Hanover

With a population of 522,944 (1 February 2007) the city is a major center of northern Germany, known for hosting annual commercial expositions such as the Hanover Fair and the CeBIT. Every year Hanover hosts the Schützenfest Hannover, the world's largest Marksmen's Fun Fair, and the Oktoberfest Hannover, which is the second largest Oktoberfest in the world. In 2000, Hanover hosted the world fair Expo 2000. The Hanover fairground, due to numerous extensions, especially for the Expo 2000, is the largest in the world. Hanover also has regional importance because of its universities and medical school, its international airport, and its large zoo. The city is also a major crossing point of railway lines and highways (Autobahnen), connecting European main lines in east-west-direction (Berlin - Ruhr area) and north-south-direction (Hamburg - Munich et al.).

Hanover was founded in medieval times on the south bank of the river Leine. Its original name Honovere may be translated as "high bank", though this is debated. Hanover was a small village of ferrymen and fishermen that became a comparatively large town in the 13th century due to its position at a natural crossroads. As overland travel was relatively difficult, its position on the upper navigable reaches of the river helped it to grow by increasing trade. It was connected to the Hanseatic League city of Bremen by the Leine, and was also situated near the southern edge of the wide North German plain and north-west of the Harz mountains, so that east-west traffic such as mule trains passed through it. Hanover thus acted as a gateway to the Rhine, Ruhr and Saar River valleys and their industrial areas to the southwest, the plains regions to its east and north, as was used by overland traffic skirting the Harz between the Low Countries and Saxony or Thuringia.

In 1636 George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, ruler of the Brunswick-Lüneburg principality of Calenberg, moved his residence to Hanover. The Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg were elevated by the Holy Roman Emperor to the rank of Prince-elector in 1692, and this elevation was confirmed by the Diet in 1708. Thus the principality was upgraded to the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, which was colloquially called the Electorate of Hanover after Calenberg's capital (see also: House of Hanover). Its electors would later become in personal union monarchs of Great Britain (after 1801, monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland). The first of these was George I Louis, who acceded to the British throne in 1714. The last British monarch who ruled in Hanover was William IV: Salic law, which required succession by the male line, forbade the accession of Queen Victoria in Hanover. As a male-line descendant of George I, Queen Victoria was herself a member of the House of Hanover. Her descendants, however, bore her husband's titular name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Three kings of Great Britain, or the United Kingdom, were at the same time Electoral Princes of Hanover.

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