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Best of Bremen

Golden background with white icons with a Bremen reference.
Discover many small histories about Bremens uniqueness.

Quelle: Dialog PR

Did you know? The Champions-League-Cup was made in Bremen. Furthermore the Hanseatic City is also the cradle of trade and crafts, as well as the automobile hub of Europe. Descaffeinated coffee, screw studs for soccer shoes and the first fully functional helicopter were invented in this city, which is also the smallest state of Germany. Bremen has many histories to tell, several notable successes and a lot of special features to offer. Here you can learn more about 'Best of Bremen'.

Did you know?

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And action

The cinema at the Ostertor was built in 1969 as the first arthouse cinema in Germany.

Quelle: privat / JUA

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Petri Heil

As a visual eye-catcher the St.Peti Dom had been built on the highest point of the city - the dune of Bremen. In the inside of the Dom you can find the only excisiting 'Bleikeller' or lead basement located beneath the nave.

Quelle: bremen.online GmbH / Robers

Fishtowning

When, on the 1st of October 1958, a ship transporting over 1,000 US soldiers docked at the Columbuskaje in Bremerhaven, the curiosity of onlookers and reporters could barely be contained. The reason: Elvis Presley, the ‘King of Rock ’n’ Roll’ was on board. The American superstar had been stationed in Europe on military service. His first steps on German soil were thus taken in the harbour town.

Aviation and seafaring pioneers

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Who dares wins

‘Buten un binnen – wagen un winnen’, that is, ‘outside and in – to dare and to win’, remains today the slogan of the Bremen merchants. It hangs resplendent above the entrance of the Schütting, the seat of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce, directly on the market square.

Quelle: bremen.online GmbH / MDR

In and out

Bremen as a regional focal point: from the surrounding parts of Lower Saxony, around 136,000 workers commute daily into the city. That is about 40% of people in employment in Bremen.

Crade of trade and crafts

The Bremen Chamber of Commerce (1451) and Bremen Chamber of Crafts (1849) are the oldest in Germany.

A astonaut and a plane in the background

The world is not enough

With more than 12.000 employees in the aerospace industries, Bremen is one of the most important centres for the sector. The 140 or so firms and 20 institutes in the region generate a yearly turnover together of over four billion euros.

Quelle: WFB Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH

Industry 6.0

Measured by turnover, Bremen is placed 6th among the largest German industrial cities.

Maritime Milling

The Rolandmühle (Roland mill), located directly on the quay of the Bremen timber and factory port, is the only one in Europe with a direct harbour connection

We can take the heavyweights

The Stromkaje, or riverside quay, of the Bremerhaven Container Terminal ‘Wilhelm Kaisen’, built in 1968 at 700 metres in length, is today the longest riverside quay in the world, at 5,000m. It offers four berths for large container ships.

Container Terminal CT1 16.4.14 (Quelle: bremenports und BLG LOGISTICS)

Quelle: bremenports und BLG LOGISTICS

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Learning by doing

At Universum Bremen, visitors go on a voyage of discovery in the fields of technology, humans and nature. With its interactive concept, the science centre is one of the most successful science museums in Germany.

Quelle: Universum Bremen

The world in a nutshell

People from over 100 countries live and learn on the campus of the international Jacobs University. The private institution in Bremen-Nord is supported by the Swiss Jacobs Foundation, which in 2006 awarded the Jacobs University with what is so far the highest ever foundation grant for education ever donated in Europe.

A big discovery

On the coast of Namibia, the scientist Heide Schulz of the Max-Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen discovered microorganisms with a diameter of up to 0.75 millimetres – the largest type of bacteria yet found, known as ‘sulphur pearls’.

Everlasting ice

The Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research is located in Bremerhaven but its members are very much at home in the frigid zones. Whether on board the research vessel Polarstern, the aircraft Polar 5 and 6 that fly out of Bremen Airport or on site at Neumayer Station III in the Antarctic, these scientists have dedicated themselves wholeheartedly to the exploration of the polar regions.

Time-Travelling

Here in the north, wind and rain are very much at home. Bremen has the highest density of fixed sundials in the country – 120 in total.

Programmed for victory

Inventors from the Bremen University and the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence are six-time world champions in robot football and thus the best team in the world in the so-called Standard Platform League. They won the RoboCup 2017.

