Bremen (city)
- This article is about the city in Germany. For other cities with the same name, see Bremen (disambiguation).
| Freie Hansestadt Bremen Free Hanseatic City of Bremen | |
|---|---|
 |  |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Bremen (state) |
| District | urban district |
| Population | 547,162 (2006) |
| Area | 326.72 km² |
| Population density | 1,671 /km² |
| Elevation | 12 m |
| Coordinates | 53°4′ N 8°49′ E |
| Postal code | 28001–28779 |
| Area code | 0421 |
| Licence plate code | HB |
| Mayor | Jens Böhrnsen (SPD) |
| Website | bremen.de |
Bremen [ˈbʀeːmən] is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany (official name: Stadtgemeinde Bremen (City Municipality of Bremen)). 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 (official name: Freie Hansestadt Bremen1 (Free Hanseatic City of Bremen), referring to its membership in the medieval Hanseatic League), the other being Bremerhaven. Population: 545,983 (1st June 2005). The metropolitan area (Bremen-Oldenburg) has a population of more than 2.37 million.
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Politics
The 'Stadtbürgerschaft' (municipal assembly) 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. [1]
One of the two mayors (Bürgermeister) is elected President of the Senate (Präsident des Senats) 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 bishopric2; 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 (1358)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 (e.g. Oldenburg) and significant territorial losses.
Germany's first man-made harbour was built at Vegesack in 1620. 6
On March 6, 1901 an assassin attempted to kill Wilhelm II of Germany 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
Sights
Many of the sights in Bremen are found in the Altstadt (Old Town), 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 (Market square) 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 (1609-12) 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 (1404) 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 (Town Musicians) 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 (built in 1588), 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 (13th century), to the east of the Marktplatz, with sculptures of Moses and David, Peter and Paul, and Charlemagne.
- The Liebfrauenkirche (Our Lady's Church) is the oldest church of the town (11th century). Its crypt features several impressive murals from the 14th century.
- Off the south side of the Markplatz, the 110-metre (120 yards) Böttcherstraße was transformed in 1923-1931 by the coffee Magnate Ludwig Roselius, who commissioned local artists to convert the narrow street (in medieval time, the street of the barrel makers) into an inspired mixture of Gothic and Art Nouveau. It was considered "entartete Kunst" (depraved art) 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 (St Martin's Church), 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 (the modern port is some kilometres downstream) 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 Brewery, 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
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 (earliest predecessor founded in 1799) 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 (ICAO code: EDDW / IATA code: BRE).
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 has hosted Freimarkt ("Free market"), 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 (CIKM[1])
Bremen is the birthplace of entertainer Hans-Joachim Kulenkampff, actors Ben Becker and Meret Becker, singer, songwriter (current Band: Element of Crime), and novelist Sven Regener, James Last, President Karl Carstens (term 1979-1984) 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 (IYSOB).
Gallery
 The city hall (Rathaus) |  Swineherd and pigs sculpture in Bremen |  The Weser River in Bremen |  Beck & Co |
 A building on Böttcherstraße Street |  Bremen Bank |
Local beers brewed in Bremen
- Beck's
- Haake-Beck
- Kräusen
- Gröninger
- Hemelinger
See also
External links
Miscellaneous
- Official city website
- Official visitors information (various languages)
- University of Bremen
- Hochschule or University of applied sciences
- International University Bremen
- City Panoramas Bremen - Panoramic Views of Bremen's Highlights
- Freimarkt website
- photographs from Bremen
- Images from Bremen
- Fullscreen QTVR panos - Shows 360° panos from Bremen
History links
- http://www.genealogy.net/reg/BRE (Genealogical research in Bremen)
- http://www.schiffslisten.de (Database: Emigration via Bremen Ports 1920 - 1939)
- http://maus.genealogy.net (Die MAUS - Genealogical society of Bremen)
- http://www.historic.de (Military History of Bremen 1933-1945)
- Map of Lower Saxony in 1789
References
- <div id="Kohl" />Tristam Carrington-Windo, Katrin M. Kohl (1998). A Dictionary of Contemporary Germany. Routledge (UK). ISBN 1-57958-114-5. page 64</div>
- <div id="Gutmann" />Jürg Andermatt and Hermann Gutmann (1986). Bremen. J. H. Döll, Bremen. ISBN 3-88808-044-4.</div>
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
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Categories
Cleanup from April 2006 | World Heritage Sites in Germany | Bremen | Cities in Bremen | German state capitals | Hanseatic League | Port cities