Best of Bremen

When, on the 1st 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.

Since 1358, the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen has been a member of the Hanseatic League. With accession, the city guaranteed that it would respect all decisions and rules of the Hansa. This is as much in force today as it was before and is an important part of local identity. That is why, even today, business between Hanseatic merchants is frequently sealed with a simple handshake.

In 1978, with its resolution to set up a European currency system, the conference of the European Council in Bremen’s Rathaus laid one of the cornerstones of the ECU – the predecessor of the Euro. One of the main drivers of the top secret diplomatic negotiations was the German chancellor of the time, Helmut Schmidt.

The aircraft ‘Bremen’, a Junkers W33, was the first to cross the Atlantic from East to West on the 12th April 1928. It completed the stretch from Dublin to Greenly Island in Canada in around 36 hours and can still be admired today in the Bremen Hall of the local airport. What’s more, one year later North German Lloyd’s steamer ‘Bremen’ received the Blue Ribbon for the fastest Atlantic crossing.

The Cinema im Ostertor was founded in 1969 as the first art house cinema in Germany, and remains to this day the first port of call for film buffs aside from the Hollywood mainstream.

The first artificially created harbour in Europe was built in 1618 in Bremen-Vegesack. This was necessary because the Weser was gradually silting up towards its upper reaches, so that the large trading ships could no longer reach the harbour in the old town of Bremen.

‘Buten un binnen – wagen un winnen’, that is, ‘outside and in – to dare and to win’, remains today the slo-
gan of the Bremen merchants. It is ascribed to the former mayor of Bremen, Otto Gildemeister (1823-1902) and hangs resplendent above the entrance of the Schütting, the seat of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce, directly on the market square.

Bremen-born aviation pioneer Henrich Focke created the world’s first fully functional helicopter – the FW-61. The prototype’s successful maiden flight took place on 26th June 1936 on the site of what is now Bremen Airport.

In 1905 the open-air bathing area on the Stadtwerder peninsula was extended to allow for naturist bathers. This makes this spot on the Weser one of the first of its kind in Germany.

On the 6th of May 1966, the US vessel ‘Fairland’ unloaded the first shipping container ever brought onto a German dock, revolutionising maritime cargo handling in doing so. But beginnings are always tricky, and this was no exception: the second container to be unloaded accidentally crashed onto a lorry.

Did you know? The name of the city is derived from the old Saxon word ‘bremo’ and means ‘on the edge’, referring to its position on the dunes by the Weser. The somewhat antiquated term ‘verbrämen’, meaning to decorate the edge of something, and the English word ‘brim’ are also derived from this root.

Named after its location at a shallow point in the Weser estuary, the Roter Sand lighthouse first entered service in 1885, and is the oldest offshore building in the world. With the light-house out of service, the tower is now a listed building.

Germany’s first ever steamer plied the stretch between Bremen and Brake between 1817 and 1833 and was called ‘Die Weser’.

On the 10th June 1950, the consortium of public-service broadcasters in Germany was founded in Bremen – that’s ARD for short.

As one of the most prominent visual exclamation marks in the city, the Cathedral of St. Peter (St. Petri Dom) was built at the highest point in the city – the Bremen dune. There is an old tradition that no other building may exceed the cathedral in height. A blind eye is turned only for functional buildings, such as the television tower and drop-tower, where technical reasons require it. Inside the cathedral, the only ‘Bleikeller’ (lead cellar) in Germany offers real fascination: it was here that centuries-old mummies, discovered during organ construction in the 17th century, found their final resting place.

In 1794, the USA opened one of its first European General Consulates in Bremen - at the personal request of George Washington. Since the end of the American War of Independence in 1783, the Hanseatic city has nurtured close trade relationships with the United States. 

When, on the 1st 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.

Since 1358, the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen has been a member of the Hanseatic League. With accession, the city guaranteed that it would respect all decisions and rules of the Hansa. This is as much in force today as it was before and is an important part of local identity. That is why, even today, business between Hanseatic merchants is frequently sealed with a simple handshake.

