Bremen Airfares (BRE) - Germany

Bremen, Germany - City Overview and Airfare Information

Bremen

Coordinates: 53°4′N 8°49′E

Bremen [ˈbÊ€eË�mÉ™n] 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 300 km south from its flow 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 (1 June 2005). The metropolitan area (Bremen-Oldenburg) has a population of more than 2.37 million.

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.

1810: 35,800 inhabitants

1830: 43,700

1850: 55,100

1880: 111,900

1900: 161,200

1925: 295,000

1998: 550,000 ⁴

2006: 546,900

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 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 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

• Mediumwave transmitter Bremen
• Fallturm Bremen
• Telecommunication Tower Bremen

Bremen's Sister Cities are

Bremen has a large and 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. Beginning in 2008, the GLK sport utility vehicle will also be built in Bremen. Beck's and St Pauli Girl beers are 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 connected with 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 violinist Georg Kulenkampff, 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).

Bremen hosted the 2006 RoboCup Competition.

Bremen will host the 2009 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).

• Beck's
• Haake-Beck
• Kräusen
• Hemelinger
• St. Pauli Girl