Freundeskreis Tambacounda e.V.

Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony lies in the north of Germany in the high or standard German-speaking region. It is Germany’s second largest state after Bavaria with Hanover as it’s capital. The industrial center of Lower Saxony is located in the Hanover-Braunschweig-Wolfsburg area, which includes several automotive plants, with the main Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg. Peine and Salzgitter boast a local steel industry. Braunschweig is a major scientific center and Hanover is known for their trade fairs e.g. CeBIT and the Hanover-Messe.

After World War II, the Hannover province became the state of Lower Saxony under Regulation 55 of the British military government, which concerned the dissolution of the former Prussian provinces in the British zone into their formation as independent states as of August 23^rd 1946.

The regional name of Lower Saxony is, however, much older; the name and crest of the new state stems from the Saxons who settled in today’s Lower Saxony and its adjacent regions.

Immigration

After the Second World War, Lower Saxony was one of the main settlement areas for IDPs from (in descending order by number of persons) Silesia, East Prussia, Pomerania, and Sudetenland. According to the last census, 30% of Lower Saxony’s inhabitants were displaced persons, refugees or children of the corresponding families. Because of the many industries in the Hanover-Braunschweig-Salzgitter-Wolfsburg area, many guest workers from Italy, Spain, and Turkey were recruited to meet the high labor demand during the economic boom and often chose to remain in Lower Saxony. Since the end of the Cold War, repatriates from the former Soviet Union and Poland came into the state.