Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, or just Hannover 96, is a professional German football team from Hannover, Lower Saxony. It was founded in 1896. Playing their home games at HDI-Arena. The club is nicknamed the "reds" and "96". In 1938 and 1954 it was a champion of Germany, and in 1992 won the German Cup (DFB-Pokal). The Bulgarian national football player Chavdar Yankov played in the team.

Before the creation of the Bundesliga, the team performed quite well, being a significant force in the local leagues, Gauliga and Oberliga. The club was denied participation in the First Bundesliga when it was formed, and was instead assigned to play in the Regional League North. But the following year they have managed to reach the highest level of German professional football, where they remained for a decade. However the team dropped out of the Second Bundesliga North, only to return and then be relegated again and spend 17 of the next 20 years in the Second Division and face new difficulties and relegations along the way.

The team made a fresh start with young players and naturally returned to the second league in 1998, and in 2001 managed to qualify for the First Bundesliga.

In the following seasons the club stabilized and managed to rank in the middle of the table. In the 2010/11 season it managed to reach his record fourth place in the rankings. In 2015/16, however, dropped out to the Second Bundesliga, but immediately managed to return to the highest level of professional German football.

Jorg Sievers has the most appearances for the team in the league (with 284 games played), and Peter Anders has the most appearances in all tournaments with his 458 games played. Dieter Schatzschneider is the top goalscorer for the team in the league (with 135 goals).