Completely weightless

The drop tower at ZARM at Bremen university, in which experiments are carried out in zero gravity, is unique in Europe.

Vitamin B

Bremen scientists at the German Aerospace Centre are currently engaged in a pilot project to plant vegetables in a shipping container in the Antarctic – without daylight or soil. Over the long term, procedures are to be developed by which astronauts on long Mars-missions can be provided with fresh vegetables. In a separate project, tomato seeds are being brought into orbit by research satellite, where they are to grow at an altitude of 600 kilometres.

Drop a coin in the Bremen hole

At first glance, an inconspicuous manhole cover. But it hides much more beneath: right next to the Bremen Bürgerschaft (city assembly) is the Bremer Loch (Bremen Hole), an underground donation box belonging to the charity called 'Wilhelm-Kaisen-Bürgerhilfe'. Every time a coin is dropped in, the sounds of one of the town musicians of Bremen is heard from beneath the earth. In this way, thousands of euros are collected each year for charitable purposes.

Three times is Bremen law

… or so goes the famous saying, often used to mean ‘third time lucky’. It harks back to the middle ages, when the city had its own peculiar legal principles: for example, three stages of legal recourse, three witnesses needed for evidence to have legal force, three proclamations required for legal validity to be achieved. Aside from this, the people of Bremen were also guaranteed three special rights by the Emperor: the right to wear gold and fur for the aldermen, the city’s own legal jurisdiction and the freedom of shipping on the Weser.

A top export

In the USA there are in total eleven cities called Bremen. In 2003, passengers and crew of the cruise ship MS Bremen discovered a previously unrecorded island, which since then has been officially known as ‘Bremen Island’. It is separated from its neighbouring island by the ‘Bremen Canal’.

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Freimarkt in Bremen

Quelle: privat / KBU

Wandering is the Bremer's joy

In north-west Germany, going on a ‘Kohlfahrt’, or kale-walk, in the period between the start of November and the end of February, is a must. Traditionally, the excursion is done through the countryside in the bitter cold with a handcart full of drinks, warming up again afterwards with a shared meal of kale, Kassler gammon, Bregen and Pinkel sausages. But don’t get confused: Braunkohl (in Bremen) and Grünkohl (in the surrounding region) may sound like two completely different kettles of cabbage, but mean the same thing.

Our Hamburger is called Bremer

Instead of beef, in Bremen you get a roll with a fresh patty made of various white fish, such as pollock or hake, coated in crispy breadcrumbs and garnished with a mix of herbs, mustard and fried onions.

Verschiedene Fischsorten, Muscheln, Garnelen und Tintenfische liegen auf einem Tisch.

Quelle: Fotolia / bit24

Like in a fairytale

The Town Musicians of Bremen, by the Grimm Brothers, are known across the world – a musical has even been made about them in South Korea. The fairy tale celebrates its 200-year anniversary in 2019. It is one of the few tales whose title refers to a city – despite the fact that the animals never actually got to Bremen. And another thing, for when you visit the statue next to the Rathaus: the customary belief to this day is that if you clasp the legs of the donkey firmly in both hands, a wish will be granted!

Stadtmusikanten bei Nacht

Quelle: bremen.online GmbH / Dennis Siegel

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La Strada

Shows in the public streets of Bremen

Quelle: WFB/Frank Pusch

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Summer in Lesmona

Open-air classic music festival

Quelle: fotolia / adam121

Samba, north-german style

Europe’s largest samba and masked carnival parade takes place every year in Bremen. One week before Shrove Tuesday, friends of the exotic dance from across Germany and the neighbouring countries bring a breath of Brazil into the Bremen streets and onto the open-air stages.

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Breminale

Five day culture festival on the Weser river

Quelle: bremen.online / HS

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Bar meets culture

Tips for live music, readings and other cultural events

Quelle: bremen.online GmbH

Bremen Classics

Since 1992, The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie has had its base in the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. The chamber orchestra has become world famous in the past years thanks to performances, among others, of the complete Beethoven symphonies. But it also takes an interest in local affairs: as part of the ‘Melody of Life’ project, musicians and pupils at the Bremen-Ost comprehensive school come together. The young people bring thoughts, ideas and feelings from their school day, which are then made into music and presented on stage.

Listen...

