Historically, the Harz was heavily divided from the Middle Ages to the end of the Empire. Many of these borders existed for many centuries, even if the rulers changed. In order to mark these limits, boundary stones were set. A boundary stone (also a marker, landmark or ban stone) was a customary marking of boundary points, in particular corner points, breakpoints or nodes) of a parcel boundary. Many of these coat of arms or letter boundary stones are preserved in the Harz. And not only that, there are also many three-country stones or three-man stones in the Harz.
Breitenstein has particularly beautiful specimens. Where the Alte Heerstraße once led via Breitenstein to Neustadt, these three specimens are directly on the way north of the Birkenkopf and south of the Drei-Länder-Eck. If you use the Alte Heerstraße hiking trail from Breitenstein towards Drei-Länder-Eck / Neustadt, there are numerous boundary stones of different ages along the entire route. The three-man stones mark the former territorial delimitation of three domains. In this case, the coat of arms is from 1735, which delimited the territories of the Elector of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, the Elector of Saxony and the Duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. However, the actual "border triangle" is several hundred meters away and the boundary stones cannot have marked a border at this point. The question arises: is the three-country corner incorrectly stated, or were the boundary stones once moved for an unknown reason at an unknown time?
Stamp number 94 for the Harzer hiking pin is also located at this border stone group. The Three Gentlemen's Stones are also easy to reach after approx. 4.5 km from the Neustädter Talsperre (stamping point No. 218).