Information Service

Frau Hennig von Lange, I always thought all pop authors lived only in Berlin …

At the beginning of the nineties I actually did move from Hanover to Berlin and I lived there for ten years – with short breaks when I lived in Munich and Hamburg. When we had our second child we thought it would be a good idea to bring up the children in an environment that was not quite so urban. After three years, however, we moved from Hanover back to Berlin. Whereby my home city has meanwhile become a sort of wonderland in the children’s memories. There, of course, they could move around much more freely than in Berlin.

You were born in Hanover – how has the city changed in the last 35 years?

When I was young there was an extremely diverse youth culture. There were teddy boys, mods, punks, hippies, rock’n’rollers, poseurs, greenies, anti-fascists, skaters. Everything a young heart could wish for. Meanwhile the young scene is no longer so prevalent, the clubs from back then have been closed. The wild life definitely takes place somewhere else.

I was rather shocked myself when I went back to settle there with my family. It seems a bit as if time has stood still there. But I must say that the Schauspielhaus under the directorship of Wilfried Schulz has become a real hub of theatre life.

What is your favourite place in Hanover?

Hanover is the ideal city for cyclists - like myself. I have to cycle all the time. Probably I’m addicted to it. So every day I cycled around the Maschsee lake several times. It’s right in the centre of the city and has a wonderful lido from the 1950s and a promenade lined with palms.

But there’s also the Eilenriede – Europe’s green lung – as it’s called all over the world, it’s so incredibly green in summer, it makes your heart leap for joy. Or the Herrenhäuser gardens. They are imposingly beautiful baroque gardens. In my youth I spent very many romantic moments there – as I did actually everywhere in Hanover.

What would you recommend to visitors who just have half a day’s time to get to know Hanover?

Every visitor should go to the lake Maschsee, then to the Herrenhäuser gardens and they should roam around the phenomenal “Philosophers’ Quarter”. Here there are the loveliest and weirdest houses in the whole of Germany. Buildings like fortresses next to Wilhelminian villas, surrounded by lush, blossoming gardens and, of course, Hanover’s city forest. And in this half a day they have to go everywhere by bike. In Hanover there are no great distances and most paths go through the forest.

You are a patron of the “Freiwilligenbörse” (i.e. Volunteers’ Agency) in Hanover. Do you find that the people of Hanover are particularly helpful?

Absolutely. They are very socially minded. In my youth I attended the Georg-Büchner Gymnasium (grammar school), and I had the very best teachers. They were interested in each individual pupil and they really tuned in to each and every one of us. For this I was and am grateful.

Malicious tongues claim that Hanover is the February among the German cities. What do you say to this?

Well, generally the people of Hanover are not exactly bon vivants, so they don’t often go out to eat. And they don’t like it when cyclists don’t stick to the traffic rules. On the whole, they are rather too fond of reprimanding others. This has got worse, however, only in recent years. It wasn’t like that in the past.

The comedian Barbara Schöneberger is currently touring through the Republic – her show includes a song called “Too ugly for Munich” in which the people of Hanover are described as being “absolutely average”. Is this an apt description?

Well, in Hanover you just don’t have very many possibilities of stepping out of line. You’d attract attention very quickly. So you don’t step out of line or you move to Berlin.

Does it really rain so often in Hanover, as you once said – in fact practically all the time?

That’s what it seems like to me, at least. But I don’t mind. Without the rain Hanover certainly wouldn’t be so green. Exceptionally green! Anyway I like rain, which is probably why it also rains so much in my books.

The region of Hanover has declared 2008 as Protection of the Climate Year. Does one notice anything of this in the city?

I haven’t been back for some time. But Hanover has always been an extremely green, environmentally-conscious city. Which was always very important to me.

Hanover is the city that hosts the world’s largest Schützenfest (Marksmen’s Fun Fair). What, for you, is the superlative that best describes your home city?

There’s nowhere more idyllic.