UMGEBUNGSENTDECKER
TRAVEL IMPRESSIONS OF AN ART AND HISTORY LOVER
and my experiences as a teacher in China
Bremen
CONTENTS
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urban representation of historical powers
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Excursus: Roland statues and their meaning
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ancient wine cellar with special treasures
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Bremen - not only fish and wine, but also coffee
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Expressionism and utopia of the Weimar period
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if you are looking for pubs and restaurants
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The Schlachte - beer garden atmosphere on the banks
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Bremen's beautiful residential areas and
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The German Emigration Center -
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The Bremen Market Square -
urban representation of historical powers
The Bremen market is one of the most beautiful squares in Germany with an almost complete ensemble of historical buildings. Only the modern building of the Bremen Parliament (seat of the state parliament of Bremen) may disturb some visitors or Bremen residents, but this building is also a sign of historical conditions and architecturally beautiful as a testimony to modernity.
The trip starts with a lot of history, but without it wouldn't work to understand the market. On this square one can understand how the balance of power of the various interest groups (clergy, council, merchants, citizenry) changed over the centuries and how they used the square to express these relations architecturally: the councilors built their town hall next to the cathedral and thus faced the ecclesiastical power with self-confidence. The church, in turn, was represented by the cathedral and the archbishop's palatium. The Elderleute (speakers of the Bremen merchants' association) followed suit by marking their influence by building the so-called Schütting and today the citizenship (the Bremen state parliament) meets in the new building between the Schütting, the cathedral and the town hall.
Council against bishop and the construction of the town hall
Bremen was not a free city of the Holy Roman Empire but was subordinate to the archbishop, but the bourgeoisie became more powerful and strove for emancipation. Although there had been an elected council since 1181, which the bishop accepted as a contractual partner, it still took a long time before the bourgeoisie achieved the basis of a firmly institutionalized form of government. In order to achieve this, a document from Emperor Heinrich IV, dated 1111, was forged without further ado, which proves the claim to independence. To underline this status, in 1404 the people of Bremen erected the Roland, the symbol of civic freedom, on the market square, which ostentatiously looks in the direction of the cathedral. One year later, in 1405, the construction of the town hall began, which was completed in 1410. It was initially a Gothic building and parts of it remained after its Renaissance reconstruction in 1595 - 1616, for example the Gothic canopies above the statues between the windows on the market facade, which incidentally depict the emperor and the seven electors or the pointed arch windows with tracery on the narrow sides.
The southwest side of the old town hall with the Gothic windows
Interior view of the southwest side with the Gothic windows in the upper hall of the old town hall
The building looks a little Flemish with its large windows and high hipped roof. There is a lot of renaissance in it, from the arcades such as the Florentine foundling house to the Spanish renaissance, which was spread from the southern Netherlands through trade on the water throughout the Weser area and shaped the architecture of the cultural landscape on the Weser with overloaded decorations such as percussion and cartilage , obelisks on decorative gables, shell niches or fan rosettes.
You can visit the town hall and should not miss it if you find the opportunity and time ( here is the link for online registration ). The Upper Hall is Bremen's most representative hall and is described on the city's website as a hall of "solemn, impressive dignity". The poet Rudolf Alexander Schröder described it as a "sanctuary of Bremen civic pride". Large, magnificent models of sailing ships hang from the ceiling, huge murals (The Foundation of Bremen and The Judgment of Solomon) adorn the room.
The upper hall in the old town hall
Die Güldenkammer neben der Oberen Halle
Die Nordwestseite des Rathauses. Der ursprüngliche Bau umfasst nur die Fassade mit den gotischen Spitzbogenfenstern, alle anderen Anbauten entstanden später. Links: Liebfrauenkirche, im Hintergrund: St.-Petri-Dom
An der Nordwestseite des Rathauses sind sie in Bronze verewigt: Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten
Excursus: Roland statues
and their meaning
Auf der Nordwestseite des Marktplatzes wurden einige Giebelhäuser im Renaissancestil nach dem Krieg wiederaufgebaut. Sie runden den harmonischen Gesamteindruck des Platzes ab, auch wenn sie allesamt Rekonstruktionen aus der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhhunderts sind.
