Bremen (), officially the Free

Hanseatic The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=German language, Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Norther ...

City of Bremen (german: Freie Hansestadt Bremen; nds, Free Hansestadt Bremen), is the smallest and least populous of Germany's 16 states. It is informally called ("State of Bremen"), although the term is sometimes used in official contexts. The state consists of the city of Bremen and its seaport exclave,

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...

, surrounded by the larger state of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

in northern Germany.

Geography

The state of Bremen consists of two non-contiguous territories. These enclaves contain Bremen, officially the 'City' (''Stadtgemeinde Bremen'') which is the state capital, and the city of

(''Stadt Bremerhaven''). Both are located on the River

Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...

; Bremerhaven ("Bremen's harbour") is further downstream on the mouth of the Weser with open access to the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

. Both enclaves are completely surrounded by the neighbouring State of

(''Niedersachsen''). The highest point in the state is in

Friedehorst Park The Friedehorst Park (german: Friedehorstpark), also called the Lehnhof Park (), is a green space in the Bremen borough of on the border of states of Bremen and Lower Saxony. It is about 9 ha in area. It is home to the highest natural poin ...

(32.5m).

History

When the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

was dissolved in 1806, the

Free Imperial City In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...

of Bremen (as of 1646, after earlier privileges of autonomy of 1186) was not mediatised (incorporated into the enlarged territory of one of the surrounding monarchies) but became a sovereign state officially titled the '' Free Hanseatic City of Bremen''. Her currency was the

Bremen thaler The Thaler was the currency of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen until 1873. It was divided into 72 ''Grote'', each of 5 ''Schwaren''. While initially identical to the North German thaler before the 1750s, it was the only currency to maintain the ...

(until 1873). In 1811, the

First French Empire The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental E ...

annexed the

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...

in an effort to enforce

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

Berlin Decree The Berlin Decree was issued in Berlin by Napoleon on November 21, 1806, after the French success against Prussia at the Battle of Jena, which led to the Fall of Berlin (1806), Fall of Berlin. The decree was issued in response to the British Order- ...

, closing the European continent to British trade. At the Congress of Vienna of 1815, Bremen's emissary, and later

burgomaster Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, literally "master of the town, master of the borough, master of the fortress, master of the citizens") is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chie ...

Johann Smidt Johann Smidt (November 5, 1773 – May 7, 1857) was an important Bremen politician, theologian, and founder of Bremerhaven. Biography Smidt was a son of the Reformed preacher Johann Smidt sen., pastor at St. Stephen Church in Bremen. Smidt ...

, lobbied successfully to have the city's independence confirmed as one of the 39 sovereign states within the new

German Confederation The German Confederation (german: Deutscher Bund, ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, w ...

. In 1827, Bremen bought land at the mouth of the Weser from the

Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover (german: Königreich Hannover) was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Ha ...

, in order to build a new seaport,

. This ensured that Bremen remained Germany's main port of embarkation for emigrants to the Americas, and later that it developed as an entrepôt for Germany's late developing colonial trade. In 1867, the year following

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

's defeat of

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and its annexation of Hanover, Bremen joined the

North German Confederation The North German Confederation (german: Norddeutscher Bund) was initially a German military alliance established in August 1866 under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was transformed in the subsequent year into a confederated st ...

that became the German Empire in 1871, as one of its 26 constituent states. As an international port and industrial centre, Bremen had a strong left and liberal tradition. in January 1913, at the last elections to the Imperial Reichstag in Berlin, the Social Democrats (SPD) secured over half the vote, or 53.4%. Left Liberals (Linksliberale) took another 41.4%. Only 5.1% went to the Conservatives. In

November 1932 The following events occurred in November 1932: November 1, 1932 (Tuesday) *The Liberal Party won mid-term parliamentary elections in Cuba. *Police in London clashed with National Hunger Marchers trying to present a petition to parliament aga ...

