State of Hanover

This article is about the state of Hannover, founded in 1946 and expanded to become the German state of Lower Saxony. For other uses, see Hanover (disambiguation).

State of Hanover Land Hannover
← 1946 →
Flag
Location of the State of Hanover (shown as Königreich Hannover)
Capital		Hanover
Government		Republic
Minister-President
-	1946	Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf
Historical era		Cold War
-	Established	23 August 1946
-	Disestablished	23 November 1946

The State of Hanover (German: Land Hannover) was a state in Northwest Germany. It existed between the dissolution of the former State of Prussia and the foundation of Lower Saxony in 1946 and saw itself in the tradition of the Kingdom of Hanover, annexed in 1866 by Prussia, as is clear from the state emblems. After Lower Saxony was founded by merging Hanover with several smaller states, Lower Saxony would continue to use the Hanover emblems.

Geography

The State of Hanover covered the territory of the former Kingdom of Hanover without those parts in the Soviet Zone of Occupation. It therefore included the majority of the present-day state of Lower Saxony.

History

After the Second World War the State of Hanover was founded under Ordinance No. 46 of the British military government dated 23 August 1946 "concerning the dissolution of the provinces of the former State of Prussia in the British Zone and their recreation as independent states". Its first Minister-President was Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf.

But by 23 November 1946 the British Military Government had approved the formation of the new state of Lower Saxony from the unification of the states of Brunswick, Oldenburg and Schaumburg-Lippe with the state of Hanover at the instigation of their German leaders. Kopf also discussed other territorial options for a Lower Saxony state which would have included Bremen and Ostwestfalen-Lippe.

Excluded were the eastern areas belonging to Brunswick including the district of Blankenburg and the exclave of Calvörde (part of the district of Helmstedt), which fell within the Soviet Zone and was integrated into the state of Saxony-Anhalt, and the Hanoverian Amt of Neuhaus, which also lay on Soviet-occupied territory and was not united with Lower Saxony until 1993.

See also

• Hanover (city)
• Hanover Region

External links

• Wochenschau Film zur Wiederherstellung des Landes Hannover 1946