They decorate Bremen’s ‘front room’, the marketplace, and are the landmarks of the Hanseatic city: the Rathaus (city hall), built in 1405 in Gothic and Weser Renaissance styles, and the stone statue of Roland. Since 2004, the ensemble has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Roland has gained renown as a symbol of freedom the world over – and it all began in Bremen. This figure
represents emancipation from the church and the citizens’ independence. There are now more than 85 preserved and new Roland statues all around the globe, including in New York and Rolândia in Brazil. Napoleon himself is said to have been so impressed with the Roland statue during the French occupation that he wanted to have it dismantled and put on display at the Louvre in Paris.

They decorate Bremen’s ‘front room’, the marketplace, and are the landmarks of the Hanseatic city: the Rathaus (city hall), built in 1405 in Gothic and Weser Renaissance styles, and the stone statue of Roland. Since 2004, the ensemble has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Bremen‘ s Sebaldsbrück district is home to one of the largest Mercedes-Benz plants in the world,
with around 12,000 employees and 265,000 cars rolling off the production line. Since 1978, the brand with the three-pointed star has been building vehicles „made in Bremen“ there for customers around the globe - currently eleven different models. Among them are the EQC and EQE electric vehicles.

Founded back in 1913, Bremen Airport was the first in Germany to have a paved runway. And now it is the gateway to the rest of the world for the region, with direct flights taking off to many destinations in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, including a number of major international hubs. It is also just an eleven-minute tram journey away from Bremen city centre.

Measured by turnover, Bremen is one of the ten largest German industrial cities.

As the birthplace of Germany’s cotton trade, Bremen has been home to the Bremen Cotton Exchange for almost 150 years. Already at the start of the 17th century the Hanseatic city start-ed importing the raw material which is now used in clothing, pharmaceuticals and even bank notes.

The riverside quay at the ‚Wilhelm Kaisen‘ Bremerhaven Container Terminal was created in 1968 and is now the longest in the world, spanning around 5,000 metres. With 14 berths for large container ships at Europe’s sixth largest container terminal. (2021) In addition, the maritime city is booming as a cruise location. In 2022, around 220,000 passengers traveled via Columbus Quay, which is currently being expanded at a cost of around 80 million euros to make it the most modern cruise terminal on the continent.

Over 30 years ago the people of Bremen began to share cars. It was through this that the city became the first to establish a politically agreed car-sharing concept. These days, around 25,000 people throughout Germany use this sustainable form of mobility - including electric vehicles.

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

Bremen is one of the most important hubs for the aerospace industry, with around 12,000 people working in that industry. More than 140 companies and 20 research institutes working in the sector in the region generate a yearly turnover of over four billion euros between them.

Bremen’s cargo distribution centre, which just so happens to be the oldest of its kind in Germany, was ranked as the best cargo distribution centre in Europe as part of an independent assessment in 2020. With 38 logistics criteria to satisfy, the centre in Bremen managed to beat almost 300 other sites in over 30 countries to the delight of more than 160 companies and around 8,700 employees of staff based there.

With approximately 1.6 million transhipped, transported and technically processed cars, the maritime city of Bremerhaven is Europe‘s automotive hub for imports and exports.Every day, several thousand cars enter and leave the Weser estuary harbour, which covers the equivalent of 450 football fields.

The aerospace company Airbus develops and produces the high-lift systems for all its craft and equips the wings of the A330 and A350 with all vital flight systems here at its second-largest German location. Bremen is also responsible for the operation of the European elements of the International Space Station ISS and the development and construction of the service module for the Orion spacecraft. The upper stage of the Ariane 6 launcher is also developed and manufactured here.

The Lürssen shipyard in Bremen-Vegesack enjoys a world-class reputation in its own specialist area:
it manufactures naval vessels and some of the largest luxury yachts ever built – with sumptuous furnishings from the wine-cellar to the cinema.

Berlin is the only hub for young, creative start-ups? Think again! Whether delicious nuts, dried fruits and sweets, sustainable organic soaps (Martha‘s Corner), self-developed fertilizer for aquariums (Greenscaping) or artificial intelligence for online chats (IDA Bot), a plethora of great ideas have been born in the Hanseatic city and gone on to become big hits with custom-ers, sometimes with the backing of city initiatives.

Vector Foiltec is the global market leader for roofs and façades made of ultra-light ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) film. The Bremen-based company has implemented over 1,700 international projects so far, having worked on stadiums, shopping centres, public buildings, zoos, botanical gardens and swimming pools. One such project is the art centre ‚The Shed‘ in New York, a mobile building on man-sized rollers.