, at the last broadly free election of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...

, the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

won 31.2% of the vote, and the Communists (KPD) 16.8%, compared to 20.8% for the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

. When, after the heavily compromised national elections of March 1933, the Nazis still achieved only a third of the popular vote in Bremen (32.7%), the regime dissolved the state parliament, the ''Bürgerschaft'' and its executive Senate. Bremen remained for the next twelve years under the direct authority of a party

Gauleiter A ''Gauleiter'' () was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a '' Gau'' or '' Reichsgau''. ''Gauleiter'' was the third-highest rank in the Nazi political leadership, subordinate only to '' Reichsleiter'' and to ...

. During these years, Bremen's small Jewish community (1,438 people registered at the beginning of 1933) was destroyed through coerced emigration and deportation to death camps in the occupied east. Allied bombing destroyed the majority of the historical Hanseatic city as well as 60% of the built-up area of Bremen during World War II. The British 3rd Infantry Division under

General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...

Lashmer Whistler General Sir Lashmer Gordon Whistler, (3 September 1898 – 4 July 1963), known as "Bolo", was a British Army officer who served in both the world wars. A junior officer during the First World War, during the Second World War he achieved senior ...

captured Bremen in late April 1945. The British handed it over to the Americans; Bremen became an American-controlled port for the supply of the US

zones of occupation Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and France ...

west Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

and southern Germany. Bremen was reestablished as a state in 1947 and, from 1949, was again known as the ''Free Hanseatic City of Bremen'', becoming a Land or state of the new

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

, informally referred to as "

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

" until 1990.

Politics

Political system

The legislature of the state of Bremen is the 83-member Bürgerschaft (citizens' assembly), elected by the citizens in the two cities of Bremen and

. The executive is constituted by the

Senate of Bremen The Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (German: Senat der Freien Hansestadt Bremen) is the government of the German city-state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Various senate-like institutions have existed in Bremen since medieval times. Th ...

, elected by the Bürgerschaft. The Senate is chaired by the President of the senate (''Senatspräsident''), who is also one of the mayors of the city of Bremen (''Bürgermeister'') and is elected directly by the Bürgerschaft. The Senate selects of its members as a second mayor who serves as deputy of the president. In contrast to the Federal Chancellor of Germany or other German states, the President of the Senate has no authority to override senators on policy, which is decided upon by the senate collectively. Since 1945, the Senate has continuously been dominated by the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

. On a municipal level, the two cities in the state are administered separately: * The administration of the city of Bremen is headed by the two mayors and controlled by the portion of the Bürgerschaft elected in the city of Bremen (68 members). *

, on the other hand, has a municipal assembly distinct from the state legislature and an administration under a distinct head mayor (''Oberbürgermeister'') and a distinct second mayor.

Political majorities

In post-war Bremen, the port, shipyards and related industries sustained a large and unionised working class. As before 1933, this translated into support for the Social Democrats, considered Bremen's natural governing party. However, in the 1980s mechanisation of the port and closure of the city's leading shipbuilder induced an employment crisis and shook the confidence of the party's traditional voter base. The SPD, which had still polled 51% in 1987, lost its effective majority. The once dominant left-liberal vote split, and coalition government became the norm. The

2019 Bremen state election The 2019 Bremen state election was held on 26 May 2019 to elect the members of the Bürgerschaft of Bremen, as well as the city councils of Bremen and Bremerhaven. The election took place on the same day as the 2019 European Parliament election. ...

was held on 26 May 2019 to elect the members of the

Bürgerschaft of Bremen The Bremische Bürgerschaft (State Parliament of Bremen, literally “Bremish Citizenry” or “Citizenry of Bremen”) is the legislative branch of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen in Germany. The state parliament elects the mem ...

, as well as the city councils of Bremen and

. The election took place on the same day as the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peop ...

. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), for the first time, became the largest party in the Bürgerschaft, while the

(SPD) fell to second place.

