Hanover²

 

(hăn'ōvər) , Ger. Hannover, former independent kingdom and former province of Germany; Lower Saxony, NW Germany. Very irregular in outline, Hanover stretched from the Dutch border and the North Sea in the northwest to the Harz Mts. in the southeast. The name Hanover originally applied only to the city, becoming the name of a state in 1815. Most of the territory was included in the duchy of Brunswick, which the house of the Guelphs retained after 1180. In the repeated subdivisions of Brunswick among the various branches of the family, the branch of Brunswick-Lüneburg (and its offshoots, the duchies of Lüneburg, Celle, and Lüneburg-Calenberg) emerged as the most powerful. The dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg played an important part in the Thirty Years War (1618–48) on the Protestant side, and in 1692 Duke Ernest Augustus of Calenberg was raised to the rank of elector. His lands became known as the electorate of Hanover. The marriage of Ernest Augustus to Sophia, granddaughter of James I of England, brought (1714) the English throne to his son, Elector George Louis (George I of England). Personal union of Great Britain and Hanover continued under the house of Hanover (see separate article). Napoleon I gave the electorate to Prussia in 1805, but in 1807 he assigned part of Hanover to the kingdom of Westphalia under his brother Jérôme Bonaparte, the remainder being divided in 1810 between France and Westphalia. In 1813, Great Britain regained possession, and in 1815 the Congress of Vienna raised Hanover to a kingdom, with membership in the German Confederation. At the accession (1837) of Queen Victoria in England, Hanover was separated from the British crown because of the Salic law of succession. Ernest Augustus, son of George III, became king of Hanover and began his reign by rescinding the liberal Hanoverian constitution of 1833, thus evoking the well-known protest of the seven professors at Göttingen; the Revolution of 1848 forced him to grant a liberal constitution. His son, George V, succeeded him in 1851. George V refused to support Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and, as a consequence, lost his kingdom, which was made a Prussian (from 1871 a German) province. After World War II the province was incorporated into Lower Saxony.

Hanover
Map of Lower Saxony highlighting the district of Hanover
State	Lower Saxony
District seat	Hanover
Area	2290 km²
Population	1,125,900 (2002)
Pop. density	492 /km²
Licence plate code	H
Web page	http://www.region-hannover.de

Hanover (officially in German: Region Hannover) is a district (county) in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Soltau-Fallingbostel, Celle, Gifhorn, Peine, Hildesheim, Hamelin-Pyrmont, Schaumburg and Nienburg.

The District of Hanover has a unique legal status among the districts of Lower Saxony. It includes the City of Hanover, the state capital, which has the same privileges as a city that is not part of a district. As a consequence, the District is much larger in population than any other district of the state. Its administrative body is the Regionsparlament (engl.: "regional parliament"), headed by the Regionspräsident or "region president" (Hauke Jagau (SPD) since 2006). Both the members of the Regionsparlament and the Regionspräsident are elected once every five years in local elections.

History

The City of Hanover was not part of the district until 2001, when the old Hanover District and the city (then known officially as Kreisfreie Stadt Hannover, which means "District Free city of Hanover", a term roughly synonymous to Metropolitan Hanover) were merged in order to form the new Region Hannover district (not to be confused with the former Regierungsbezirk Hannover).

During World War II, Hanover was the Headquarters (Hauptquartier) of the Military District (Wehrkreis) XI, which was responsible for Braunschweig, Anhalt, and part of Hanover. It was also the Garrison Town for the 71st Infanterie Division.

Geography

The district surrounds the City of Hanover and includes the outskirts of its metropolitan area. The Leine river enters the district in the south, runs through Hanover and leaves to the north. In the northwest is the Steinhuder Meer, a lake with an area of 32 km².

Sport

In Hanover some famous Sport Clubs are located. The most famous are the Hannover Scorpions (Icehockey) and Hannover 96 (Soccer).

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on May 1, 2003. The cloverleaf is from the arms of the City of Hanover. The lion was the heraldic animal of the Welfen family, which ruled the region from the Middle Ages until 1866.

Towns and municipalities

Towns		Municipalities
Barsinghausen Burgdorf Burgwedel Garbsen Gehrden Hanover (Hannover) Hemmingen Laatzen Langenhagen	Lehrte Neustadt am Rübenberge Pattensen Ronnenberg Seelze Sehnde Springe Wunstorf	Isernhagen Uetze Wedemark Wennigsen

External links

• Official website (German)

Urban and rural districts in the state of Lower Saxony in Germany
Region	Hanover
Urban districts	Braunschweig · Delmenhorst · Emden · Oldenburg · Osnabrück · Salzgitter · Wilhelmshaven · Wolfsburg
Rural districts	Ammerland · Aurich · Bentheim · Celle · Cloppenburg · Cuxhaven · Diepholz · Emsland · Friesland · Gifhorn · Goslar · Göttingen · Hamelin-Pyrmont · Harburg · Helmstedt · Hildesheim · Holzminden · Leer · Lüchow-Dannenberg · Lüneburg · Nienburg · Northeim · Oldenburg · Osnabrück · Osterholz · Osterode · Peine · Rotenburg · Schaumburg · Soltau-Fallingbostel · Stade · Uelzen · Vechta · Verden · Wesermarsch · Wittmund · Wolfenbüttel

Donate to Wikimedia