Gau Eastern Hanover

Gau Eastern Hanover
Gau of Nazi Germany
1928–1945
Flag of Gau East Hannover
Flag
Coat of arms of Gau East Hannover
Coat of arms

Map of Nazi Germany showing its administrative
subdivisions (Gaue and Reichsgaue).
CapitalLüneburg
Government
Gauleiter 
• 1928–1945
Otto Telschow
History 
1 October 1928
8 May 1945
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Free State of Prussia (1933-1935)
State of Hanover
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Today part ofGermany

Gau Eastern Hanover (German: Ost-Hannover) was a regional district of the NSDAP established in 1925 in the north eastern part of the Prussian Province of Hanover, comprising the governorates of Stade and Lüneburg in their then boundaries. Originally called Gau Stade-Lüneburg, it was renamed Gau Ost-Hannover on 1 October 1928. Initially, the Gau was a mere regional Nazi party subsection, but with the growing subjection of all public administration to Nazi party influence after the Machtergreifung, the Gau usurped from 1933 to 1935 more and more the functions of the Provincial government and its superordinate Free State of Prussia. However, after the German constituent states were de facto abolished in 1935, the Gaue replaced them in their responsibilities. Gau East Hannover - like all Nazi party structures - was dismantled after Nazi Germany's defeat in 1945. In 1946 the Control Commission for Germany - British Element (CCG/BE) reconstituted the Province of Hanover as the State of Hanover and later the same year it merged with three smaller neighbouring reconstituted German states to form the new state of Lower Saxony within the British Zone of Occupation. The municipality of Amt Neuhaus was allocated to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.