Lower Saxony (
German:
Niedersachsen ) lies in
north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen
states states of
Germany. In rural areas
Low German is still spoken, but the number of speakers is declining.
Lower Saxony borders on (from north and clockwise) the
North Sea, the states of
Schleswig-Holstein,
Hamburg,
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,
Brandenburg,
Saxony-Anhalt,
Thuringia,
Hesse and
North Rhine-Westphalia, and the Kingdom of the
Netherlands. In total, Lower Saxony borders more neighboring states than any other federal state. The state of
Bremen forms two
enclaves within Lower Saxony, one being the city of Bremen, the other its
seaport city of
Bremerhaven. The state's principal cities include
Hanover,
Braunschweig,
Osnabrück,
Oldenburg, and
Göttingen.
The northwestern portion of Lower Saxony is a part of
Frisia; it is called
Ostfriesland (East Frisia) and lies on the coast of the
North Sea. It includes seven islands, known as the
East Frisian Islands. In the extreme west of Lower Saxony is the
Emsland, a traditionally poor and sparsely populated area, once dominated by inaccessible swamps. The northern half of Lower Saxony, also known as the
North German Plains, is almost invariably flat except for the gentle hills around the
Bremen geestland. Towards the south and southwest lie the northern parts of the
German Central Highlands, the
Weserbergland (Weser mountain range) and the
Harz mountains. Between these two lies the Lower Saxon Hill Country, a range of minor elevations. Lower Saxony's major cities and economic centres are mainly situated in its central and southern parts, namely
Hanover,
Braunschweig,
Osnabrück,
Wolfsburg,
Salzgitter and
Hildesheim.
Oldenburg, near the northwestern coastline, is another economic center. The region in the northeast is called
Lüneburger Heide (Lüneburg Heath), the largest heathland area of Germany and in medieval times wealthy due to salt mining and salt trade, as well as to a lesser degree the exploitation of its
peat bogs up until about the 1960s. To the north, the
Elbe river separates Lower Saxony from
Hamburg,
Schleswig-Holstein,
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and
Brandenburg. The banks just south of the Elbe are known as
Altes Land (Old Country). Due to its gentle local climate and fertile soil it is the state's largest area of fruit farming, its chief produce being
apples.
See also
List of places in Lower Saxony.
Administration
Lower Saxony is divided into 38 districts (
Landkreise or simply
Kreise):
Furthermore there are ten urban districts:
¹
following the "Göttingen Law" of January 1, 1964, the town of Göttingen is incorporated into the district (Landkreis
) of Göttingen, but the rules on urban districts still apply, as long as no other rules exist.²
following the "Law on the region of Hanover", Hanover counts since November 1, 2001 as an urban district as long as no other rules apply. History
Ordinance No. 55, with which on November 22, 1946 the British military government founded the state Lower Saxony retroactively to November 1, 1946.
The area is named after the
Saxons. The Saxons lived in today's state of
Schleswig-Holstein and merged with the
Chauci on the left bank of the river Elbe until the middle of the 1st millennium AD. They then expanded over the whole of today's Lower Saxony and further. Originally the region was simply called
Saxony, but as the center of gravity of the
Duchy of Saxony gradually moved up the Elbe, towards the present-day states of
Saxony-Anhalt and
Saxony, the region was given the name of Lower Saxony, which it bore as an
Imperial Circle Estate from the late 15th century on.
Historically, Low Saxony esp. the southern regions or the Gottingen region sought a high degree of autonomy.
The state was founded in 1946 by the
British military administration, who merged the former states of
Brunswick,
Oldenburg, and
Schaumburg-Lippe with the former
Prussian province of
Hanover.
After the
Second World War, the military authorities appointed the first Legislative Assembly (
Landtag) in 1946, followed by a direct election of Lower Saxony's legislature a year later. It resulted in the election of
Social Democrat leader
Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf, who became the first prime minister. Kopf led a five-party coalition, whose basic task was to rebuild a state affected by the war's rigours. Kopf's cabinet had to organise an improvement of food supplies and the reconstruction of the cities and towns destroyed by the Allied air raids of the war years. In addition, the first state government also faced the challenge of integrating hundreds of thousands of refugees from Germany's former territories in the east (such as
Silesia and
East Prussia), which had been annexed by
Poland and the
Soviet Union.
Between 1978 and 2004, the state's districts and independent towns were grouped into four administrative regions (
Regierungsbezirke): Since 2004 the
Bezirksregierungen have been broken up again.
Economy
Agriculture has always been a very important economic factor in Lower Saxony.
Wheat,
potatoes,
rye, and
oats as well as
beef,
pork and
poultry are some of the state's present-day agricultural products. The north and northwest of Lower Saxony are mainly made up of coarse sandy soil that makes crop farming difficult and therefore grassland and cattle farming are more prevalent in those areas. Towards the south and southeast, extensive
loess layers in the soil left behind by the last
ice age allow high-yield crop farming. One of the principal crops there is
sugar beet.
Mining has been an important source of income in Lower Saxony for centuries.
Silver ore became a foundation of notable economic prosperity in the Harz Mountains as early as the 1100s, while
iron mining in the Salzgitter area and
salt mining in various areas of the state became another important economic backbone. Although overall yields are comparatively low, Lower Saxony is also an important supplier of crude oil in the European Union. Mineral products still mined today include
iron and
lignite.
Radioactive waste is frequently transported in the area to the city of
Salzgitter, for the
deep geological repository Schacht Konrad and between
Schacht Asse II in the
Wolfenbüttel district and
Lindwedel and
Höfer.
Manufacturing is another large part of the regional economy. Despite decades of gradual downsizing and restructuring, the car maker
Volkswagen with its five production plants within the state's borders still remains the single biggest private-sector employer, its world headquarters based in
Wolfsburg. Due to a legal act commonly known as the
Volkswagen Law that has just recently been ruled illegal by the
European Union's high court, the state of Lower Saxony is still the second largest shareholder, owning 20.3% of the company.
Due to the importance of car manufacturing in Lower Saxony, a thriving supply industry is centered around its regional focal points. Other mainstays of the Lower Saxon industrial sector include aviation, shipbuilding,
biotechnology, and
steel.
The service sector has gained importance following the demise of manufacturing in the 1970s and 1980s. Important branches today are the tourism industry with
TUI AG in Hanover, one of Europe's largest travel companies, as well as
trade and
telecommunication.
Politics
Since 1948, politics in the state has been dominated by the rightist
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the leftist
Social Democratic Party. Lower Saxony was one of the origins of the German environmentalist movement in reaction to the state government's support for underground nuclear waste disposal. This led to the formation of the German Green Party in 1980.
The current Minister-President,
Christian Wulff, has led a coalition of his CDU with the
Free Democratic Party since 2003. In
the most recent state election in 2008, the ruling CDU held on to its position as the leading party in the state, despite losing votes and seats. The CDU's coalition with the Free Democratic Party retained its majority although it was cut from 29 to 10.
The election also saw the entry into the state parliament for the first time of the leftist
The Left party.
List of Minister-presidents of Lower Saxony
Coat of arms
The
coat of arms shows a white
horse (
Saxon Steed) on red ground, which is an old symbol of the Saxon people.
See also
