Germany Guide
Lower Saxony
The Neues Rathaus
Address: Friedrichswall
Opening time: Mon– Fri 8am–6pm, Sat & Sun 10am–5pm
Price: Free
The Neues Rathaus,a neo-Renaissance hulk, tempered by a dash of neo-Gothic gravitas and crowned by a dome of preposterous dimensions, received the stamp of approval from a design competition committee chaired by Vienna's Otto Wagner. It also so impressed Kaiser Wilhelm II that he officiated at its opening in 1913. Over six thousand piles prevent the fantastical behemoth sinking into marshy ground, and, although architect Hermann Eggert locked horns over the interior (and lost), the Jugendstil entrance hall retains something of the exterior's grandiose scale, with a domed ceiling like a secular cathedral. Small wonder that it was here the birth of Lower Saxony was announced in 1946. Four models of the city trace Hannover's meteor-like path, from ascendant golden age with the arrival of the Guelph dukes in 1639 to the low of a postwar city reduced to rubble. In addition one of Europe's two inclined lifts (€2.50) judders around the cupola to the Rathausturm, with spectacular views of the city and countryside beyond.