In 1959, parents of children with intellectual disabilities, together with patrons and friends, founded the local association “Lebenshilfe für das geistig behinderte Kind e.V.” in Hannover. Just one year before, the Federal Association of the Lebenshilfe had been founded in Marburg.

Co-initiator and the first chairman was the former special school teacher and then university professor Dr. Eberhard Schomburg, who was chairman for a long time and had a key impact on the association.

Today, this association, together with the “Waldsiedlung Lebenshilfe für Behinderte e. V.” forms the stable fundamental pillars of the Lebenshilfe Hannover, which since 1972 has been run as a non-profitmaking organisation with limited liability.