Resident in today’s Überseestadt for nearly 130 years, Stroever GmbH & Co. KG is the only company in Europe to produce shellac, a product used worldwide. From sweets and fruit to medicines – shellac brings shine and durability.

The dream of every footballer comes to life in the silverware workshop of ‘Koch & Bergfeld Corpus’: in this traditional Bremen firm, since 1967, trophies for the best football teams of Europe have been manufactured. Alongside the original crea-tion of the current Champion’s League Cup, replicas are also made for DFB Cup and German Championship winners. The Goldene Kamera and several Formula-1 cups also came from Bremen’s Überseestadt.

The aerospace company OHB develops top class technology. Complete satellites for the European satellite navigation system ‘Galileo’ are con-
structed in Bremen – the core module for the Mars probe Trace-Gas-Orbiter was also built here.

The largest fashion photography studio in Europe is located in Überseestadt. In the 10,000-square-
metre shed 1 at Wiethe, up to 150,000 items a year - from shirts to shoes – are photographed for online shops and e-commerce.

Bremen‘ s Sebaldsbrück district is home to one of the largest Mercedes-Benz plants in the world,
with around 12,000 employees and 265,000 cars rolling off the production line. Since 1978, the brand with the three-pointed star has been building vehicles „made in Bremen“ there for customers around the globe - currently eleven different models. Among them are the EQC and EQE electric vehicles.

Founded back in 1913, Bremen Airport was the first in Germany to have a paved runway. And now it is the gateway to the rest of the world for the region, with direct flights taking off to many destinations in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, including a number of major international hubs. It is also just an eleven-minute tram journey away from Bremen city centre.

At Universum Bremen, visitors have three different areas to explore: technology, humans and nature. The interactive centre is one of the most popular science museums throughout Germany thanks to its hands-on approach and frequently updated temporary exhibitions.

The research and development center ECOMAT (Bremen Center for Eco-efficient Materials and Technologies) is a beacon of cutting-edge technology for climate-neutral flying, lightweight construction, innovative materials, surface technologies and the digitalization of development processes. Under one roof, around 500 employees from business and science conduct joint, interdisciplinary research here to develop solutions for today‘s and tomorrow‘s global challenges using aerospace technologies that conserve resources. The Bremen Food Hub HANSE KITCHEN also supports start-ups from the idea to the finished food product, while the Digital Hub Industry has been created as a place of collaboration for digitization, company formation and talent development.

Inventors from the University of Bremen and the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) represented by their team called ‚B-Human‘, have been crowned world champions at nine robot football tournaments, putting them at the top of the global Standard Platform League. Most recently, they won the 2022 Robocup in Thailand. The robots are pre-programmed but have to make all their own decisions during the game. Their success is representative of the strong AI industry in Bremen.

Decaffeinated coffee is a Bremen discovery. The Bremen merchant Ludwig Roselius discovered and
patented the process, going on to found Kaffee-Handels AG (Kaffee HAG) in 1906.

The first movement of the Triumphlied (Op. 55) by Johannes Brahms was premiered, with the composer himself as the conductor, at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Bremen in 1871. In 2012, music experts came across the materials from the performance – previously presumed lost – in the music archive belonging to Bremen’s Philharmonic Society and managed to reconstruct the work. The results exceeded all expectations, with the composition having more than 300 differences to the later version we all know and love. In fact, it was so different that it can be viewed as a separate piece in its own right.

There can be no doubt that the drop tower at the Centre of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity at the University of Bremen is the highest lab in the city. Here, research experiments can be carried out in zero gravity, under conditions that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world.

Here in the north, wind and rain are very much at home, from time to time. It is all the more astonishing that Bremen has the highest density of fixed sundials in the country – more than 125. The reason: captains and shipowners used to always have to know what time it was. Moreover, merchants had the money to decorate their houses with the timepieces.

The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research may be based in Bremerhaven, but its members feel right at home in an eternally icy setting. These scientists have dedicated their working lives to exploring the polar regions – whether that be on board research boats, up in the air on the ‘Polar 5 and 6’ planes that set off from Bremen Airport or at the Neumayer Station III in the Antarctic. Take the MOSAiC project in 2019/2020 for example. On what has been dubbed the greatest Arctic expedition of all time, the team on board an icebreaker called ‘Polarstern’ drifted across the Arctic Ocean in freezing conditions on floating ice for a whole year, taking unique measurements and recording interesting findings along the way.

