This tied in with the by-then necessary dyking of the Leine and Ihme rivers, which would regularly flood the city after snow melted in the Harz mountains in spring.

Franzius was to be responsible for the designing of the hydro-engineering and hydrological elements of the project, while the city authorities, led by Karl Elkart, would handle the urban development aspects.

Franzius created a final design that proved both effective and financially acceptable, whereupon the city authorities provided a grant of 14,000 Reichsmarks in January 1926 toward attempts to seal the basin of the proposed lake.

Driven by the harshness of the economic situation of the time, they took on tough working conditions and low pay which was barely above unemployment support.

Hundreds of thousands of Hanoverians and guests looked on from the edge of the lake as the event began with the then-typical trooping of the Nazi Party.

Just a few years later, during World War II, the lake was covered up with canvasses and fake landscapes created on floating islands in an attempt to confuse Allied bomber pilots regarding their whereabouts during air raids on Hanover.

In order to maintain a constant level, a pump station at a series of ponds in Ricklingen provides the Masch Lake with a water supply.

As the Leine is strongly contaminated with suspended sediment, the usage of this water supply meant that the Masch Lake quickly began to silt up.

In 1960, the Hanover city administration therefore decided to build a new pump station at the Ricklingen Ponds, in order to supply the lake with groundwater.

During the summer months the Hanoverian transport company üstra operates boat trips on the lake using electrically powered vessels.

Between 1952 and 1989 motor boat competitions were regularly staged on the lake, which saw four world championships contested and ten European champions crowned.

In spring 2009 Aspria Hannover opened a private spa and sport club in the buildings of the old public facilities and some newly built premises.

Spanish artist Santiago Sierra caused a sensation in 2005 when he remembered the fact that the Masch Lake was built through a Nazi work programme by installing a walk-in room filled with mud at the Kestner Society Art Gallery.

Additional bus and tram stops such as the Aegidientorplatz, Schlägerstraße, Geibelstraße, Altenbekener Damm and Döhren Tower also lie in relatively close proximity to the lake.