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…
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…
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…
The Fischer family in Röselerstrasse Many Eastern European Jews and Sinti traditionally live in the modest housing in the Altstadt, such as in Röselerstrasse. The Fischers are a large Sinti family. They are deported from their home to Auschwitz on 3 March 1943. There, the mother is murdered along with the younger children. Hanover: The…
Remembering a murdered boxer: Johann-Trollmann-Weg Johann Trollmann – known in his family as “Rukeli” – was a Sinto and was born on 27 December 1907 in Wilsche, a district of Gifhorn. He grew up together with his eight siblings in humble circumstances in Hanover’s Altstadt, the old part of the city. He went on to…
The Stolperstein for Hermann Federmann At the north-eastern side of Wagenerstrasse, just before the passageway to Archivstrasse, there is a Stolperstein for Hermann Federmann embedded in the ground of the pedestrian walkway. Stolpersteine commemorate the fate of people who were expelled, deported, driven to suicide or murdered under National Socialism. They are located at the…