Encyclopedia
Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern
Germany . It is a port city, situated along the
river Weser, about 50 km south from its outflow into the
North Sea. Bremen is one of two towns belonging to the
state of Bremen , the other being
Bremerhaven. Population: 545,983 . The metropolitan area has a population of more than 2.37 million.
Politics
The 'Stadtbürgerschaft' is made up of 67 of the 83 legislators of the state legislature, the
Bremische Bürgerschaft, who reside in the city of Bremen. The legislature is elected by the citizens of Bremen every four years.
One of the two mayors is elected President of the Senate and serves as head of the city and the state. The current
President of the Senate of Bremen is Jens Böhrnsen.
History
In the
8th century the troops of
Charlemagne advanced to the Weser in order to
christianise the tribes settling here. Bremen, which may have been an older settlement, became a bishopric
2; a deed claiming the town's foundation in 788 has now been recognised as a forgery, so the exact date is unknown. In the following centuries the bishops of Bremen were the driving force behind the
Christianisation of
Scandinavia. The Swedish viking
Rurik, who had been given lands in Friesland, looted the city in 859, and as a result of this and other offences was expelled by Louis I.
In the
12th century, the power of the archbishops was challenged by
Henry the Lion. The duke was successful and became the ruler of the town. These events led to a civil government and a loss of clerical power. Bremen became a merchants' town, and its ships dominated the southern portions of the
North Sea. This dominance ended when the
Hanseatic League, originally a trade alliance of the
Baltic Sea only, expanded to the North Sea. In the early
14th century, ships from Bremen acted as
pirates to board hanseatic cogs. In order to avoid open war, aldermen from Bremen went to the Hanseatic Council in
Lübeck and agreed to become members of the league
3.
Bremen remained a reluctant member of the Hanseatic League. The town demanded support for its wars against the chieftains of
Frisia, who ruled the region around the Weser mouth, but they seldom joined campaigns in the Baltic Sea. In 1425, the conflict escalated when the citizens burnt hanseatic documents in the market place. Bremen was expelled from the league in 1427. The consequences soon followed: the sudden loss of power led to territorial claims of neighbouring states and significant territorial losses.
Germany's first man-made
harbour was built at
Vegesack in 1620.
6On March 6, 1901 an assassin attempted to kill
Wilhelm II of Germany took place in Bremen.
After
World War II, Bremen became a part of the
American occupation zone since the
USA wanted to have one port town within their zone. This prevented the inclusion of Bremen into the new Land of
Lower Saxony that was formed around it within the British zone, and secured Bremen's independence as a Federal State in its own right in the new West German federation.
Historical population
- 1810: 35,800 inhabitants
- 1830: 43,700
- 1850: 55,100
- 1880: 111,900
- 1900: 161,200
- 1925: 295,000
- 1998: 550,000 4
Few people know that Bremen is the capital of Bremen but that Bremen is a city in Bremen which can sometimes become confusing because Bremen is both a city and a "Bundesland" at the same time.
Sights
Many of the sights in Bremen are found in the
Altstadt , an oval area surrounded by the Weser River, on the southwest, and the
Wallgraben, the former moats of the medieval city walls, on the northeast. The oldest part of the Altstadt is the southeast half, starting with the Marktplatz and ending at the Schnoor district.
- The Marktplatz is dominated by the opulent façade of the Town Hall. The building was erected between 1405 and 1410 in Gothic style, but the façade was built two centuries later in Renaissance style. Today, it hosts a restaurant in original decor with gigantic wine barrels, and the wine lists boasts more than 600 - exclusively German - wines. It is also home of the twelve oldest wines in the world, stored in their original barrels in the Apostel chamber.
- In front and to the side of the Town Hall stand two famous statues: one is the statue of the city's protector, Roland, bearing Durendart, the "sword of justice" and a shield decorated with an imperial eagle. The other is Gerhard Marcks's famous 1953 bronze sculpture Die Stadtmusikanten which portrays the donkey, dog, cat, and rooster of the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale.
- Other interesting buildings in the vicinity of the Marktplatz are the Schütting, a 16th-century Flemish-inspired guild hall, and the Stadtwaage, the former weighing house , with an ornate Renaissance façade. The façades and houses surrounding the market square were the first buildings in Bremen to be restored after World War II, by the citizens of Bremen themselves.
- The impressive Cathedral St. Petri , to the east of the Marktplatz, with sculptures of Moses and David, Peter and Paul, and Charlemagne.
