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Thinking outside the box, acting with integrity
Lower Saxony is the master of diversity. The second-largest state in the Federal Republic of Germany consists of many small European regions which had previously developed independently as small states and local principalities for centuries - from the houses of Hanover, Oldenburg and Brunswick to the East Frisian Islands high up in the North Sea.
After the foundation of Lower Saxony in 1946, the tour de force was accomplished: the concert of various cultures and mentalities gave birth to a “Lower Saxony feeling”. “Thinking laterally, taking direct action – that is what unites us all,” say the people of Lower Saxony.
Sand dunes and mountain forests
Almost eight million people live between the Ems and Elbe rivers, the North Sea coast and the Harz mountains. The landscape is as multifaceted as the people of this state. On the one hand, there is East Frisia, its white beaches and dunes, with small towns evoking Dutch design and the highest tea consumption in the republic. Then there is Emsland, in the far west, whose moors were only drained in the 1950s. There are the soft hilly landscapes of the Weser Uplands between the state capital Hanover and the university town Göttingen, the dense forests on the mountains of the Harz Mountains in the east, and the idyllic, sandy Lüneburg Heath in the north.
The long eastern border of Lower Saxony once marked the transition to the Eastern Bloc. Following the reunification and the eastern expansion of the European Union in May 2004, the federal state moved to the centre of Europe. Today, it is a hub for transport between North and South, East and West.
Wind turbines and Germany's only deep-water harbour
Lower Saxony is committed to renewable energies. It is home to the hub of wind-turbine development and manufacturing and is also the largest wind energy producer in the country.
The joint Centre for Wind Energy Research at the Universities of Oldenburg, Hanover and Bremen, promotes the further development of wind energy technology.
This federal state in northern Germany has about 600 kilometres of coastline, seven offshore East Frisian islands and nine seaports. The harbour in Emden serves as a hub for vehicle exports, while the JadeWeserPort container terminal in Wilhelmshaven provides a link to the world's oceans. Germany's only deepwater harbour can also control new, 400-meter-long container ships independent of the tide.
Car manufacturing and agriculture
Vast meadows, fertile farmland, livestock farming – the food industry is the second largest industry in the Lower Saxony. That's why it's regarded as Germany's pantry; the Weser-Ems region is a centre of German meat production. Europe's largest automobile manufacturer, Volkswagen AG, operates plants in Salzgitter, Emden, Osnabrück, Brunswick and Hanover, in addition to the main plant in Wolfsburg. The Volkswagen Group is working hard to become a leading global supplier of sustainable mobility. Continental and Johnson Controls are only two of the many suppliers to the automotive industry that operate production sites in Lower Saxony.
Nobel Prize winners and a city of music
Research and development has always played a major role in Lower Saxony. Without Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and his observations about the binary number system more than 300 years ago, the foundations of modern information and communication technology would be missing. Since 1945, five Nobel Prize winners have received the award for research and findings developed during their time in Lower Saxony.
Hanover is a city of concerts and internationally renowned music. It has been a UNESCO City of Music since 2014. The Sprengel Museum was voted Museum of the Year in 2017 by the German section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).
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