Hanover: The local avant-garde of the 1920s met in her salon in Georgstrasse. Artist Käte Steinitz in a blouse printed with the programme of the "Zinnoberfest", 1928. Kurt Schwitters Archive in the Sprengel Museum Hanover
Hanover: Pupils of the Jewish school in Ohestrasse, undated (1940/41). Of the 14 whose names are known, one schoolgirl and two schoolboys survived the Holocaust, one schoolgirl died in a bombing raid on Hanover. Ahlem Memorial, donated by Erwin Mosbach
Hanover: Trade union building, façade at Nikolaistrasse 7, now Goseriede. Postcard from the 1920s. Historical Museum of Hanover
Hanover: Kurt Schumacher speaking at an SPD rally at Opernplatz, 1946. Hanover Regional Archive, Koberg estate, no. 1048 (90/1304/32)
“Hanover. Ballhofplatz with Hitler Youth home", picture postcard published by F. Astholz, Wikimedia Commons, scan of the original: Claus-Peter Enders together with Bernd Schwabe in the Hanover Wikipedia office
Johann Trollmann as North German Amateur Champion at the "Heros-Eintracht" club in Hanover, 1928. Wikimedia Commons
Hanover: Onlookers gazing at the New Synagogue, 10 November 1938. The dome of the synagogue has already been blown up. Image archive, Historical Museum of Hanover
Herschel Feibel Grynszpan (Grünspan) undergoing his first police interrogation in Paris, 6 November 1938. Image from the German Federal Archives 146-1988-078-08 / CC-BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons
Hanover: The roofs of the Altstadt photographed from the tower of the Kreuzkirche, 1935. Tiefental (now called Johann-Trollmann-Weg) is the narrow alley on the bottom right, running towards Burgstrasse. Photo by Wilhelm Hauschild. HAZ Hauschild Archive in the Historical Museum of Hanover
Foreboding image: Hanover under the swastika. Contemporary picture postcard. Historical Museum of Hanover
Hanover: Burgstrasse looking in the direction of Holzmarkt, on the left is the junction with Tiefental, a narrow lane now called Johann-Trollmann-Weg. The first half-timbered house on the right-hand side of the street survived the wartime bombing and is today the city’s oldest building. Next to it, with two bay windows, is the “Burghaus” (later known as the “Rusthaus”) owned by the Further Education Association. Historical Museum of Hanover
Hanover: View of Osterstrasse with the department stores Molling (left), Sternheim & Emanuel, and Elsbach & Frank (right), March 1933. The ground floor of Molling is here already sublet to Centrum GmbH, the window panes have been shattered after attacks by an SA unit. Historical Museum of Hanover
Hanover: The right-wing conservative local politician Arthur Menge was Lord Mayor 1925-1937. This is a portrait painted by Prof. Adolf Wissel, exhibited in 1942 at the Great German Art Exhibition in the House of German Art in Munich. Two "flagship" projects of Nazi urban policy are depicted: the Maschsee lake, which is in the background, and in Menge's hands is a layout of the Herrenhäuser Gardens, which were taken in local authority ownership in 1936. Historical Museum of Hanover
Hanover: Street sign on Adolf-Hitler-Platz near the opera. Photo by Wilhelm Hauschild. HAZ Hauschild Archive in the Historical Museum of Hanover
Hanover: Workers digging excavations during construction of the Maschsee, 1935. In the background is the Bismarck School. Historical Museum of Hanover
Hanover: Nazi art? The sculpture "Human couple" by Georg Kolbe on the east bank of the Maschsee, erected in 1937, photographed by Axel Hindemith in 2011. Wikimedia Commons
Karl-Dincklage-Haus, headquarters of the NSDAP-Gauleitung [main administrative divisions of Nazi Germany] for South-Hanover-Braunschweig in Dincklagestrasse (previously Kurze Strasse, now the location of the Allianz Tower). Photo by Wilhelm Hauschild, June 1939. HAZ Hauschild Archive in the Historical Museum of Hanover
Already in 1930 working full-time as an Hitler Youth Gauführer: Hartmann Lauterbacher, later leader of the Gau South-Hanover-Braunschweig. Picture postcard undated. In private ownership
Hanover: Former Jewish Villa Sternheim in the List district as the NSDAP Party Museum of Lower Saxony. Photographer Wilhelm Hauschild, from: Hannoverscher Kurier, 23 April 1939
Hanover: The agitprop group "Rote Kolonne” [Red Column] in the backyard of the Bunte Tavern in Knochenhauerstrasse, June/July 1932. In the middle of the back row is workers' photographer Walter Ballhause. In the middle row on the left is Fritz Treu and Ilse Rohrer who was later to become his wife, at the front on the right is Otto Brenner's brother Kurt Brenner. Walter Ballhause Archive, Plauen
Hanover: Horst-Wessel-Platz, named after a hero of the Nazi movement, 1930s. Historical Museum of Hanover
Hanover: Hildesheimer Straße with the burnt-out magazine tower of the city library, January 1945. At that time, the building was the headquarters of the Secret State Police (Gestapo) Hanover. Photo by private, photo archive Hannover City Library
Hanover: The Opera Square became Adolf Hitler Square, Georgsplatz became Rust Square, named after Gauführer Bernhard Rust. The opera with parading troops celebrating the victory over France in June 1940 as featured on the Hanomag company newspaper. Historical Museum of Hanover
Hanover: Ruins of the Aegidenkirche, 2015. Photo by Christian A. Schröder (ChristianSchd), Wikimedia Commons
Hanover: Stolpersteine for the members of the Jewish Eigermann family at Kramerstrasse 19/20, laid in November 2015. Photo: Culture of Remembrance

Themed tours to sites of persecution and resistance in Hannover 1933-1945

All four tours around Hanover’s city centre start and end at the ZeitZentrum Zivilcourage [Centre for Moral Courage] across from the Neues Rathaus [New City Hall]. Each takes approximately an hour of actual walking – plus the time spent at the individual locations. Many of the sites have been completely transformed due to being destroyed in the war and then rebuilt. We provide you with lots of historical photos so that you can imagine how the city used to look. It is also a good idea to visit the four models of the city on display inside the Neues Rathaus to gain a visual impression of the changes that have taken place.

Tour 1: Jewish life under National Socialism

Tour 1: Jewish life under National Socialism

With the consecration of their first free-standing synagogue in 1870, Hanover's Jews believed they had arrived at the centre of society....
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Tour 2: Persecution of the Sinti and Roma

Tour 2: Persecution of the Sinti and Roma

The persecution of the Sinti and Roma by the National Socialists was initially an intensified form of the persecution that had already...
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Tour 3: Workers’ movement and resistance

Tour 3: Workers’ movement and resistance

In Hanover there was an important, social-democrat dominated workers' movement. Towards the end of the Weimar Republic it was the main opponent....
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Tour 4: Financial theft and art theft

Tour 4: Financial theft and art theft

The robbery first of the emigrants, then of the Jews and Sinti deported to their deaths knew many profiteers. Administrations and museums also...
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