On November 1, 1946, the British military government's "Regulation No. 55" officially established the state of Lower Saxony with Hanover as its capital. The first state government under Prime Minister Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf had to solve immense problems.

by Oliver Weisse

The birth of the state of Lower Saxony on November 1, 1946 with "Regulation No. 55" is initially a sober act by the British military government. The occupying power had already started in August with the dissolution of the Prussian province of Hanover. The four states of Hanover, Brunswick, Oldenburg and Schaumburg-Lippe - which had previously been concerned with their independence - were to become one state. Lower Saxony - to stay with the image of birth - was initially a weak child and by no means a "desired child". In the regions of Brunswick, Oldenburg and Schaumburg-Lippe there were strong reservations about a union with the Land of Hanover, which was the largest in terms of area. However, the proposal for a merger made by the Hanoverian Prime Minister Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf (SPD) met with approval from the British military government. Kopf, the first father of the country, didn't want anything to do with an artificial structure:

The country is not an artificial structure, but the tribal nature of its inhabitants, through its similar structure, tradition and economic unity an organically grown coherent whole. A part of the population regrets the loss of old self-employment. We are convinced that it will soon recognize the correctness of the decisions made. All parts of our country will grow together quickly and smoothly. Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf

Cities are like deserts of rubble after the war

The challenges facing the state government installed by the British are immense. The cities still resemble deserts of rubble. Millions of cubic yards of broken wood, shattered glass, and shattered rock lie where homes and businesses once stood. The infrastructure is in ruins as a result of the Allied bombing raids in Lower Saxony's largest cities, Braunschweig, Hanover and Osnabrück.

The Second World War "quite literally cut away the face" of Hanover in particular, as the historian Jörg Friedrich put it in his book "Der Brand". By the end of the war, 90 percent of the city centers in Braunschweig and Hanover had been wiped out. Overall, the degree of destruction in the cities is between 40 and 50 percent, and several hundred thousand people in Lower Saxony have become homeless as a result of the bombing. Now living space has to be created for those who have been bombed out. Time is pressing, because many people who escaped the bombing inferno during the war, among other things by evacuation, want to go back to their hometowns - and the second post-war winter is just around the corner.

Hunger winter 1946/47:hardship in the freezing cold

What the men in Kopf's all-party government cannot yet know:It will be one of the harshest winters that Germany has experienced to date. As early as November, when the parliamentarians meet under the dome of the almost undamaged New Town Hall, the temperatures are close to freezing. During the following months, the winter with temperatures of sometimes minus 20 degrees presents the government and above all the people in the country with unexpected challenges.

Because in addition to the housing shortage, the supply of food is also a massive problem. A daily ration sometimes has less than 1,000 calories - it's also a winter of hunger. It was not until April 1947 that winter released Lower Saxony from its cold grip. The nutritional situation will not fundamentally improve even after that. In 1948 the so-called hunger march took place, with Kopf at the head. The nutrition office of the British-American bi-zone Lower Saxony, created in 1947, had previously reduced the allocations due to non-fulfillment of the delivery target. The precarious supply situation only slowly improved with the currency reform of June 20, 1948.

The hour of the "rubble women"

While the Allied occupying powers granted Lower Saxony at least some decision-making powers again in that difficult post-war winter, the rubble clearance is progressing outside. Rubble as far as the eye can see. As elsewhere in Germany, the hour of the "rubble women" has come in the cities of Lower Saxony. But they not only remove the deep scars left by the war in the destroyed cities. Reforestation also begins in the forests that were also damaged by the war.

Millions of refugees come to Lower Saxony

The housing and food shortages are exacerbated by the stream of refugees from the former German eastern territories and the Soviet occupation zone. In the first few years after the state was founded, more than two million refugees came to Lower Saxony. The number of inhabitants increases from a pre-war level of around 4.5 million inhabitants in the first post-war years to almost seven million people. That harbors conflict. Because there is a lack of living space, the British occupying power sees itself forced to act in Ammerland, for example:

Should there be unwarranted reluctance from a household to irresponsibly refuse to cooperate in this matter, the military government will take the necessary steps to remove the homeowner from his. He will no doubt then be better able to understand the feelings of the refugees who have lost everything.

Refugees feel at home in Lower Saxony

As in Ammerland, the displaced people are not initially welcomed with open arms in many places. The hateful word about the "backpack Germans" also makes the rounds between the Ems and the Elbe. For many newcomers, the first stop in Lower Saxony is the refugee camp in Uelzen, in addition to the Friedland transit camp near Göttingen, which will soon be world-famous. In the years that follow, a large proportion of them settle down, especially in the east of the country.

75 years of Lower Saxony in the spotlight

"Big dreams despite hard times"

Heinrich Albertz, who was later to become the Governing Mayor of West Berlin, initially worked as a refugee pastor in Celle during those difficult early years in Lower Saxony. In 1948, Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf brought him into the state government as Minister for Social Affairs. Later, Albertz can still clearly remember the sometimes catastrophic accommodation situation. In his words, some of the people lived in these "primitive, by no means winter-proof barracks." "Some people had built a dwelling out of boards, cardboard and scrap metal," he says, describing the situation at the time. Nevertheless, people had big dreams during the hard times, says Albertz. In the years to come, he will be the voice of those displaced from home, who will do their utmost to break down the prejudices of the rural population in particular towards the new Lower Saxony and to demand equal living conditions.