- The Liebfrauenkirche is the oldest church of the town . Its crypt features several impressive murals from the 14th century.
- Off the south side of the Markplatz, the 110-metre Böttcherstraße was transformed in 1923-1931 by the coffee Magnate Ludwig Roselius, who commissioned local artists to convert the narrow street into an inspired mixture of Gothic and Art Nouveau. It was considered "entartete Kunst" by the Nazis. Today, the street is one of Bremen's most popular attractions.
- At the end of Böttcherstraße, by the Weser bank, stands the Martinikirche , a Gothic brick church built in 1229, and rebuilt in 1960 after its destruction in World War II.
- Tucked away between the Cathedral and the river is the Schnoor, a small, well-preserved area of crooked lanes and fishing houses from the 15th and 16th centuries, now occupied by cafés, artisan shops and art galleries.
- Schlachte, the medieval harbour of Bremen and today a street with one pub/bar next to the other on the one side and on the other side the river Weser.
More contemporary tourist attractions include:
- Universum Science Center, a modern science museum
- botanika, an extension to a public rhododendron park that attempts to the same as above Universum for biology
- Beck's Beer Factory, tours are available to the public which include beer tasting
- The Space Center opened in 2004 inside the Space Park in the Gröpelingen district and closed on 2004 26 September, since then a remarkable, and typical for the local government, investment ruin.
- The Kunsthalle Bremen, an art museum with paintings from the 19th and 20th century, maintained by the citizens of Bremen
- The Neues Museum Weserburg, an art museum with modern paintings and sculptures
Constructions
- Mediumwave transmitter Bremen
- Fallturm Bremen
- Telecommunication Tower Bremen
Sister City
Bremen's
Sister Cities are
Miscellaneous
Bremen has a large and famous
university founded in 1971
5, the more practice-related University of Applied Sciences more recently the
International University Bremen, and several high-tech industries have settled in the city. Many of Germany's space technology exports are manufactured in EADS SPACE Transportation facilities in Bremen, such as the Columbus module of the
International Space Station, Europe's
Ariane 5 rocket upper stages and the
Automated Transfer Vehicle. Furthermore, Bremen is the home of the second biggest
Airbus plant of Germany, producing wing equipment for the
A300/
A310,
A330/
A340 and
A380 families of aircraft.
There is also a
Mercedes-Benz factory in Bremen, building the
C,
CLK,
SL, and
SLK series of cars.
Beck's beer is brewed in Bremen. It also had a huge number of wine import merchants, but the number is down to a precious few. Apart from that there is another link between Bremen and wine: about 800 years ago, quality wines were produced here, whereas the imported Bordeaux wines were regarded as the cheap ones reserved for the lower classes of society.
A large number of household name food producing companies are located in Bremen: Kellogg's, Kraft Jacobs Suchard, Melitta, Vitakraft etc.
Bremen has an international airport situated in the south of the city .
It is home of the
football team SV
Werder Bremen which won the German Football Championship for the fourth and the German Football Cup for the fifth time in 2004, making SV Werder Bremen just the fourth team in German football history to win the double.
Bremen is famous for a fairy tale by the
Brothers Grimm, the
Town Musicians of Bremen, although they never actually reach Bremen in the tale.
Every year since 1036 in the last two weeks of October Bremen hosts
Freimarkt , one of the world's oldest and in Germany one of today's biggest continuously celebrated fairground festivals.
Bremen is also host to one of the four big annual Techno parades, the Vision Parade, and also the birthplace of the American comedic
industrial musician
Kompressor.
The city was also host to the 2004 Choir Olympics twice.
In October-November 2005, Bremen hosted the 14th ACM Conference on Information and Knowledge Management
Bremen is the birthplace of entertainer Hans-Joachim Kulenkampff, actors Ben Becker and Meret Becker, singer, songwriter , and novelist Sven Regener, James Last, President Karl Carstens and more celebrities.
Every year the city plays host to young musicians from across the world, playing in the International Youth Symphony Orchestra of Bremen .
Gallery
See also
External links
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- - Panoramic Views of Bremen's Highlights
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- - Shows 360° panos from Bremen
History links
References
Footnotes
- 1 Kohl since 1815
- 2 Kohl claims the Bishopric was created in 787
- 3 Kohl
- 4 Kohl population of around 550,000 in 1998 includes 25,000 students
- 5 Kohl
