to northern Germany by ice moving south from Scandinavia.