In the city of Hannover, the capital and largest city of the state of Lower Saxony, Germany

 The greatness of a life can only be estimated by the multitude of its actions. We should not count the years, it is our actions that constitute our life.”

-– Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
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(in northwestern Germany) Although Hannover may be one of the most underrated cities in Germany, it is one of the best destinations for a fall vacation in Europe. This great city is home to a huge park, twice the size of Central Park in New York. Ancient oak trees and a lovely lake are on the park grounds, ideal for strolls and lazy afternoons in the autumn.

+ The capital of Germany's Lower Saxony Land (state), Hannover lies on the Leine River and the Mittelland Canal, where the spurs of the Harz Mountains meet the wide North German Plain. First mentioned in documents in 1100, Hannover was chartered in 1241 and joined the Hanseatic League in 1386. From 1495 it belonged to the Calenberg-Celle line of the house of Welf after 1636. In 1714 George Louis of that house became George I of Great Britain. From 1815 to 1866 the city was capital of the kingdom of Hannover, but in 1866 it was annexed by Prussia. It later became the capital of Hannover province and, in 1946, of Lower Saxony. During World War II about three-fifths of Hannover was destroyed, but on the ruins arose a planned, modern, and highly industrialized city.

+ Despite Hannover’s reputation as a highly industrialized city, post-World War II planning preserved parks, public gardens, and woods, earning Hannover a reputation as the “garden city.” Notable are the Great Garden, the great Hannover woods (Eilenriede), the Maschsee (an artificial lake), the Hermann-Löns Park, the Stadtpark, and the zoological gardens. Since most of the city’s historic buildings were destroyed or severely damaged in World War II, its reconstructed buildings include the old Town Hall (shown here), the Leibniz House, where the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz lived from 1676 to 1716, the opera house, the Marktkirche (Market church), the Neustädter Church (which contains the tomb of Leibniz), and the Kreuzkirche (Church of the Cross). The ruined Sankt Giles’s (or Aegidienkirche) Church remains as a memorial to war victims. New government offices have been built around the old Leine Palace, the former residence of the Hanoverian court, which was restored and is now the home of the Diet (Legislature) of Lower Saxony. Rebuilt museums include the Lower Saxony State Museum, with natural-history, prehistory, and ethnology departments and an extensive picture gallery; and the Kestner-Museum, with Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Cypriot, and Etruscan antiquities and medieval ecclesiastical art. The Wilhelm Busch Museum specializes in caricatures.

+ Hannover is one of the most important traffic junctions in northern Germany and is linked to Berlin by rail, expressway, and air. The German Industries Fair (first held in Hannover in 1947), now called Hannover Fair, has had great influence on the city’s postwar development.