Hannover is a working city, and proud of it. The capital of Lower Saxony of around 530,000 people, it earns its keep as Germany's trade-fair capital — the Hannover Messe and (in its day) CeBIT brought hundreds of thousands of business visitors a year. That history shapes the place: efficient, well-connected, often pragmatic, occasionally accused of being dull. Travellers tend to use it as a stopover. They are missing something.
For three centuries Hannover shared its rulers with the British crown. The Electors of Hannover became Kings of Britain in 1714 with George I, and the city's most spectacular legacy from that era is the Herrenhausen Gardens — a baroque ensemble of parterres, fountains and a great cascade that ranks with anything in Europe, and on its own justifies the trip. The reconstructed Herrenhausen Palace at the head of the gardens tells the Welf-dynasty story.
The old town was almost entirely flattened in 1943, and Hannover's centre today is a piece of careful 1950s reconstruction. A small cluster of half-timbered houses around the Marktkirche and the brick-Gothic Altes Rathaus survives as a "new old town" — pleasant for an hour's wander. The Neues Rathaus, finished in 1913 and topped by a 98-metre dome, has a unique slanted lift that climbs the curve of the dome to a panorama over the city. South of it lies the Maschsee, an artificial lake dug in the 1930s and now the city's outdoor living room: swimming, sailing, lakeside terraces and, in early August, three weeks of food, music and fireworks at the Maschseefest.
The other thing Hannover has in abundance is green space. The Eilenriede, a 650-hectare city forest, cuts a great wedge through the urban grid — one of the largest urban forests in Europe — and you can walk, cycle or ride a horse from the inner ring almost into the centre. The Sprengel Museum on the Maschsee shore holds one of Germany's strongest 20th-century collections, with a partial reconstruction of Kurt Schwitters' lost Merzbau. Add the zoo, the Tram Museum and a dependable bar scene around the Lister Meile "Bermuda Triangle", and a weekend fills itself easily.
Be honest with yourself: if you are picking only one or two German cities, Hannover probably is not on the list. But if you are passing through on the ICE, or in town for a fair, give it a day longer than you planned. The gardens alone are worth it.