Hannover | Germany | Lower Saxony

Hanover or Hannover (, ), on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, in their dignities as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg (which title was later called the Elector of Hanover at the end of the historical period known as Early Modern Europe). After the Napoleonic Wars ended, the Electorate was enlarged and made into the capital of the Kingdom of Hanover.

In addition to being the capital of Lower Saxony, Hanover was the capital of the administrative area Regierungsbezirk Hannover (Hanover region) until Lower Saxony's administrative regions were disbanded at the beginning of 2005. It is, however, still part of the Hanover district (Region Hannover), which is a municipal body made up from the former district and city of 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 Category: wikt - :CeBIT|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.).

The House of Hanover (the Hanoverians) is a Germanic royal dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg (), the Kingdom of Hanover and the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland. It succeeded the House of Stuart as monarchs of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714 and held that office until the death of Victoria in 1901. They are sometimes referred to as the House of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Hanover line. The House of Hanover is a younger branch of the House of Welf, which in turn is the senior branch of the House of Este, with all three being offshoots of the ancient Saxon House of Wettin.

Queen Victoria was the granddaughter of George III, and was a descendant of most major European royal houses. She arranged marriages for her children and grandchildren across the continent, tying Europe together; this earned her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe." She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover; her son King Edward VII belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father, Prince Albert. Since Victoria could not inherit the German kingdom and duchies under Salic law, those possessions passed to the next eligible male heir, her uncle Ernest Augustus I of Hanover, the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale—the fifth son of George III. In the United Kingdom, after World War I, King George V changed the house's name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the currently serving House of Windsor in 1917. Both dynastic names are offshoots of the 800-plus years old House of Wettin.

The Kingdom of Hanover () was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It joined with 38 other sovereign states the German Confederation.

The Hannover Messe (English: Hanover Fair) is the world's biggest industrial fair. It is held on the Hanover fairground in Hanover, Germany. Typically, there are about 6,000 exhibitors and 200,000 visitors.

The Hannover Messe started in 1947 in an undamaged factory building in Laatzen, south of Hanover, by an arrangement of the British military government in order to boost the economic advancement of post-war Germany. The first fair was colloquially known as Fischbrötchenmesse (fish bun fair) due to the exemptions in food rationing for the fair at this time. It proved hugely successful and was hence repeated on a yearly basis, contributing largely to the success of the Hanover fairground in replacing the then-East German city of Leipzig as the new major fair city for West Germany.

In the 1980s, growing information and telecommunication industry forced the organiser Deutsche Messe AG to split the fair. The CeBIT is a successful spin-off of the Hannover Messe.

Nowadays, the Hanover Fair covers all areas of industrial technology.

*2006 dates: April 24-28.

*2007 dates: April 16-20.

*2008 dates: April 21-25.

*2009 dates: April 20-24.

The location in 2005 was at coordinates .

CeBIT (Centrum der Büro- und Informationstechnik; German for "Centre of Office and Information technology") is the world's largest computer expo. It is held each spring on the world's largest fairground in Hanover, Germany, and is a barometer of the state of the art in information technology. With an exhibition area of roughly 450,000 m² (5 million ft²) and up to 700,000 visitors, it is larger than COMPUTEX and the no-longer held COMDEX. By 2007 the CeBIT expo attendance has shrunk to 'more than 200,000' from those all-time highsAttendance for CeBIT increases to 200,000, it was held from 15 March to 21 March 2007. The 2008 expo dates were 4 March to 9 March 2008, with a notable event being the police raids of 51 exhibitors for patent infringementAuthorities seize gadgets during patent raid at German tech fair, something that is traditionally not a criminal matter in most jurisdictions, and is likely to further affect attendance figures in the future. The 2009 expo dates are 3 March to 8 March 2009.