Linden

In my intro to the hop on hop off blog tour of Hannover, I summarized Linden as hipsters and bums. It deserves a little more explanation than that.

Way back in the 1600s, Hannover's royal family had their vegetable gardens in Linden. Later on it became a suburb for Hannover's wealthy citizens. After the Industrial Revolution, Linden became the blue collar suburb of Hannover. Workers from the nearby factories lived here in tenement housing - crowded apartments in buildings with an air shaft in the middle. Without any plumbing, they used common bath houses in town. I learned a little about this, and blogged about it too, on a walking field trip with 8th graders from the international school, over 2 years ago. Those kids are now in 11th grade and I somehow have not aged a day. But I know a little more than I used to about Linden.

Lindeners made bed springs, rubber, corsets, beer, fabric and tractors. The Hanomag factory was one of the most important places in Linden, making first trains, then cars, tractors and vehicles for the war effort.

Hanomag factory

I've posted about Hanomag already too. I have not, however told you yet about the three brothers or the Ihme Zentrum. Or about hipsters.

Meet the three warm brothers, die Drei Warme Brüdern. They are triplet smoke stacks from the power plant along the Ihme river in Linden. You can see them from a lot of places in the city, including from our balcony. Linden has embraced them as its trademark. What does it mean to personify these towers of steam as if they were cute trouble-making tots? Maybe it's an effort to make the industrial become familiar, as long as you have to live with it anyway. You get to know these brothers like you might wave hello to the construction crane or get cozy with a factory.

Just on the other side of the bridge, the brothers look down upon a spectacle. It's the Ihme Zentrum. The Ihme Zentrum was an inspiration in urban planning that fell apart. Built in 1975, it was a city within a city. The complex had apartments for 2800 people, an integrated shopping center, office space and parking for 2000 cars. It was designed in the architectural style of Brutalism. Massive, institutional buildings with exposed concrete are Brutalism's hallmarks. The Zentrum story is, well, brutal. After 15 years of being a self-contained city, the concept started to fail. Retailers pulled out, followed by residents, and in the last few years the Ihme Zentrum has teetered on the edge of foreclosure. It's now being auctioned off for 50 million euros.

Ihme Zentrum

Ihme Zentrum

So who lives in Linden? Yes, people still do live in parts of the Ihme Zentrum. But Linden is also home to students from Hannover's university, a healthy dose of immigrants and several handfuls of hipsters. Linden is the place to live if you are cool. The fact that I don't live there should tell you something about me, I guess. There are plenty of dark bars, stores selling expensive locally-made clothes, and people with dreadlocks and chunky black framed glasses. And if you are looking for good live music anywhere in Hannover, your chances are best in Linden. Bums? Well, there are a few of those too. Linden has plenty of bridges to live under.

Limmerstrasse

Biergarten Gretchen

I think Linden is the most interesting neighborhood in Hannover. Where else could you find failed urban planning, people proud of their smoke stacks, good tapas bars and 28 year old college students in second-hand T-shirts? Certainly not in Südstadt. Brian and I thought for a few minutes about moving to Linden. Then we realized we'd have to carry all our stuff down 5 flights of stairs and it didn't seem like such a good idea. Besides, we are probably not even cool enough for Linden. I have a long way to go before my hair is long enough for dreadlocks.