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…
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 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” 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 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…
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 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…
The Mellini affair The Mellini Theater was located in present-day Kurt-Schumacher-Strasse (known at that time as Artilleriestrasse) opposite the junction with Odeonstrasse. It was a variety theatre or boulevard theatre. During the Second World War, it was converted into a “Kraft-durch-Freude-Theater” [Strength through Joy Theatre], designed to boost morale (by inspiring a spirit of resilience…
Precious metals handed over to the Lending Office The city authorities were also involved in robbing and marginalising the Jewish population. In the spring of 1939, the Jews in Hanover and the surrounding area were forced to bring all their valuables made of precious metal to the municipal Lending Office at Am Hohen Ufer. Today…
Am Hohen Ufer: “Polenaktion” [the expulsion of Polish Jews from the German Reich] and Reich pogrom night Hanover’s historical origins are to be found at the ford across the River Leine and the river island just by the Beginenturm. One thousand years later, buildings at the point known as Am Hohen Ufer [literally: High Bank] are…