Former “Jewish house”, Knochenhauerstraße For more than 1200 Jewish Hanoverians – men, women and children – 3 September 1941 marks a dramatic worsening of their living conditions. Within a few hours they have to leave their homes and move into a so-called “Judenhaus”, a “Jewish house” specially designated for Jews. They are only allowed to…
Looted property in the Hanover City Library Not only works of art, but also individual books or entire private libraries came into the possession of archives, museums and libraries as “Nazi-confiscated cultural property” – including Hannover City Library. The latter makes intensive efforts, in accordance with the criteria of the “Washington Principles” adopted in 1998…
Stolperstein for Heinrich Börner The family of the farm labourer Heinrich Börner lives in Hanover’s Altstadt [Old Town]. When he changes jobs and works elsewhere, he remains registered with the police at this address. At the start of the Second World War, the twenty-year-old is drafted into the Wehrmacht [armed forces]. The following year, a…
Calenberger Straße 15: Stolperstein for Richard Lange In front of the house at Calenberger Strasse 15, a Stolperstein commemorates the fate of Richard Lange. He was arrested for being a homosexual in 1939 and murdered three years later in Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Hanover: Stolperstein for Richard Lange on 3 March 2009 in front…
Sent to a penal battalion for being a communist Otto Kreikbaum and his wife become involved in the Communist Party of Germany [Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, abbreviated to KPD] and its sub-organisations early on. As a result, he ends up as an inmate in one of the first Nazi concentration camps, and then in one of…
Honoured as Righteous Among the Nations Walter Krämer (1892-1941), a communist politician, falls into the clutches of the National Socialists shortly after the transfer of power – and they never relinquish their grip on him. As a prisoner functionary in Buchenwald concentration camp, he does so much for his fellow inmates that the Israeli remembrance…
The Bunte Tavern In the waning years of the Weimar Republic, the local group of the Socialist Workers’ Party of Germany [Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, abbreviated to SAP] meets in the “Bunte Tavern” in the heart of Hanover’s old town. The aim is to form a united front against the increasingly powerful political right. After the…
An der Börse: Stolperstein for Willy Scheinhardt A victim of political murder: a ‘Stolperstein’ [literally a ‘stumbling stone’ in the form of a brass plaque] commemorates Willy Scheinhardt at the former headquarters of the German Factory Workers’ Union [‘Fabrikarbeiterverband’ abbreviated to FAV]. Born in Saxony in 1892, this unskilled labourer was already active in the…
Kurt Schumacher: Re-founder of the SPD The former SPD [abbreviation for Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, the Social Democratic Party of Germany] member of the Reichstag Kurt Schumacher is sent to Hanover in 1943 after being imprisoned in a concentration camp. Immediately following the liberation of the city, he begins to rebuild the party. For a few…
Klagesmarkt: Contentious meeting place In the Middle Ages, the site of the present-day Klagesmarkt – by the Steintor [now a pedestrian precinct] and the city walls of Hanover – was used for public executions. Later on, it took on its historical role as a trading venue, a tradition that continues to this day: it hosted…