1933–1945 →
→ Capital Lüneburg 1940–1945 Hartmann Lauterbacher | Flag Coat of arms 1933–1940 Bernhard Rust | |
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Gau Southern Hanover–Brunswick (German: Gau Südhannover–Braunschweig) was a regional district established in 1933 in Nazi Germany. Initially the gau was a territorial component of both the Free State of Prussia and the Free State of Brunswick from 1933 to 1935. However, after the German constituent states were abolished in 1935, the Gaus replaced them in their responsibilities. Gau Southern Hanover-Brunswick was dismantled after Germany's defeat in 1945. The territory after the war became part of Lower Saxony in West Germany.
History
The Nazi Gau (plural Gaue) system was originally established in a party conference on 22 May 1926, in order to improve administration of the party structure. From 1933 onward, after the Nazi seizure of power, the Gaue increasingly replaced the German states as administrative subdivisions in Germany.
At the head of each Gau stood a Gauleiter, a position which became increasingly more powerful, especially after the outbreak of the Second World War, with little interference from above. Local Gauleiter often held government positions as well as party ones and were in charge of, among other things, propaganda and surveillance and, from September 1944 onward, the Volkssturm and the defense of the Gau.
The position of Gauleiter in Südhannover–Braunschweig was initially held by Bernhard Rust until 1940 and then by Hartmann Lauterbacher until the end of the war.