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The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen
A commitment to tradition. Together with Bavaria, Hamburg
and Saxony, the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is one of the political
entities which already existed prior to 1945; after San Marino,
it is the second oldest city republic in the world. The Free Hanseatic
City of Bremen consists of the city of Bremen and the city of
Bremerhaven, which lies 65 kilometers farther down the Weser River.
The territory in between the two cities belongs to the state of
Lower Saxony.
First mentioned more than 1,200 years ago, namely in the year
782, a bishopric since 787, and endowed with the rights of a free
city by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in 1186, Bremen joined
the Hanseatic League in 1358. With the construction of the Town
Hall in 1405 and the erection of the statue of Roland a year earlier,
the city demonstrated its claim to self-determination. In 1646
Bremen was elevated to the status of a free imperial city; since
1806 it has called itself the Free Hanseatic City. Bremerhaven
was founded in 1827 and elevated to the status of a city in 1851.
The state parliament bears the traditional name "Bremische
Bürgerschaft”; the state government is called the "Senat”,
and the president of the Senat is the minister-president of the
state. Every year, on the second Friday in February, distinguished
German public figures are invited to the historic "Schaffermahlzeit”
banquet held by Bremen's maritime community in the Council Chamber
of the Town Hall.
Ports and high tech. Ports and shipping, international
trade connections and products of highest quality manufactured
by state-of-the-art industries are the foundations of Bremen's
economic life. The container terminal in Bremerhaven is Europe's
largest container transshipment facility. Every year, more than
10,000 ships link Bremen's ports with roughly 1,000 ports all
over the world. With an annual volume of 830,000 vehicles, Bremerhaven
is Europe's most important automobile transshipment point. The
Free Hanseatic City's shipyards stand for quality in shipbuilding.
Bremen is also one of the centers of the German food, luxury food
and beverage industries: Coffee, chocolate, flour, milk products,
spices, fish products and beer are the best-known products. Key
components for rockets, satellites and the Airbus are developed
and built in Bremen, a hub of the aerospace industry. The electrical
and electronics industries as well as high-tech industries likewise
play a prominent role in the city's economy. Symbolic of Bremen's
expertise in the field of high technology is the 148-meter-high
tower of the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity,
in which experiments can be conducted under conditions of weightlessness.
The Bremen Securities Exchange - which is over 300 years old -
and the commodities exchanges handle trading for all of northwestern
Germany.
Marine research and the fine arts. Bremen's university
has about 18,000 students; its primary fields of emphasis are
engineering and the natural sciences. Leaders in the area of basic
research are the Bremen Institute of Applied Beam Technology (BIAS)
and the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics. The Center
for Tropical Marine Ecology and the Max Planck Institute for Marine
Microbiology develop modern concepts for marine research. Bremen
is also the home of the Alfred Wegener
Institute for Polar and
Marine Research. The Bremen Academy for Fine Arts and Music, which
focuses on design, the fine arts and music, is nationally renowned
as well.
Bremen's sights draw millions of visitors to the city every year:
the Market Square with the Renaissance Town Hall, the statue of
Roland and the Gothic St. Peter's Cathedral, the world-famous
"Böttcherstrasse” and the historic Schnoor Quarter.
The Bremen Free Market, which has been held on the Bürgerweide
for over 960 years, is one of Germany's largest fairs. More than
250 tall sailing ships from many nations congregated in Bremerhaven
in the summer of 1996.
The Art Gallery, the New Museum Weserburg, the Gerhard Marcks House and the Paula Becker-Modersohn House display important works of art. The German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven boasts impressive collections from all eras of seafaring as well as a number of historic ships in the museum's own port. The Theater am Goetheplatz, the bremer shakespeare company, the annual Bremen Music Festival and the International Music Project Bremen are household words for music and theater aficionados.