The Eigermann family, Kramerstrasse 19/20

The Eigermann family, Kramerstrasse 19/20 This is where the large Jewish Eigermann family lived until their expulsion in October 1938. Three children succeeded in fleeing to Palestine. Stumbling stones set in front of the house commemorate the fates of family members murdered in the Holocaust. Life in Hanover’s Altstadt In the address book of the…

Lange Laube 18: Stolperstein for Dr. Fritz Frensdorff

Lange Laube 18: Stolperstein for Dr. Fritz Frensdorff The Stolperstein in front of the house at Lange Laube 18 commemorates the medical doctor Dr. Fritz Frensdorff. He was one of the many elderly Jews, both women and men, who were driven to suicide due to harassment of them by the Nazi regime. This wave of…

former “Jewish house”, Herschelstrasse

Former “Jewish house”, Herschelstrasse Forced to move house: following a directive from the city authorities on 3 September 1941, more than 1200 Jewish citizens in Hanover had to leave their homes within the space of a few hours. They were forced to move into 15 “Jewish houses” dotted around the city. One of these was…

The birthplace of Herschel Grünspan

The birthplace of Herschel Grünspan Herschel Grünspan grows up here in Burgstrasse before living in Paris as an illegal immigrant. Whilst there, he hears of his family’s deportation to Poland. His shooting of an official at the German embassy provides the National Socialists with the long-awaited excuse to radically intensify their anti-Jewish measures. Hanover: Ballhofplatz…

Königsworther Platz alias “Horst-Wessel-Platz”

Königsworther Platz alias “Horst-Wessel-Platz” Murderers and their victims. The story of two villas located on the same square. “Villa Simon” had belonged to the Jewish Berliner family of entrepreneurs since 1895. In 1941, it was acquired by the Hanover city authorities. Its Jewish occupants were deported. A few blocks away stood the villa housing SS-District…

Jewish community centre in Ohestrasse

Jewish community centre in Ohestrasse At the end of the 19th century, a community centre was established on the edge of Calenberger Neustadt, which offered teacher training, a boarding school, a day nursery for children and a religious school. After the Second World War, the buildings become the most important place of refuge for Jewish…

Former Jewish community house in Lützowstrasse

Jewish community house in Lützowstrasse Once a centre of Jewish life: on the site where a bland multi-storey car park now stands, there once stood the community house, a centre of Jewish life in Hanover. The commission for its design had been awarded in 1875 to the architect Edwin Oppler who, not long before, had…

Old Jewish cemetery

Old Jewish cemetery The Old Jewish Cemetery in Nordstadt, not far from the Christuskirche, is an amazing sight: a mound in the middle of the residential district, upon which stand hundreds of old gravestones set beneath tall trees, a walled island of the departed. Hanover: “Juden-Kirchhof” [Jewish churchyard]: The cemetery hill depicted on a drawing…

Stolen artefacts in the Museum August Kestner

Stolen artefacts in the Museum August Kestner   The Museum August Kestner is the oldest museum in Hanover. In 1884, Hermann Kestner donated the sizeable collection of Ancient Egyptian antiquities and art belonging to his uncle August Kestner, his own private art collection and that of his father Georg Kestner to the city of Hanover…