Anzeiger High-Rise

The Anzeiger High-Rise has shaped the silhouette of Hanover’s cityscape as a landmark since it was built in 1927–28. It was designed by the architect Fritz Höger on behalf of A. Madsack & Co. (the present day Madsack Media Group), publisher of the Hannoverscher Anzeiger newspaper. Like the famous Chilehaus in Hamburg that had been completed only just before, it is an example of Brick Expressionism. With its detailed façade relief and striking twelve-meter-high dome, the Anzeiger Hochhaus is one of the most important architectural monuments of the 1920s and was listed as a protected landmark only two years after its completion.

Centrally located in Steintor Platz, the fifty-onemeter high Anzeiger High-Rise is one of Germany’s first high-rise buildings. A unique feature for that time is the large copper-plated dome in which a planetarium was originally housed. The other spaces were occupied by various editorial and publishing departments involved in producing the newspaper as well as the printing presses of the Hannoverscher Anzeiger.

The monumental structure’s façade is characterized by protruding wedge-shaped bolts that are illuminated at night with blue neon lights, further emphasizing the vertical structuring. The stepped arches over the entrance on the ground floor are another striking feature of the building. Light fixtures are fixed on top, forming a motif that is continued inside the building. This is evident, for example, in the two-story Art Deco main hall where customers can place advertisements or take out subscriptions.

The dark-red and, in parts, gold-glazed clinkerbrick façade contains typical design elements of Brick Expressionism, for example the unscrewed and protruding clinker that give rise to a detailed façade relief.

Despite the heavy bombing over Hanover in World War II that left the town center devastated, the building survived comparatively intact—thanks in part to its reinforced steel construction. The dome did catch fire during one of the final air raids on March 25, 1945. A movie theater has been located under the dome since its postwar renovation. The Anzeiger Hochhaus continued to serve the media after the war and the prominent German weeklies Der Spiegel (1947) and Stern (1948) were founded here. The city desk of the Hannoverscher Allgemeine Zeitung likewise used to be housed here. Now a part of the Media Center Hanover, the Anzeiger Hochhaus is home to the editorial offices of several radio and television stations as well as the HIS Hochschul-Informations-System eG. [KS/HY]