Hannover: Heartrending Diaramas

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When planning our trek west back to Amsterdam and our return flight to Australia, Hannover appeared to be close to the halfway point from Berlin, so we decided to break our journey there. We had no idea what to expect, but booked a 2 night stay as we had done in Bratislava and Brno, and again we were on a tour of discovery.

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Photos

We found our airbnb on Kramerstrasse was right in the heart of the Old City.
Hannover is known for the half-timber buildings dating back centuries.

The Rathaus, the new city hall, opened in 1913.
We were sent to the Rathaus to get a map of the city so we could orient ourselves and decide how to spend our limited time in Hannover.
Little did we know that this building was likely used by the RAF Bomber Command and the US Army Air Force as an orientation point for their raids.

The public lobby of the Hannover Rathaus
While Phil sourced a map of the city from the information counter, I discovered the diaramas.

The destruction of Hannover
Hannover was an important rail transport junction and a military industrial site. One can understand targetting factories, but Hannover was subjected to 88 bombing raids including carpet bombing by the latter part of WWII.

In this closer look at the diarama, I hope you can see how the city was reduced to rubble.
In the top left, the Rathaus still stands but all the trees in the park are burned to a crisp.
Does it remind you of the current tv news of Syria?

This close-up is roughly the same area as shown in the 1945 diarama. Again, the Rathaus is in the upper left.
We stayed close to the church near the center of this picture.

"Hannover now"
Almost 75 years after the destruction, Hannover is full of high-priced and trendy shops, and many new buildings being constructed. There's a lively night life, the streets are full of people, restaurants and music.

Hannover now-the area near the Rathaus
This picture didn't come out too good, but I decided to include it for the comparison value.

Comments

[michelleandkev]

Hannover
Another wonderful history lesson...thanks! M xx