A total of nine universities, colleges and universities of applied sciences - state and privately organized - characterize a diverse range of courses. The respective profiles of the teaching institutions also allow for dual or distance learning as well as subject specialization - for example in healthcare or logistics. The nearly 40,000 students in the entire state thus make up about seven percent of the population.

At Universum Bremen, visitors have three different areas to explore: technology, humans and nature. The interactive centre is one of the most popular science museums throughout Germany thanks to its hands-on approach and frequently updated temporary exhibitions.

The research and development center ECOMAT (Bremen Center for Eco-efficient Materials and Technologies) is a beacon of cutting-edge technology for climate-neutral flying, lightweight construction, innovative materials, surface technologies and the digitalization of development processes. Under one roof, around 500 employees from business and science conduct joint, interdisciplinary research here to develop solutions for today‘s and tomorrow‘s global challenges using aerospace technologies that conserve resources. The Bremen Food Hub HANSE KITCHEN also supports start-ups from the idea to the finished food product, while the Digital Hub Industry has been created as a place of collaboration for digitization, company formation and talent development.

Of the 15 most densely populated cities in Germany, Bremen has the most green spaces. In fact, the city boasts the equivalent of 44.9 square metres of green space in the form of parks, playgrounds, allotments and so on for each of its 566,000 inhabitants. That’s around 70% more gorgeous green space
per person than you would find in Hamburg or Berlin. The most beautiful of them all? That has to be Bremen’s Bürgerpark, a park funded solely by donations since it first opened its gates back in 1866. Spanning 202.5 hectares, it’s the largest privately funded park in an urban setting in the whole of Germany.

As the first establishment in Germany for the care of people with disabilities, Werkstatt Bremen, with almost forty locations across Germany, has the highest number of individual institutions. In total, 2,200 workers make
use of the varied range of services provided by the Werkstatt.

At first glance, an inconspicuous manhole cover. But it hides much more beneath: right next to the Bremen Bürgerschaft is the Bremer Loch (Bremen Hole), an underground donation box belonging to the charity 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.

On the 24th of June 1928, the Zoo am Meer (zoo by the sea) in Bremerhaven opened its doors (then under
the name of the ‘animal grottoes’) and since then has attracted many visitors with its polar bears, seals, and penguins.

…makes a wide bend. There you can find the only stadium in Germany that is completely surrounded by a photovoltaic casing and thus produces approximately 650,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. With this quantity of electricity, around 300 households can be supplied over the same period. What’s more, fans can arrive at the game by boat, as there is a ferry dock directly by the stadium – also unique for Germany.

… 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.

Will the Weser ‚flow‘ or ‚freeze‘? Since 1829 this question has been answered every year on Epiphany‘ Day, the 6th of January, during the traditional ‚Eiswette‘ or ice-wagering. Amid festive surroundings, a tailor tests whether the Weser is frozen or not. On the third Saturday in January, representatives from business and society meet for the Bremen Eiswettfest. Over food and drink, speeches are made and donations collected for the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (DGzRS).

Bremen is a city for bicycles. 25 percent of all journeys are made by bike: more than in any other major German city. In a European comparison, the city ranks third behind Amsterdam and Copenhagen in some rankings. Cycling is a part of everyday life in Bremen, and emblematic of the city’s attitude. An example is the Neustadt district, a model cycling neighbourhood in which bike riders can roll comfortably through the first official „bicycle zone“ in Germany. Or on the numerous bike routes in and around Bremen - from the Weser Cycle Path to the Blockland Circuit. Bicycle culture even has its own event dedicated to it here: the annual „Cargo BIKE IT! Festival“.

The people of Bremen traditionally get involved in their city, thus show-ing their responsibility for their fellow citizens. The ever-growing number of charitable foundations confirms this: with over 340 such institutions, the federal state of Bremen has the second-highest density of charitable foundations in the country.

A headland in the Weser lined with palm trees, deck chairs and a natural beach - that‘s the Lankenauer Höft.
Here, visitors can expect summer vacation flair in the middle of Bremen, but seasonal snacks with a view of the water also beckon in winter. And the city‘s new leisure hotspot is still growing: the first houseboats for overnight stays will grow to a total of 19 by 2024, and the event location and restaurant will also be ready for use by then. In 2022, the exciting project therefore received Bremen‘s tourism award in the „Future“ category.