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *Gree ...

and The Left made small gains. After the election, the SPD, Greens, and Left agreed to form a coalition government. Carsten Sieling resigned as mayor and was replaced by fellow SPD member

Andreas Bovenschulte Andreas Bovenschulte (born 11 August 1965) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as the President of the Senate and Mayor of Bremen since 2019. Early life and education Bovenschulte was born ...

. , - ! rowspan="2" colspan="2" , Party ! rowspan="2" , Votes ! rowspan="2" , % ! rowspan="2" , +/- ! colspan="2" , Seats ! rowspan="2" , Total
seats ! rowspan="2" , +/- ! rowspan="2" , Seats % , - ! Bremen !

, - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , align= 391,709 , align= 26.7 , align= 4.3 , align= 20 , align= 4 , align= 24 , align= 4 , align= 28.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

(SPD) , align= 366,375 , align= 24.9 , align= 7.9 , align= 19 , align= 4 , align= 23 , align= 7 , align= 27.4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) , align= 256,181 , align= 17.4 , align= 2.3 , align= 13 , align= 3 , align= 16 , align= 2 , align= 19.0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , The Left (Linke) , align= 166,378 , align= 11.3 , align= 1.8 , align= 9 , align= 1 , align= 10 , align= 2 , align= 11.9 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Alternative for Germany (AfD) , align= 89,939 , align= 6.1 , align= 0.6 , align= 4 , align= 1 , align= 5 , align= 1 , align= 6.0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Free Democratic Party (FDP) , align= 87,420 , align= 5.9 , align= 0.7 , align= 4 , align= 1 , align= 5 , align= 1 , align= 6.0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

Citizens in Rage Citizens in Rage (german: Bürger in Wut (BIW)) is a German right-wing populist voters' association represented in the state parliament of Bremen. It is led by Jan Timke. It was founded in March 2004 as a successor to the Bremen section of the ...

(BiW) , align= 35,808 , align= 2.4 , align= 0.8 , align= 0 , align= 1 , align= 1 , align= 0 , align= 1.2 , - ! colspan=8, , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

Die PARTEI (''Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative''), or Die PARTEI (''The PARTY''), is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazi ...

(PARTEI) , align= 24,433 , align= 1.7 , align= 0.2 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , , align=left ,

Free Voters Free Voters (german: Freie Wähler, FW or FWG) in Germany may belong to an association of people which participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it involves a locally organized group of voters ...

(FW) , align= 14,205 , align= 1.0 , align= 1.0 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

Pirate Party Germany The Pirate Party Germany (german: Piratenpartei Deutschland), commonly known as Pirates (), is a political party in Germany founded in September 2006 at c-base. It states general agreement with the Swedish Piratpartiet as a party of the informa ...

(Piraten) , align= 14,143 , align= 1.0 , align= 0.5 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Others , align= 22,915 , align= 1.6 , align= , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= 0 , align= ±0 , align= 0 , - ! align=right colspan=2, Total ! align= 1,469,506 ! align= 100.0 ! align= ! align= 69 ! align= 15 ! align= 84 ! align= 1 ! align= , - ! align=right colspan=2, Voter turnout ! align= ! align= 64.1 ! align= 13.9 ! align= ! align= ! align= ! align= ! align=

Coat of arms

The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

and flag of Bremen state include: File:Flag of Bremen.svg, Flag of Bremen File:Bremen greater coat of arms.svg, Greater coat of arms File:Bremen Wappen(Mittel).svg, Medium coat of arms File:Bremen Wappen(Klein).svg, Lesser coat of arms File:Bremen Wappen frei.svg, Coat of arms symbol

Economy

Bremen's post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

economy boomed in line with the West German ''

Wirtschaftswunder The ''Wirtschaftswunder'' (, "economic miracle"), also known as the Miracle on the Rhine, was the rapid reconstruction and development of the economies of West Germany and Austria after World War II (adopting an ordoliberalism-based social ma ...

