By Juliana Küspert

In 1922, the breeders of Hannoveraner horses joined forces and founded the Verband hannoverscher Warmblutzüchter – exactly 100 years ago. An anniversary that calls for a celebration!

This is not the first 100-year anniversary to be celebrated at Lindhooper Straße 92 in Verden. In 1988, the founding of the Hannoveraner Studbook was celebrated with a show evening on the occasion of the Ratje-Niebuhr-Show.

The purpose of the Hannoveraner Studbook was “to create a public document which officially proves the origin of all presently existing excellent broodmares and their offspring which are free of heritable defects, suitable for breeding, produced by homogeneous fore-parents and correspond with the type of the Hannoveraner half-bred horses“.

In 1888, a breeding goal had already been determined. The noble half bred horse was to be – above all – a “medium-sized carriage horse, a strong riding horse and a horse suitable for the troops, especially as a cuirassier horse and an artillery-pole horse“. The studbook was initially kept by the Royal Agricultural Society of Hannover, and from 1899 on, by Hannover’s Chamber of Agriculture. Freiherr von Troschke was chairman of the studbook from 1891 to 1915, followed by Exzellenz von der Decken from 1915 to 1930.

During Carl-Ludwig von der Decken’s term in office, a union of Hannoveraner horse breeders was initiated, which was given the name Provinzialverband Hannoverscher Warmblutzüchter on the inaugural meeting on July 25, 1922. Von der Decken was elected chairman, and the office was set up at the Chamber of Agriculture in Hannover. The employee of the Chamber of Agriculture, Fritz Hoppe, became the office manager of the provincial society and thus also the studbook manager. In 1935 the society was renamed “Verband hannoverscher Warmblutzüchter e. V.“. Since 2007, the Verband has carried the present name “Hannoveraner Verband e. V.“.

Also in 1922, the member magazine was published for the first time. At that time it was called “Hannoversches Pferd – journal for horse breeding and sport”. It was published every fortnight. Due to a lack of interest, it was discontinued after the first year. In 1924, it was published again, but then only monthly. From 1943 to 1949 the magazine was not published. Since 1991, the magazine was published under the name DER HANNOVERANER, initially every other month, and since 2002, monthly. The member magazine will be published in its 96th year in 2022.

Another anniversary was celebrated extensively in 2019: 70 years of Verden’s auctions. The first auction in Verden took place in November of 1949 in the riding hall on Brunnenweg. After two auctions, the location changed to the barracks complex at the old Holzmarkt, where the Horse Museum is located today. From autumn 1951 onwards, Verden’s auctions were held in the old Niedersachsenhalle on Lönsweg. The new Niedersachsenhalle on Lindhooper Straße was ready for occupation in autumn of 1972. Modernizing the arena took two years. The inauguration of the complex took place on March 26, 2012.

A mare show in 1989

and today…