The federal state of Lower Saxony is located in northwest Germany. It completely encloses the city-state of Bremen. The state capital is Hanover. The larger northern part of the country belongs to the natural area of the North German lowlands, while the south belongs to the central German mountain range.
Industry and population are concentrated in southern Lower Saxony, while the north is predominantly agricultural. Tourism plays a major role on the North Sea coast, in the Lüneburg Heath and in the Harz Mountains.
According to paradisdachat, Lower Saxony is a large federal state in the north-west of Germany (Fig. 1). It borders in the north on the North Sea, the city-state of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, in the east on Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, in the south on Thuringia, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia and in the west on the Netherlands. The city-state of Bremen is completely enclosed by Lower Saxony. Almost 8 million people live in the state of Lower Saxony. People (2010) on an area of 47613 km². The state capital Hanover is located in the eastern half of the state.
Lower Saxony was formed on November 1, 1946 by the British military government from the former Prussian province of Hanover and the states of Braunschweig, Oldenburg and Schaumburg-Lippe. In 1947 parts of the state of Bremen were incorporated.
Natural space
Most of Lower Saxony belongs to the North German lowlands, which were shaped and transformed by the Saale Ice Age. This northern part is built up as a geest of Ice Age moraines, sand and valley sand formations such as the Lüneburg Heath. In between there are marshland lowlands and sometimes extensive raised bogs. Between the Geest and the coastline and along the lower reaches of the Ems, Weser and Elbe are marshland areas protected by dykes. Polders were created to protect against devastating storm surges and at the same time as a land reclamation measure.
Harle Bay, which was converted into marshland by dykes and polders (Groden) since 1600, reached as far as Wittmund in the Middle Ages. The mudflats close to the marshland of the coastin which the seven East Frisian Islands are located. As the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea, this part of the country is designated as a national park.
In the south, the lowlands merge into the Lössbörden zone, which accompanies the mountain range of the following low mountain ranges. Between the Weser and Harz Mountains, Lower Saxony has a share in the Central German mountain threshold. These include B. Solling, Ith, Deister, Hildesheimer Wald, Elm and Süntel. The highest point in Lower Saxony is the 972 m high Wurmberg in the Harz Mountains.
The main rivers are the Ems, Weser and Elbe, which are connected by canals.
The climate in Lower Saxony is shaped in the north by the Atlantic and the North Sea. To the southeast it is increasingly taking on continental trains. The annual average rainfall is around 600 to 800 mm. Only the western flank of the Harz, which protrudes high above the lowlands, is locally well over 1200 mm. The abundant rainfall in the Harz Mountains is the basis for the long-distance water supply to large parts of Lower Saxony and the city of Bremen (Fig. 4). Between 1929 and 1969, large dams were built in the Harz Mountains. They are not only used to supply drinking water, but also to generate energy and are popular excursion destinations.
Forest covers a good 20% of the country’s area, especially in the low mountain range.
Population
Lower Saxony is almost entirely in the area of the Low German-speaking area. The Frisians living in the far north-west have their own language. Miners from the Erzgebirge introduced the Upper German language to the Harz Mountains.
The population distribution in Lower Saxony is very different. A relatively high population density in the more industrialized southern part of the country, especially in the metropolitan area of Hanover, contrasts with a very low density in the north. The mining of silver, lead, copper, zinc and barite, which has become meaningless today, was of crucial importance for the settlement of the Harz.
More than half of the population belong to the Protestant regional churches, almost 20% to the Catholic Church.
Lower Saxony has universities in Göttingen, Oldenburg, Osnabrück, Hanover, Hildesheim and Lüneburg, technical universities in Braunschweig and Clausthal-Zellerfeld, a medical and veterinary university in Hanover, a university of fine arts in Braunschweig and a university for music and theater in Hanover.
State capital Hanover
The city is located on the southern edge of the North German lowlands on the Leine and Mittelland Canal. Hanover is an important industrial and commercial city, administrative and cultural center. It is the seat of the state government. Research institutes are also located in Hanover, e.g. B. the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources and the Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning. Important industrial sectors are machine and vehicle construction, the rubber industry, the manufacture of office supplies, the food and beverage, electrotechnical, electronic and chemical industries. Large commercial companies and insurance companies have their headquarters in Hanover.
There are regular exhibitions of international importance in the trade fair city, such as the Hanover Fair and CeBIT. The extensive exhibition grounds were the setting for the EXPO 2000 world exhibition , which had the motto “Man-Nature-Technology”. Hanover has an excellent traffic situation with an international airport in Langenhagen, four ports on the Mittelland Canal and a motorway junction. The extensive forest and green areas, parks and the Maschsee, which was laid out between 1934 and 1936, give Hanover a high residential and leisure value.
After severe destruction in World War II, a modern city was built. Some historical buildings could be preserved or rebuilt, including the market church, the old town hall, the new town hall and the Leineschloss. The baroque gardens in Hanover-Herrenhausen are the destination of numerous visitors.
Economy and Transport
Almost 60% of the land area of Lower Saxony is used for agriculture. The loess soils of the Braunschweig-Hildesheimer Börde offer the best conditions for arable farming. In addition to wheat and sugar beet, special crops such as asparagus are also grown there. In the river and coastal marshes, grassland farming with livestock predominates. Vegetables are grown especially between Hanover and Braunschweig and in the Emsland, vegetables and fruit in the marshland Altes Land and Land Kehdingen.
The livestock industry plays an important role. In the South Oldenburg area, large pig and poultry fattening farms were established from around 1960 (Fig. 7). Some of these farms have formed producer groups in order to be able to bear the high investment costs. The concentrated factory farming brings problems with it. The increased use of antibiotics and the spreading of the resulting liquid manure as fertilizer on the fields endanger the drinking water supply of the population in the long term. The nitrogen inputs into the groundwater can increase the nitrate content in drinking water in a way that is hazardous to health (Fig. 8).
Almost 100% of German natural gas production takes place in Lower Saxony. Over 70% of domestic oil is also produced there. The production areas for natural gas are in the Emsland, Südoldenburg, Sulingen and Söhlingen areas, and for oil in Emsland and Celle-Gifhorn. Hard and potash salts are mined in the Celle-Hanover area and lignite is mined in the Helmstedt area.
The industry is concentrated in southern Lower Saxony. The focus is on iron ore smelting and iron and steel processing in the Salzgitter-Peine area. The most important branches of industry are vehicle construction, especially in Wolfsburg, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and the food industry. Incidentally, the two industrial cities of Salzgitter and Wolfsburg were founded by the National Socialists. Shipbuilding, chemical and petrochemical industries and fish processing can be found on the coast. One of the internationally best-known shipyards, which specializes in the construction of large cruise ships and gas tankers, is, however, in the hinterland in the city of Papenburg an der Ems.
The tourism plays in the North Sea baths, especially on the East Frisian Islands, in the Lüneburg Heath and the Harz a major role.
In addition to the road network and the railway network, the extensive transport infrastructure also includes a considerable network of inland waterways. Dortmund-Ems Canal, Elbe Side Canal, Mittelland Canal and Coastal Canal are navigable for European ships up to 1350 t. The most important seaports are Wilhelmshaven, Brake and Nordenham. The ferry connections to the islands are also well developed.