Rise of the former Emsland poorhouse

In order to get the critical situation of housing and food shortages under control, the focus of the state government in Hanover is not only on rebuilding the cities, but also on boosting agriculture. However, to feed more than six million people, at least in principle, the areas used for agriculture are far from sufficient. By 1950, the plan to reclaim wasteland in the west of Lower Saxony matured. With the Emsland Plan, which the German Bundestag passed on May 5, 1950, the standard of living in the region, which had been underdeveloped until then, was to be brought into line. In fact, from today's perspective, the way people lived in Emsland at that time seems almost archaic. Some of the people still live here in earthen huts, so-called keeten, piled up from the peat from the moor areas typical of the region. In the following years, these huge moor areas are plowed up and used for agriculture. It is the beginning of the success story of a previously backward region.

From agricultural to industrial site

However, the reclamation would hardly have been possible without machines. The machines used lead to a mechanization of agriculture. The tractors required for this come from companies such as Hanomag in Hanover-Linden. Where a few years ago, among other things, tanks rolled out of the halls for the Nazi war of extermination and robbery, civilian vehicles such as trucks and tractors are now being built again. The resumption of production brought employment to people looking for work at industrial locations such as Hanover, Wolfsburg and Salzgitter, which were initially threatened with dismantling. In the decades that followed, this made a significant contribution to the change from a country that was still characterized by agriculture to an industrial location. Volkswagen in Wolfsburg stands for this like hardly any other company.

The Beetle turns Wolfsburg into a car town

The British initially approve the repair of their vehicles in the slightly damaged plant. From mid-1945, Volkswagen initially operated under the name Wolfsburg Motor Works. In the coming decades, the group will become one of the largest car manufacturers in the world - and the VW Beetle will become the world's best-selling car. At the beginning, around 9,000 people work in the Wolfsburg plant. Today the company has around 650,000 employees worldwide. The steel, the basis of automobile construction, does not even have to be imported. According to Alfred Kubel, the former Reichswerke should restart production as quickly as possible. The dismantling of former armaments factories like the ones in Salzgitter is finally not implemented, also thanks to the resistance of the steel workers.

Hanover Messe becomes West Germany's showcase

The fact that products from Lower Saxony will soon also be internationally successful is also due to the fact that the British suggested to the state government that they hold an export fair. This plan was initially met with little approval in Hanover, remembers Alfred Kubel, who in 1946 initially worked as Economics Minister in Prime Minister Kopf's first cabinet. According to the social democratic politician, who was later elected fourth Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, there was simply a lack of hotels, accommodation and the appropriate infrastructure for such a trade fair in Hanover. After all, the accommodation could be managed together with the British. The trade fair in Laatzen - also a Lower Saxony success story - will soon be the economic showcase of West Germany. The Hanover Fair, where consumer goods can also be admired at the beginning, changes over the next few decades to become the world's largest industrial fair. In the 1980s, the organizers split off a subject area. The products that will be shown at the first CeBIT will not only profoundly change the world of work, but also people's everyday lives.

Constitutional Court bans Socialist Reich Party

In the decades since Lower Saxony came into existence, the focus of the various state governments has primarily been on economic success. A credo that goes back to the first prime minister, Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf. The point is that Lower Saxony can compete with other countries. There were hardly any political conflicts between the SPD and CDU mainstream parties in the first few years, when an all-party alliance was in charge of the country. Also because due to the merger of the four countries one is considering a corresponding compensation. But around five years after the end of National Socialist Germany, some regions of Lower Saxony apparently still have supporters of the Nazi regime. In the state elections of 1951, the Socialist Reich Party gets eleven percent and enters the state parliament. Regionally, the far-right party has even more supporters. In Holzminden, she even received around 30 percent of the votes. In the fall, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe put an end to this and banned the "openly National Socialist party". In the decades that followed, right-wing extremist groups flared up again and again in Lower Saxony. Politically, however, they remain meaningless and do not shake the democracy initially decreed by the Allies.

Press after the war - Augstein's work and Nannen's contribution

Right from the start, in addition to democratization through the re-admission of parties, the media. In addition to various daily newspapers such as the "Braunschweiger Zeitung", two of the most successful magazines in the Federal Republic were launched:the news magazine "Spiegel" by Rudolf Augstein in 1947 and Henri Nannen's magazine "Stern" in 1948. Although the newspapers will soon be leaving Hanover, the city of their birth, for Hamburg, they keep reporting on the small and large scandals that are happening in Lower Saxony.

Unity and diversity in 37 counties

The regional differences between the Harz Mountains and the coast have been preserved in the individual parts of Lower Saxony with their total of 37 administrative districts and eight independent towns, even after decades of belonging together. So it is a federal state with many faces - also through the integration of people from other origins.