Industrial City in the Prussian Province

1866 Annexation of the kingdom by Prussia. Hanover becomes the Prussian provincial capital. King George V leaves the country. A strong anti-Prussian party loyal to the king (Welf supporters) forms in town and country.

1870 The suburbs of Ohe and Glocksee are united with Hanover. Inauguration of the new synagogue, freestanding on a square, built according to plans by Edwin Oppler.

1872 The first horse-drawn tram from the Steintor goes to the Döhrener Turm.

1873 Hanover has more than 100,000 inhabitants for the first time.

1878 Change in the streetscape: The new Karmarschstraße extends the axis from the main station in an east-west direction across the medieval streets of the old town. This creates a central square at the intersection with Georgstraße at Café Robby, later called Kröpcke. The first German football club is founded in Hanover.

1880 The professional fire brigade is founded.

1882 Commissioning of the first telephone exchange with 50 subscribers.

1884 The Social Democratic deputy Heinrich Meister wins in a dramatic run-off election against the secret government councilor Dr. Brüel (Welfe) took over the Reichstag seat for the Hanover constituency, which has since been represented by Social Democratic MPs.

1885 The "largest village in Prussia", the municipality of Linden with 25,570 inhabitants on the western edge of Hanover, becomes a city.

1887 Emil Berliner invented the gramophone and record in the USA, which were also produced in Hanover from 1898.

1889 Opening of the Kestner Museum, donated by Hermann Kestner, the grandson of "Werthers Lotte".

1890 Poet Gerrit Engelke (+1918) born in Hanover.

1891 The villages of Herrenhausen, Hainholz, Vahrenwald and List are incorporated. Four years later, Hanover has 209,535 inhabitants.

1893 The first electric tram runs from Königsworther Platz to Herrenhausen. The Usambara violet is first described in the "Gartenflora" by Hermann Wendland, Oberhofgärtner in Herrenhausen.

1902 Opening of the Provincial Museum, today: Lower Saxony State Museum.

1903 Opening of the Patriotic Museum, since 1965 Historical Museum on the High Shore.

1905 Bahlsen's biscuit factory, founded in 1889, introduces one of the first flow conveyor systems in Germany (forerunner of the modern assembly line).

1907 At the suggestion of the aviation pioneer Karl Jatho, who succeeded in 1903 in the first powered flight: construction of an airfield on the Vahrenwalder Heide. The villages of Döhren, Wülfel, Kirchrode, Groß- and Klein-Buchholz, Lahe, Bothfeld and Stöcken are incorporated.

1910 Social Democrats and trade unionists move into their new party and trade union building. The city has over 300,000 inhabitants.

1913 Kaiser Wilhelm II inaugurates the town hall built on 6,026 beech posts on the edge of the Leine-Masch. Construction began in 1901. It is the only town hall in Europe that has an inclined elevator.

1914 Inauguration of the Stadthalle, built according to plans by Paul Bonatz and Friedrich Eugen Scholer. At the beginning of the war, the city sends the emperor an address of loyalty.

1916 The Mittelland Canal is put into operation from the Rhine to Hanover; Installation of the north port, the Lindener port and the Misburger ports.

1918 End of the war and revolution: City manager "King" Heinrich Tramm has to go. Robert Leinert (SPD), chief negotiator of the Workers' and Soldiers' Council, becomes mayor. democratization of municipal voting rights; for the first time women are allowed to vote.

1920 The cities of Hanover and Linden are united; Hanover now has over 400,000 inhabitants. Linden incorporated Limmer, Davenstedt, Badenstedt and Bornum in 1909 and Ricklingen in 1913.

1921 The city takes over the court theater under its direction. Founding of a local branch of the NSDAP.

1924 The Hanover broadcasting station begins operations. "Hanomag" brings out the small car known as "Kommißbrot".

1925 Election of Hanover's honorary citizen Paul von Hindenburg as Reich President. Theodor Lessing in the Prager Tageblatt: "Unfortunately, history shows that a future Nero always follows a Zero."

1928 Inauguration of the Hindenburg lock. The Mittelland Canal is in operation as far as Peine. The palace and garden district of Herrenhausen, the railway workers' settlement of Leinhausen and the monastery of Marienwerder are added to Hanover. The airfield on the Vahrenwalder Heide is officially approved.

1931 New building for the city library on Hildesheimer Strasse completed. First library tower building in Europe based on plans by Karl Elkart.

1932 A good 440,000 people live in Hanover. Over 62,000 people who are able to work are dependent on unemployment benefits and other support measures.

1933 "Torchlight procession of victory" to celebrate the National Socialists' seizure of power. Persecution and assassination of democrats and communists. Ban on the independent press. Occupation of the trade union house. Profession bans, anti-Jewish boycott and book burning. Theodor Lessing was murdered in exile in Marienbad. The Lord Mayor (since 1925) Arthur Menge remains in office.

1934 Introduction of the leader principle also in the city administration. Organization of the resistance group "Socialist Front". Start of work to create the Maschsee with the unemployed.

1936 NSDAP celebrates 15 years of existence. The resistance member Werner Blumenberg managed to escape from the Gestapo to Holland.

1937 Expansion of the Berlin-Cologne motorway. The city is redesigning the Royal Gardens of Manor Houses acquired by the Welfenhaus and opening them up to visitors. Wilhelm Busch Museum opened.

1938 National Socialists destroy the synagogue during "Reichskristallnacht". With a 4:3 win against FC Schalke 04, Hannover 96 became German football champions in front of almost 100,000 spectators in the Berlin Olympic Stadium and thus celebrated the first major success in the club's history.

1939 War, mobilization: Around 60,000 foreign and forced laborers work in the city's businesses and keep production going.

Since 1940 88 Allied bombing raids destroy the city, over 90 percent of the center. Over 6,000 people are killed, countless are made homeless; more than 10,000 Hanoverians die as members of the Wehrmacht.

1941 The approximately 1,000 Jews living in the city are ghettoized in 14 so-called "Jewish houses". The first of eight deportations of Hanoverian Jews to the extermination camps and ghettos in the east begins from the Ahlem Israelite Horticultural School.

1943 Establishment of sub-camps in Stöcken, Ahlem, Limmer and Misburg for the inmates to work at Continental and in other companies essential to the war effort.

April 1945 Mass shooting of 154 people at the Seelhorst cemetery.

For further reading:

Hanover chronicle from the beginnings to the present: Numbers, data, facts. Editors Klaus Mlynek and Waldemar R. Röhrbein. Hanover 1991.

History of the City of Hanover (2 vols.). Eds. Klaus Mlynek / Waldemar R. Röhrbein. Hanover 1992 / 1994.