'' of the 1950s and 60s. This saw the growth, and permanent settlement, in Bremen of a large migrant worker population, drawn largely from

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

and southern Europe. Some of the city's heavier industries failed to recover from the oil-price-shock recession of the early 1970s. Specialist construction yards, ship outfitters and parts suppliers remain, but

AG Weser Aktien-Gesellschaft „Weser" (abbreviated A.G. „Weser”) was one of the major German shipbuilding companies, located at the Weser River in Bremen. Founded in 1872 it was finally closed in 1983. All together, A.G. „Weser" built about 1,400 ...

(which employed 16,000 workers at its peak) and Bremer Vulcan, Bremen's major shipbuilders, closed in 1983 and 1997 respectively. Further job losses were caused by the restructuring and increasing mechanisation of harbour-related activities and other industrial sectors. Semi and unskilled harbour workers found it very difficult to re-enter the labour market, and unemployment—for a period in the 1980s almost double the West German average—remained comparatively high. At a time when structural change in the economy has forced Bremen to spend more on social services.

Suburbanisation Suburbanization is a population shift from central urban areas into suburbs, resulting in the formation of (sub)urban sprawl. As a consequence of the movement of households and businesses out of the city centers, low-density, peripheral urb ...

has reduced population and tax revenue. Incorporating surrounding suburban municipalities, is not an option for Bremen as these belong to the state of Lower Saxony. With financial assistance from the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

, and from the Federal Government, economic policy has focussed on supporting those established economic sectors that are based on advanced technology, such as aerospace and aircraft production, automobile production, maritime and logistics services, and on developing the education and business-park infrastructure for new science-based and digital enterprises. In this an important tole is accorded to the growing university sector. Further investment went into the revitalisation of the city centre but a culture-driven regeneration around entertainment and tourism was not very successful. Several experts described Bremen’s service sector as underdeveloped, due to a lack of major company headquarters. At the turn of the new century, unemployment In Bremen stood at 13%, a rate matched in the Federal Republic only by the "new states" in former East Germany. The unemployment rate stood at 10.2% in November 2022 and was the highest of all 16 German states.

Education

The

University of Bremen The University of Bremen (German: ''Universität Bremen'') is a public university in Bremen, Germany, with approximately 23,500 people from 115 countries. It is one of 11 institutions which were successful in the category "Institutional Strategi ...

is the largest university in Bremen. It is one of 11 institutions classed as an "Elite university" in Germany, and teaches approximately 23,500 people from 126 countries. Bremen also has a

University of the Arts Bremen The University of the Arts Bremen (German: Hochschule für Künste Bremen, HfK Bremen) is a public university in Bremen, Germany. It is one of the most successful arts institutions, and its origins date back to 1873. The University of the Arts Br ...

, a

University of Applied Sciences A university of applied sciences (UAS), nowadays much less commonly called a polytechnic university or vocational university, is an institution of higher education and sometimes research that provides vocational education and grants academic de ...

with campuses in both Bremen city and

, and more recently the

Jacobs University Bremen Constructor University is an international, private, residential research university located in Vegesack, Bremen, Germany. It offers study programs in engineering, humanities, natural and social sciences, in which students can acquire bachelor' ...

, an international

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kn ...

located in

Vegesack Vegesack is a northern district of the city of Bremen. Geography ''Vegesack'' is located about north from the centre of Bremen-city at the mouth of the river Lesum, beside the river Weser (). Abutting the district of Vegesack to the northwest is ...

References

External links

Official state portal

Official governmental portal

Constitution of the state, German only
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of States of the German Empire States of the German Confederation States of the North German Confederation States of the Weimar Republic History of Bremen (city) History of Bremen (state) NUTS 1 statistical regions of the European Union States and territories established in 1646 1646 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 17th-century establishments in the Holy Roman Empire States of Germany