Hanover

Hanover is the capital of Lower Saxony in northern Germany, on the Leine River where it leaves the hills for the North German Plain. In 1714 its elector, George Louis, became King George I of Great Britain, and Britain and Hanover shared their rulers for more than a century.

Hanover received its town charter in the 13th century and became a member of the Hanseatic League. The dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg moved their court there in the 17th century, and the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz worked in the city as court librarian and adviser for 40 years. Electress Sophia, the mother of George I, had the Great Garden of Herrenhausen laid out with hedges, fountains and statues in the baroque French style. Hanover became the capital of a kingdom of its own in the early 19th century and later of the Prussian province of Hanover.

Continental, the tire and automotive parts company, has its head office in Hanover. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles builds the Transporter van and the electric ID. Buzz at its plant in Stöcken. Bahlsen makes the Leibniz butter biscuit, named after the philosopher, at its home in the city. Hannover Messe, the industrial technology fair held each spring, fills the exhibition grounds in the south of the city.

The New Town Hall, finished in the 1910s on the edge of the Maschpark, has an arched elevator that climbs along the curve of its dome. The Maschsee, an artificial lake dug in the 1930s, holds rowing races and a summer lake festival. The Sprengel Museum shows modern art by Kurt Schwitters, Pablo Picasso and Niki de Saint Phalle, whose bright Nanas sculptures also stand by the Leine.