Offensen

Hanover German: Hannover
New Town Hall, Hanover
Coat of arms
Hanover
Location of Hanover within Hanover district
Coordinates: 52°22′N 9°43′E / 52.367°N 9.717°E / 52.367; 9.717Coordinates: 52°22′N 9°43′E / 52.367°N 9.717°E / 52.367; 9.717
Country	Germany
State	Lower Saxony
District	Hanover
Government
• Lord Mayor	Stefan Schostok (SPD)
• Governing parties	SPD / Greens
Area
• City	204.01 km2 (78.77 sq mi)
Elevation	55 m (180 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• City	532,163
• Density	2,600/km2 (6,800/sq mi)
• Metro	1,119,032
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	30001 - 30669
Dialling codes	0511
Vehicle registration	H
Website	www.hannover.de

Largest groups of foreign residents
Nationality	Population (2015)
Turkey	16,621
Poland	7,772
Greece	4,333
Ukraine	3,461
Russia	3,115
Italy	2,880
Serbia	2,810
Bulgaria	2,711
Spain	2,708
Iraq	2,211
Romania	1,825
Iran	1,669
Croatia	1,637
China	1,632
Syria	1,502

Hanover or Hannover (/ˈhænoʊvər/; German: Hannover, pronounced [haˈnoːfɐ]), on the River Leine, is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg (later described as the Elector of Hanover). At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Electorate was enlarged to become a Kingdom with Hanover as its capital.

From 1868 to 1946 Hanover was the capital of the Prussian Province of Hanover and afterwards of the Hanover administrative region until that was abolished in 2005. It is now the capital of the Land of Lower Saxony. Since 2001 it has been part of the Hanover district (Region Hannover), which is a municipal body made up from the former district (Landkreis Hannover) and city of Hanover (note: although both Region and Landkreis are translated as district they are not the same).