Where once the largest tobacco factory in Europe was located, the Tobacco Quarter is growing
up in the shadow of the listed red brick buildings. The 20-hectare site combines industrial romance
with modern lofts for living and working. In addition, green spaces, gastronomy, theater and culture, a
hotel, an event location, a daycare center and the largest bouldering hall in Northern Germany also offer
a livable mix of leisure activities in Bremen-Woltmershausen.

Formerly the inner-city harbour where ships were unloaded, the Schlachte is now Bremen‘s popular Weser river promenade for everyone. Especially in summer, the 660-meter-long mile invites you to stroll and beer gardens as well as bars and restaurants are well attended.

The key of Bremen from the arms of the senate is part of the emblem of the weekly newspaper ‘Die Zeit’.
A curiosity, especially as the newspaper has had its headquarters in Hamburg since its establishment. There, the city government of the time forbade the use of the gate seen on Hamburg’s coat of arms, considering it a misuse of an emblem. How-ever, the mayor of Bremen, Wilhelm Kaisen, gave free usage rights to his city’s symbol.

Überseestadt is one of the largest urban development projects in Europe. A new district was created in the former harbour area in the west of Bremen and it continues to evolve. It blends the traditional charm of the harbour with modern commercial and residential complexes such as the Weser Tower, Bremen’s tallest office block reigning 82 metres over the city. The Überseestadt is known for its creative scene, top restaurants and unusual leisure activities such as black light mini golf in the dark, a center for automobile culture, escape rooms, the GOP Varieté Theater or also the „Waller Sand“ - a beach park, complete with pier lighthouse, for hours of fun and frolics just a few miles out of the city centre.

The Bremen Freimarkt, the largest funfair in the north of Germany, adds a fifth season to the calendars in the Hanseatic city. ‚Ischa Freimaak‘ (as it is called locally) has been held annually since 1035 and now attracts around 1.5 million people to the Bürgerweide during 17 days in October. The Christmas market and Schlachte-Zauber fair are just as popular, they are among the most popular and most visited Christmas markets in Germany. One British newspaper even once said that the two together make for the best festive fair experience in Europe.

The Alexander von Humboldt sailing ship, known for its starring role in a Beck’s beer TV advert, put Bremen on the map around the world. It returned to its permanent mooring in the Hanseatic city in 2015 and now doubles up as a restaurant and hotel on the Schlachte Embankment.

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’.

The people of Bremen like to call their flag the ‘bacon flag’. The reason is its red and white stripes and the way they break down into squares – lardons, perhaps – next to the flagpole.

Of the 15 most densely populated cities in Germany, Bremen has the most green spaces. In fact, the city boasts the equivalent of 44.9 square metres of green space in the form of parks, playgrounds, allotments and so on for each of its 566,000 inhabitants. That’s around 70% more gorgeous green space
per person than you would find in Hamburg or Berlin. The most beautiful of them all? That has to be Bremen’s Bürgerpark, a park funded solely by donations since it first opened its gates back in 1866. Spanning 202.5 hectares, it’s the largest privately funded park in an urban setting in the whole of Germany.

As the first establishment in Germany for the care of people with disabilities, Werkstatt Bremen, with almost forty locations across Germany, has the highest number of individual institutions. In total, 2,200 workers make
use of the varied range of services provided by the Werkstatt.

Around 3,000 bottles of Beck’s are consumed globally every minute. That means the Bremen-based company is responsible for producing the most popular German beer in the world. The logo shows a red
emblem with a white key and thus bears a strong resemblance to the Bremen city emblem. The company
founders actually wanted to adopt this in the original in 1876, but the city refused to be associated with
alcohol production. The solution: a laterally reversed image. This is how Beck‘s became known worldwide as
Schlüsselbier or Key Beer.

The cellar of the Bremen Rathaus (Ratskeller) houses the largest collection worldwide of high-quality German wines – around 650 different vintages. Among them is the oldest German cask wine, from 1653. One area of the cellar is named after the poet Wilhelm Hauff, who in 1827 wrote the wine novella ‘Fantasies in the Bremen Ratskeller’.

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.

