and administered as part of the Province of Hanover. Growth of the local economy and population was fuelled by expansion in the engineering and textile industries, with the Hammersen Weaving Mill established in 1869 and the Osnabrücker Kupfer- und Drahtwerk metallurgical firm following in 1873. The later 19th century also saw growth in the number of schools and the arrival of electricity and modern sanitation. 20th century By 1914, Osnabrück had over 70,000 inhabitants. The outbreak of the First World War necessitated food rationing; the Allied blockade and a harsh winter in 1917 led to further shortages. Following Germany's defeat in 1918, a council made up of workers and soldiers took control during the November Revolution, but were replaced by the new Weimar Republic the following year. Similarly to many other German cities, Osnabrück experienced considerable inflation and unemployment in the 1920s, with over 2,000 out of work by 1923 and nearly 14,000 receiving some form of government assistance by 1928. Politically, Osnabrück in the 1920s was a stronghold of support for the Social Democrats and the Catholic Centre Party. However, in the Reichstag elections of September 1930, the Nazi Party received the greatest percentage of votes in the city (nearly 28%) – a more than seven-fold increase from their electoral performance in Osnabrück two years prior. During the campaigns prior to the two federal elections in 1932, both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels made well-attended speeches in the city. Following the Nazis' seizure of power in January 1933, Osnabrück was subjected to the implementation of National Socialist economic, political, and social programmes. These resulted in economic growth for ethnic Germans who did not run afoul of the new regime, and the town went from having over 10,000 unemployed in early 1933 to actually having a labour shortage five years later. However, dissenters, supporters of opposition parties and German Jews (who had experienced centuries of discrimination in the city) did not share in this growth and found themselves discriminated against, imprisoned or forced to close their businesses and leave town. During World War II, both Jews and Romany were deported to concentration camps and extermination camps en masse. The war ended for Osnabrück on 4 April 1945, when the XVII Corps of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's Second Army entered the city with little resistance. By this time, the city had been extensively bombed and required major reconstructive programmes following the