Elder people and the Schütting
Opposite the town hall is the Renaissance building Schütting, today the seat of the Chamber of Commerce. It was built by the Bremer Elderleuten, the city's merchants. They also wanted to show their presence and the location opposite the town hall was ideal for this. The building that you can see today was erected in 1537/38 by the Antwerp master builder Johann de Buschener. The proportions are vaguely reminiscent of representative buildings from Flanders because of the two floors with the high windows and the high, steep gabled roof. The construction of the Schuetting began in the late Gothic period, this style can only be seen on the west gable. In addition, it is a Renaissance building that has been modified several times over the centuries. The biggest change was the relocation of the entrance portal to the middle of the facade in 1756 and its magnificent neo-baroque design in the 19th century with the saying of the Bremen merchants BUTEN UN BINNEN WAGEN UN WINNEN (outside and inside , dare and win).
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You can't visit the beautiful building from the inside, but you might have the opportunity at an open house. Guided tours are sometimes offered, but there are no regular appointments.
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The emergence of the Bremen citizenship
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The Bremische Bürgerschaft emerged in the post-Reformation period as a result of resentment among the urban lower classes against the ruling groups in the city - more precisely against the cathedral chapter, the mayors, the Bremen Council and the Eldermen.
The occasion was the use of the Bürgerweide (on which the Bremen Freimarkt takes place every year - one of the largest folk festivals in Germany to this day), which the above groups had arbitrarily divided among themselves, although no documented claim to use could be proven.
The four parishes of Bremen, electoral districts of underprivileged craftsmen, won a say in solving the usage problem by forcing the council and cathedral chapter, by threat of revolutionary means, to form a Bürgerweide committee consisting of 104 members, 26 from each of the four parishes . From 1532 onwards, this body had a sealed say in all city affairs and was the first Bremen citizenship.
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In summary, the market with its buildings is an architectural and urban expression of political and economic conditions and their changes over the centuries. There are few examples in Germany where one can study the connection between the development and emancipation of various interest groups and their representation in architecture as well as here in Bremen. This type of medieval culture existed only in northern Italy, apart from the Holy Roman Empire.
The Bremen Ratskeller
ancient wine cellar with special treasures
Bremen is not a wine region, but there is traditionally a lot of wine trading in port cities. As a result, all wines come together here, and the best remain in Bremen. Every year, the Ratskellermeister selects 150 wines from 3000 German wines, which are then sold from here.
The Bremen Council has had the right to sell wine since 1330. After the old town hall was built, the bar was moved to its basement. In addition, half a million bottles of wine are stored in a huge, 5000 sqm large wine cellar under the town hall stored in barrels that held half a million liters. The barrels are now empty and are not used anymore because today only bottles from the winegrowers are brought to Bremen, but the cellar is under heritage protection and so the barrels are still left remained.
In the associated traditional Bremer Ratskeller, also located in the cellar under the old town hall, 650 different wines are served, 1200 types of wine are on sale.
The oldest bottled wine is der Rüdesheimer Apostelwein from 1727. A liter of it costs 7142.86 euros (as of June 2022).Der oldest barrel-wine is a Rüdesheim wine from 1653.
Hanseatic citizens are characterized in a special way by elegant restraint and understatement, which is shown, among other things, by the fact that people from Bremen (and also from Hamburg) do not accept any medals or awards.
This is in contrast to the bourgeois spirit of the constitution, which states that a Hanseatic act according to the principle: "There is no master above you and no servant below you." The acceptance of an award or a medal is at least frowned upon by the Hanseatic League, even over the beyond retirement. Incidentally, the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen was the only federal state that voted against the Federal Cross of Merit Foundation in 1951. The Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen once stated in 1893: "It has been the custom from time immemorial that decorations are never accepted by Senate members, and so it is advisable - apart from other reasons - to stick to this for the sake of it. Also because the Bremen Senate is not in a position to return such courtesies.” This tradition was used to justify the refusal to introduce the Federal Cross of Merit.