Beck‘s as the sole top dog? Not quite. Because a fine craft beer scene has
established itself in Bremen: whether Union Brauerei, Hopfenfänger or Schüttinger - artisan barley juice with a lot of attention to detail and a love of experimentation can be found in many places. Some of the hops for this come directly from the city: the Gemüsewerft grows them and other products as part of an urban farming concept. The inclusive project also employs people with mental illnesses and mental and intellectual disabilities.

Bremen and Bremerhaven are home to no end of foodies, with the likes of Beck’s, Nordsee, Frosta, Mondelez (formerly Kraft Foods), Vitakraft, DMK Group (Deutsches Milchkontor) and coffee brands Melitta and Jacobs having their head offices or large production sites here. Did you know that the harbour city produces so many fish fingers (2.7 billion every year) that they would reach all the way around the world five times if they were all lined up lengthways? Recently they are even available as a vegan version.

The city‘s best products in one shop - made possible by „Made in Bremen“ which brings together local makers of products and ideas. The regional department stores‘ offers a colourful selection of Bremen delicacies in one place and invites you to discover something new: tea and coffee, beer and schnapps, sweets and savouries, herbs and spices. There are also books, decorations, textiles and many gift ideas and souvenirs. From July 2023, the store will be in a new central location, Am Domshof 8.

There are some treats you can only find here. For example, Bremer Babbeler lollies have been handproduced since 1886. The same can be said for Schnoorkuller – balls of meringue nougat coated with milk chocolate and hazelnuts – and Klaben – a cake similar to Stollen but with more fruit. Kluten is another delicacy unique to Bremen, consisting of peppermint fondant half-dipped in dark chocolate. Just picture a domino to get an idea of what it looks like! And Bremen Kaffeebrot is a special crispy treat that locals like to dunk in their hot drinks.

Right in the city centre, the Johann Jacobs Haus attracts coffee lovers from near and far. The new building is located exactly where it all began for the Jacobs family in 1895. A ho-
listic coffee experience extends over five floors - from a small café and its own roastery to barista courses and tastings in the academy to conference rooms with the best view.

The first coffee shop to open in Germany, Austria or Switzerland was in Bremen. Coffee was served here as early as 1673, pre-dating even Vienna’s coffee houses. The famous HAG Marble Hall can be found in the former HAG factory, which is now home to Lloyd Caffee. Having been built in 1914, the room is reminiscent of the thriving coffee trade in Bremen and is now protected given its historical status. To this day, the beans used to produce every other cup of coffee in Germany have passed through the Hanseatic city. To this day, every third cup of coffee drunk in Germany comes from Bremen and almost every second imported bean has passed through the Hanseatic city.

Bremen’s Schaffermahlzeit is the world’s oldest ‘Freundschaftsmahl’, or friendship feast, still in existence. Since 1545, merchants, sea-captains and invited guests from the worlds of politics and business have met in the Rathaus of Bremen for a five-hour banquet. The organiser is the HAUS SEEFAHRT foundation. The event is organised by three merchants from Bremen, the so-called „Schaffer“. They are elected two years beforehand at the general assembly of HAUS SEEFAHRT.

Patties in Bremen aren’t made from beef. Instead, the focus is on fillets of white fish (like pollock or hake) coated in crispy breadcrumbs and served with a mix of herbs, sauce and fried onions.

Meals served in Bremen tend to be hearty with a focus on taste rather than appearance. Knipp – crispy fried sausage mixed with grains – is a prime example of this attitude to food. And Labskaus – a dish of mashed potatoes mixed with corned beef and beetroot – is often served with pickled herring, gherkins and a fried egg. Meanwhile, poussin is at the heart of a traditional Bremen ragout. The ‘Schaufenster Fischereihafen’ in Bremerhaven is the place to go, however, for anyone looking to remove the meat from a crab in the good old-fashioned way and feast on fresh fish.

During excavation work in 1989, a peppercorn dating back around 800 years was discovered in the city, making it the oldest to be found north of the Alps. This caused quite a stir in academic circles, as it proved that Bremen was involved with global trade back in the 13th century and that rich people who could afford the luxury of exotic spices lived in the area at that time. The peppercorn is on display at the Focke Museum despite the fact that it measures a mere three millimetres.

