State of Hanover
| State of Hanover Land Hannover | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State of Allied-occupied Germany | |||||||||
| 1946 | |||||||||
.svg) Flag | |||||||||
 Map of the State of Hanover, coloured red, within the British Zone of Occupation | |||||||||
| Capital | Hanover | ||||||||
| Demonym | Hanoverian | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| Government | |||||||||
| • Type | Republic | ||||||||
| Minister-President | |||||||||
• 1946 | Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf | ||||||||
| Historical era | Cold War | ||||||||
• Established | 23 August 1946 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 23 November 1946 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Germany | ||||||||
The State of Hanover (German: Land Hannover) was a state in the British Zone of Allied-occupied Germany. It was a state for 92 days as the Free State of Prussia was dissolved after World War II. The state came after the former Kingdom of Hanover. Its capital was Hanover. In 1946, Lower Saxony was made by merging Hanover with Brunswick, Oldenburg and Schaumburg-Lippe.
Geography[change | change source]
The State of Hanover made up the territory of the old Prussian Province of Hanover without a few eastern parts that had become part of the Soviet occupation zone after World War II (Amt Neuhaus and the eastern part of Bleckede, Elbingerode and Ilfeld). It included 85% of today's Lower Saxony. Its capital and largest city was Hanover.
History[change | change source]
After the Second World War, the State of Hanover was made under Ordinance No. 46 of the British military government. Its first minister-president was the Social Democratic politician Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf.
On 23 November 1946 the British Military Government made the new state of Lower Saxony. It was made from the unification of the German states of Brunswick, Oldenburg and Schaumburg-Lippe with Hanover.
The eastern areas of Brunswick which had fallen to the Soviet zone, including the old County of Blankenburg and the exclave of Calvörde (part of the Helmstedt district) were not part of Lower Saxony and later made part of the East German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The former Hanoverian Soviet-occupied lands of Amt Neuhaus and the eastern parts of Bleckede were again made part of Lower Saxony after German reunification in 1990.