Province of Hanover

Hannover Hanover Province of Prussia ← 1868–1946 →   →   → Flag Coat of arms The Province of Hanover (red), within the Kingdom of Prussia, within the German Empire Capital Hanover 52°22′N 9°43′E History  - Established 1868  - Disestablished 1946 Area  - 1939 38,705 km2 (14,944 sq mi) Population  - 1939 3,537,390       Density 91.4 /km2  (236.7 /sq mi) Political subdivisions Aurich Hanover Hildesheim Lüneburg Osnabrück Stade

The Province of Hanover (German: Provinz Hannover) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1868 to 1946.

During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, along with some other member states of the German Confederation. After Hanover voted in favour of mobilising confederation troops against Prussia on 14 June 1866, Prussia saw this as a just cause for declaring war; the Kingdom of Hanover was soon dissolved and annexed by Prussia. The private wealth of the dethroned House of Hanover was then used by Otto von Bismarck to finance his continuing efforts against Ludwig II of Bavaria.

In 1946, the British military administration recreated the Land of Hanover based on the former Kingdom of Hanover; but within the year, at the instigation of the German leadership, it was merged into the new Bundesland of Lower Saxony - along with the states of Oldenburg, Brunswick, and Schaumburg-Lippe – with the city of Hanover as the capital of this new state.

Hannover, Oldenburg, Brunswick (1905)

Hannover, Schleswig-Holstein and small North German States (1890)

Hanoveran regions

The six Hanoveran regions.

Hanover was subdivided into six regions first called Landdrostei[en] (High-Bailiwick[s]), which were reorganised into Prussian standard Regierungsbezirke (governorates) on 1 April 1885.

  1) Aurich
  2) Osnabrück
  3) Stade
  4) Lüneburg (Lunenburg)
  5) Hildesheim
  6) Hanover

Presidents of the Province of Hanover

The heads of the provinces, appointed by the central Prussian government, were called Oberpräsident (Upper President). The provincial executive, the Landesdirektor (provincial director), was elected by the provincial parliament (Provinziallandtag).

• Otto Graf zu Stolberg-Wernigerode 1867-1873
• Botho Wendt August Graf zu Eulenburg 1873-1878
• Adolf Hilmar von Leipziger 1878-1888
• Rudolf von Bennigsen 1888-1897
• Konstantin Graf zu Stolberg-Wernigerode 1898-1902
• Richard von Wentzel 1902-1914
• Ludwig Hubert von Windheim 1914-1917
• Ernst von Richter (DVP) 1917-1920
• Gustav Noske (SPD) 1920-1933
• Viktor Lutze (NSDAP) 1933-1941
• Hartmann Lauterbacher (NSDAP) 1941-1945
• Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf (SPD) 1946

See also

• Kingdom of Hanover, for rulers of Hanover before the Prussian annexation