Bremen is the birthplace of the hugely popular ‘rollo’, a thin baked flatbread that is generously filled and rolled up with its ends folded over before being heated up quickly in a hot oven. Clever owners of fast-food stalls start-ed selling these tasty wraps back in the early 1980s and now they can be found on menus alongside the classic Doner kebab.

Around 3,000 bottles of Beck’s are consumed globally every minute. That means the Bremen-based company is responsible for producing the most popular German beer in the world. The logo shows a red
emblem with a white key and thus bears a strong resemblance to the Bremen city emblem. The company
founders actually wanted to adopt this in the original in 1876, but the city refused to be associated with
alcohol production. The solution: a laterally reversed image. This is how Beck‘s became known worldwide as
Schlüsselbier or Key Beer.

The cellar of the Bremen Rathaus (Ratskeller) houses the largest collection worldwide of high-quality German wines – around 650 different vintages. Among them is the oldest German cask wine, from 1653. One area of the cellar is named after the poet Wilhelm Hauff, who in 1827 wrote the wine novella ‘Fantasies in the Bremen Ratskeller’.

The ‘Town Musicians of Bremen’ by the Brothers Grimm is a popular fairytale the world over. So popular, in fact, that it has been turned into a musical in South Korea. 2019 marked the 200th anniversary of the tale, which is one of the very few that actually mention the name of a city in their title. And the animals never even make it all the way to Bremen. Nevertheless, a visit to the town hall wouldn’t be complete without checking out the nearby statue and wrapping both hands tightly around the donkey’s legs whilst making a wish!

The Breminale combines culture, music and good food along the Osterdeich. Close to 200,000 people flock to the riverside to relax and dance to international tunes over five days during the spring or summer. A little further north, in the Vegesack district, shanty choirs, Irish and Scottish rock bands, Celtic folk groups and many more groups come together every August for the international Maritime Festival. They sing about the wind, the sea and their home-town ports during more than 150 concerts spread across ten open-air stages.

Since 1992, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen has had its base in 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 toge-
ther. The young people bring thoughts, ideas and feelings from their school day, which are then made into music and presented on stage.

Böttcherstraße is an exciting road near the marketplace, where visitors can find museums, art galleries and craft workshops along-side cafés and boutiques. Plus, a glockenspiel made of Meissen porcelain sounds at certain times throughout the day and special panels tell the story of the Atlantic crossing in pictures. Atlantis House is an architectural highlight and its famous Sky Room is not to be missed.

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.

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.

The Rhododendron Park in Bremen’s Horn-Lehe district covers an incredible 46 hectares and is home to the ‘botanika’ botanical gardens, where all kinds of flora and fauna are just waiting to be discovered. Home to 3,500 cultivars and 650 species, the park and science centre boast probably the largest collection of rhododendrons in the world. The Dalai Lama is giving every continent a golden Buddha statue standing at 2.4 metres tall. Europe’s gift makes for a special highlight in its spot in the Japanese Garden at botanika, representing peace and respect between nations.

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.

Since 1989, thousands of classical music lovers 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 about
40 events in well-known concert locations in the region.

The Schulschiff Deutschland, a threemaster built in 1927, was used as a sail training ship for trade and
is the only full-rigged ship left in Germany. With a sail area half the size of a football field, it continues to
make a lasting impression on young and old. Her current berth is in Bremerhaven‘s New Harbour, where she
can be visited or used for overnight stays, events and weddings.

Showcasing the likes of Picasso, Monet and van Gogh, Kunsthalle Bremen has been dedicated to lots of different art-ists for as long as anyone can remember. The art gallery wows its adoring international visitors year on year with its stunning temporary exhibitions. The Bremen Art Association helps make this possible as a private sponsor. The Weserburg Museum of Modern Art is the place to go in Bremen for contemporary masterpieces from around the world. It opened its doors in 1991 as Europe’s first collector’s museum and is home to a unique collection of artists’ publications and records.

The international street circus festival La Strada transforms the squares around Roland, the Rathaus and the Town Musicians into a giant arena every summer. For several days, clowns, performers and dancers from across the world give an al fresco taste of their art.

Wilhelm Wagenfeld was one of the most influential pioneers of modern product design. The world-famous Wagenfeld lamp, a Bauhaus classic, is still produced today by Tecnolumen in Bremen. The Wilhelm Wagenfeld
House, named after the Bremen-born designer, offers exhibitions, seminars, workshops and much more on
the subject of design.