Because of its unique acoustics and elegant art-deco ambience, the Glocke (‘bell’), which opened in 1928, is today one of the most renowned concert-halls in Europe. The original chapter house on this site, initially part of a monastery, existed since the 9th century. Then, in 1869, it was repurposed as a concert-hall.

A peaceful city in bloom

The rhododendron park in the Bremen district of Horn-Lehe spreads over an area of 46 hectares. Within this area, the botanika – a nature experience centre with many different plants and animals – is to be found. Together, the park and the science centre have the second-largest collection of rhododendrons in the world, with over 3,000 cultivars and nearly 600 different species. A special highlight: the Dalai Lama is presenting every continent with a 2.4-metre tall golden Buddha. The European statue stands in the botanika’s Japanese garden and is a symbol of peace and understanding between peoples.

Rhododendron in Blüte

Quelle: Katharazzi

House-building, hanseatic style

They define the cityscape in many places: two to three-storey buildings with a cellar, front-gabled rather than side-gabled, with high ceilings inside, often standing in rows. Since the middle of the 19th century, this architectural type has been known as the ‘Altbremer Haus’ or old Bremen house – even beyond the walls of the Hanseatic city.

Cult(ure) alleway

Böttcherstraße, near the marketplace, is home to museums, art collections and arts and crafts workshops, alongside shops and cafes. What’s more, a glockenspiel of Meissen porcelain rings every hour while picture-panels tell the story of the crossing of the Atlantic. One particular architectural highlight is the Atlantis House, with its famous ‘sky room’.

Böttcherstraße zur Weihnachtszeit

Quelle: WFB Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen / Katharina Bünn

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Another string to Bremen's bow

Since 1989, around 23,000 lovers of classical music have flooded every year into Bremen from across the entire north-west for the three-week music festival in Bremen. Taking place in late summer, the festival puts on nearly 40 events in well-known concert locations in the region.

Quelle: Musikfest Bremen - fotoetage

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Overseas in 100 steps

With its unique collection, encompassing ethnology, trade and natural history, the Overseas Museum is one of the most important museums on this continent.

Quelle: Bremen.online GmbH

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Bremen's Memory

For over 100 years, the Focke Museum has collected and preserved unique objects from Bremen’s history.

Quelle: Focke-Museum, Martin Luther

Not yet swept away?

If you see a young man in front of the cathedral, busily sweeping bottle-caps from the steps, you can be sure he is a genuine bachelor. Traditionally, men who are still unmarried on their 30th birthday, have to sweep the cathedral steps, only being released on receiving a maiden’s kiss. Their counterparts are young women who clean the door handles.

On a string

Schnoor is a quarter of mediaeval alleys. In its winding passageways, the aura of past centuries can still be sensed. It is possible that the name of this handsome old-town quarter derived from the shipbuilding handicrafts predominantly practised there in former days – the making of ropes and cables – because ‘Schnoor’ is the Old Low German word for ‘Schnur’, string. A different explanation holds that the houses are lined up like pearls on a string.

Schnoorviertel

Quelle: bremen.online GmbH

Be polite!

The supposed defender of good manners Adolf Freiherr von Knigge – his name equivalent in German to ‘Debrett’ – spent the last years of his life in Bremen. He is buried in the Cathedral of St. Peter. His book ‘On Human Relations’ is still falsely seen today as an etiquette guide. Knigge’s approach was, in fact, directed less towards good behaviour and more towards sociological aspects.

Take one, action!

In 1974, Radio Bremen started the first talk show in Germany, ‘3nach9’. The programme airs every four weeks late on Friday evening and is still produced in Bremen.

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Grand art

Whether it’s Picasso, Monet or van Gogh: the Kunsthalle Bremen has always united many different artists beneath its roof.

Quelle: Katharina Müller / WFB

Green and white for life

It’s not just in Bremen and the region that the football club SV Werder is in people’s hearts. Now as before, Werder is positioned at number 2 on the all-time Bundesliga tables. Also, the first goal ever in the Bundesliga was scored on Bremen’s Osterdeich.

Zu sehen ist die leere Tribüne im Weserstadion. Der Schriftzug "Werder Bremen" ist lesbar.

Quelle: WFB-SIS

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The sixth season of Bremen

The cycle race, Sixdays of Bremen, is one of the most popular events of its type.

Quelle: WFB

Gezeichnete Skyline von Bremens prominentenen Gebäuden