Note: Former state of northwestern Germany that grew out of the early 17th-century division of territories of the Welf house of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In 1638 known as the principality of Brunswick-Calenberg-Göttingen; it came to be named after its principal town, Hanover: first as an electorate (1692-1806) of the Holy Roman Empire, then a kingdom (1814-1866), and finally a Prussian province (1866-1945). After World War II the state was administratively abolished; its former territory formed about 80 percent of the Land (state) of Lower Saxony.
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