However, since the city of Bremen would like to recognize the merits of some citizens , in such a case they give away a particularly valuable wine from the treasure chamber Ratskellers.
Bremen - not only fish and wine, but also coffee
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Bremen is Germany's capital of the fine food industry. Coffee and cocoa are imported via the Bremen ports and to this day every second coffee bean comes to us this way. The coffee trade also began in Bremen in 1673, when a Dutchman founded the first coffee house in the entire country. Many internationally renowned brands come from the Hanseatic city. Hardly any other city in Europe offers such a high density of major brand makers in the luxury food industry: Lloyd Azul, Eduscho, Hag, Onko, Tassimo, Jacobs, Melitta, Westhoff, Feodora, Hachez
At the peak of coffee industries in the early 1920s, there were around 250 coffee roasters in Bremen. Their situation became problematic when the supermarkets came along and the price of coffee fell; Roasteries merged or gave up.
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The industry now appears to be recovering on a smaller scale. Coffee roasters are popular and manufacturers in the specialty coffee segment are booming, barista seminars are popular.
Some coffee roasting companies are young and therefore the production facilities do not seem quite as traditional as one would imagine in an old Hanseatic city, but the city of Bremen presents some on its website. Some of them offer guided tours and tastings.
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https://www.bremen.de/leben-in-bremen/ Kaffeeroesterei
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However, anyone who thinks that there is a coffee roaster on every corner in Bremen is wrong. Small roasteries or barista shops offering latte art are a real rarity in the city center. Even if you consciously search for it, you hardly find anything and what you find is rather boring. There is a very chic shop in the Johann-Jacobs-Haus, but it looks more like a presentation room with tasting. They are large corporations whose production is outside the city center and is geared towards sales.
If you plan a coffee roastery tour on the weekend, still has the typical German idiosyncrasy of the opening hours than the Similar to gastronomy.
It would be better to cancel this plan for a weekend. You stand in front of closed doors at the counting houses and roasting plants.
The only coffee roastery in the city center that you happen to find is Büchners Beste Bohne on Böttcherstraße.
Böttcherstrasse
Expressionism and utopia of the Weimar period
Incidentally, the administrative headquarters of the Kaffee Hag company was at Böttcherstraße 6, a house that Ludwig Roselius, the founder of the Kaffee Hag company, acquired. Roselius later bought one dilapidated house after the other on Böttcherstraße and had the entire street rebuilt by architects Eduard Scotland, Alfred Runge and Bernhard Hoettger.
Today the street is an excellent example of expressionist architecture.
As early as 1937, the entire street was placed under monument protection, although such art was categorically rejected in the Third Reich and was considered degenerate.
In the Böttcherstraße you can still find the old original stained glass window advertisement for Kaffee Hag.
From the market you can go straight to Böttcherstrasse, another attraction in Bremen. It's a bit hidden, but only a few meters away. The short way there is to the left of the Schütting, through the Schüttingstraße and soon you will see the golden relief "Der Lichtbringer" by Bernhard Hoetger, which was embedded in the brick wall above the entrance to Böttcherstraße.
Böttcherstraße consists of several brick buildings that appear as an organic whole. Arcades, protruding parts of the building, niches, passages, towers and stairs structure the building. It is difficult to recognize individual houses in the whole, a few have gables and take up the traditional Hanseatic gable shape, others are connected by arcades to form a unit or appear organically fused with one another like the architecture of Hundertwasser. The entire street was built between 1922 and 1931 and is considered an excellent example of expressionist architecture. The spirit behind it corresponds to the time of the first third of the 20th century, when people were looking for solutions to the complex problems that capitalism and industrialization had created since the second half of the 19th century. Reform movements and cultural criticism found their echo in this search, capitalism and communism seemed to many to be unpromising prospects for the future, the city was seen as a place of distorted human life and the cry "out to the country" was popular. The hostility to the city and capitalism and their fight against modernity, liberality and rationality accompanied this philosophical irrationalism and conjured up the formless, flowing, indefinite and organic character of the world, human beings and life. In art, this school of thought found its expression above all in Art Nouveau and Expressionism. At the same time, this way of thinking, influenced by German-Romantic authors such as Fichte, Schelling and Arndt, developed increasingly nationalistic traits. This mixing of thought structures is difficult to comprehend nowadays.