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.

Every summer, culture vultures flock to the musical picnic in the Knoops Park in north Bremen. At the ‘Summer in Lesmona’ they listen to open-air concerts by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in the midst of the park’s lush greenery.

Schnoor is a Medieval district made up of winding alleyways that ooze the charm of bygone centuries. Bremen’s smallest house, covering a mere four square metres, can also be found here. It is believed that this pretty old town’s name could have come from all the handiwork that used to go on here to produce cords and ropes for ships. After all, ‘Schnoor’ is the old Low German word for string, cord or line. An alternative explanation is that the houses are all lined up like pearls strung together.

The Bremen Theatre on Goetheplatz, the Packhaus Theatre in the Schnoor, the theatre ship on the Weser or the Schwankhalle, the Shakespeare Company and the Schnürschuh Theatre from the Neustadt - stages that mean the world can be found in many places in the Hanseatic city. Summer open-air highlight: the Seebühne on the Waterfront. In front of a dream like industrial harbour backdrop, plays, music and comedy await the audience.

For over 100 years, the Focke Museum has collected and preserved interest-
ing, weird and unique objects from Bremen’s history. Numerous exhibits, peppered with finds from family collections and Bremen handicrafts, have made the state museum for art and cultural history famous across the country.

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.

The Übersee-Museum, located directly at Bremen‘s main station, is one of the most important museums on the continent with its unique collection of ethnology, trade and natural history with over 100 years of tradition and extensive overseas exhibitions. This involves investigating how exhibits came into the museum in earlier days and - if necessary - ensuring that they are returned to their rightful owners.

The ‘Town Musicians of Bremen’ by the Brothers Grimm is a popular fairytale the world over. So popular, in fact, that it has been turned into a musical in South Korea. 2019 marked the 200th anniversary of the tale, which is one of the very few that actually mention the name of a city in their title. And the animals never even make it all the way to Bremen. Nevertheless, a visit to the town hall wouldn’t be complete without checking out the nearby statue and wrapping both hands tightly around the donkey’s legs whilst making a wish!

The Breminale combines culture, music and good food along the Osterdeich. Close to 200,000 people flock to the riverside to relax and dance to international tunes over five days during the spring or summer. A little further north, in the Vegesack district, shanty choirs, Irish and Scottish rock bands, Celtic folk groups and many more groups come together every August for the international Maritime Festival. They sing about the wind, the sea and their home-town ports during more than 150 concerts spread across ten open-air stages.

SV Werder is obviously the most popular football team in Bremen and the surrounding area. But there are also fan clubs in China, the USA and many neighbouring European countries. Werder is still holding on to its
third-place position in the all-time Bundesliga league table. Did you know that the first-ever Bundesliga
goal was scored on Bremen’s Osterdeich?

‘Sail in Bremerhaven’ is one of the largest Windjammer regattas in Europe. Every five years – in 2025 the next time – it unites the largest sail-ing ships in the world in the harbour city on the Weser estuary.

In August 1949, shoemaker Alexander Salot from Bremen’s Blumenthal district filed a patent application for the screw-in stud system he had developed for football boots. The Bremen-born inventor was three whole years ahead of Adi Dassler (the founder of Adidas) and screw-in studs are still sometimes used in football to this day.

Football isn’t the only exciting sport on offer in the state, which also has a professional basketball team called Eisbären Bremerhaven and a top ice-hockey team known as the Fischtown Pinguins from REV Bremerhaven.

The Grün-Gold-Club Bremen and TSG Bremerhaven are world leaders in competitive dance. Both clubs
together have over 25 word championship titles.

Bremen‘s Six Days has been running for over 50 years and is one of the most popular events of its kind in Germany. After a few years of Corona-related break, the Sixdays will return in January 2024 with the familiar mix of party and sport - in a more compact form spread over four days.

SV Werder is obviously the most popular football team in Bremen and the surrounding area. But there are also fan clubs in China, the USA and many neighbouring European countries. Werder is still holding on to its
third-place position in the all-time Bundesliga league table. Did you know that the first-ever Bundesliga
goal was scored on Bremen’s Osterdeich?

‘Sail in Bremerhaven’ is one of the largest Windjammer regattas in Europe. Every five years – in 2025 the next time – it unites the largest sail-ing ships in the world in the harbour city on the Weser estuary.