Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony is the second-largest German state by area, in the northwest of the country, stretching from the North Sea coast to forested uplands. Its capital is Hannover. Home to Volkswagen in Wolfsburg and vast farmland, it combines major industry with extensive rural landscapes.

Lower Saxony spans the North Sea coast and the Wadden Sea, the flat northern plain, heaths such as the Lüneburg Heath, and the Harz mountains in the southeast. The climate is temperate and maritime in the north.

The state has a strong agricultural and industrial heritage, with traditional half-timbered towns, the Hannover trade fairs, and a distinct Low German linguistic tradition. Volkswagen is central to its modern economy.

Created after the Second World War from several historic territories including the lands of the Hanover dynasty that once shared a crown with Britain, Lower Saxony became an industrial and agricultural mainstay of West Germany.