Hannover have sacked head coach Thomas Schaaf little more than three months after taking charge.
The club announced on Sunday afternoon that they had placed youth-team coach Daniel Stendel in temporary control after Schaaf paid the price for a dismal season which sees them 10 points adrift at the foot of the Bundesliga.
Saturday's 3-0 home loss to Hamburg proved the final straw.
"We certainly did not take this decision lightly,'' Hannover's director of sport Martin Bader said. "Thomas has always worked painstakingly hard and focused on his objective.
"Together with his coaching team he exhausted all possibilities to get positive results with the team, but unfortunately none of them worked.
"After the 10th defeat in 11 games, we therefore came to the decision that we do not want to end the season in this way and we are going to try to breathe new life into the team with another change in coach.
"We know that staying up, now that we are 10 points adrift of the playoff berth, is only theoretically possible.''
Schaaf replaced Michael Frontzeck during the winter break with the club one point off the foot of the table and one from safety.
The former Werder Bremen coach lost every one of his league matches in charge aside from a win over Stuttgart in late February.