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The architectural implementation of these utopian constructs can be found on Böttcherstrasse. The architects Alfred Runge, Bernhard Hoettger and Eduard Scotland were close to the Heimatschutz movement, later Hoettger and Scotland became members of the NSDAP. However, their view of art was by no means shared by the National Socialists, so that their buildings were severely condemned and classified as "degenerate" art. In 1937 Böttcherstrasse was nevertheless listed as a monument, not because it was intended to be honored, but because it was intended to be a particularly deterrent example of what was considered cultural and architectural art in the period before the seizure of power. Hoetger was expelled from the NSDAP. The Kaffee Hag founder Ludwig Roselius, on whose initiative the entire Böttcherstrasse was founded, was also close to the National Socialists. How ambivalent the attitude of this person is can be understood from his contacts. He socialized with socialists, Hohenzollerns, National Socialists, Jews and had the Paula Modersohn Becker House built on Böttcherstrasse, the first museum dedicated exclusively to a woman. Roselius believed in the Nordic-Germanic body of thought reflected in the ideologies of Julius Langbehn, the author of the then bestseller "Rembrandt as Educator", a reading which was also read by the Worpswede painters.
The Schnoor district
pretty little colorful houses
In Bremen, the sights are not connected with each other, but are scattered around the city like islands. It can therefore happen that you overlook a few things and, after visiting the market square, get the impression that you are already finished with Bremen. But you are completely wrong.
You shouldn't miss the Schnoor.
The picturesque quarter is only about five minutes away from Böttcherstraße or the market. Go east, cross Balgebrückstraße and get to the quarter via "Hohe Straße" or "Lange Wieren" and soon the small, colorful houses will start.
The Schnoorviertel is the oldest part of Bremen, it was formerly inhabited by craftsmen and river fishermen. Today tourists will find many small shops, artisans, some restaurants, cafes and of course countless photo opportunities there.
The Easter Gate District
if you are looking for pubs and restaurants
If you don't feel like tourist hot spots like the Schnoor, you can move on to the Ostertorviertel, Bremen 's nightlife district.
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Here, too, it is easy to overlook this district as a foreigner, since Bremen's highlights are not connected. Perhaps you are already heading in the right direction on your exploration tour, but have the impression that there is not much to come, turn around and miss something interesting.
The way to the Ostertorviertel is very easy. From the market, simply pass the cathedral and follow Domsheide street, which later changes its name to Ostertorstraße. It goes straight ahead, the street is now called Am Wall and then Ostertorsteinweg.
On the way there you cross the former ramparts, which were transformed into a park between 1803 and 1811, which surrounds the entire city center . A walk along the park is another option to get to know Bremen and people with a soft spot for beautiful residential areas will get their money's worth.
The Bremen culture mile begins in the park, consisting of the Bremer Kunsthalle, the adjoining classical gate ensemble of the Ostertorwache opposite on both sides of the street. In one of the two buildings, dem Gerhard-Marcks-Haus, there is a museum for sculpture, in the other the Wilhelm-Wagenfeld-Haus, named after the Bauhaus designer Wagenfeld, whose famous Wagenfeld lamp bis today in many self-respecting households. The Theater am Goetheplatz follows on the right and then the pub scene begins with all variants of gastronomy.
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The Schlachte - beer garden atmosphere on the Weser
If you don't feel like an alternative atmosphere like in the Ostertorviertel, there is another area for gastronomy, the Schlachte. There you can sit in beer gardens on the Weser. You can reach the street by following the street "Stintbrücke" from the market square right from the Schütting. Behind the Schütting, turn right and soon the street will be called Bredestraße. Soon you can see the St. Martini Church and on the Weser, where the restaurant ship Alexander von Humboldt, a windjammer from 1906, is moored, the battle begins, initially as a promenade, but after a few walking meters the gastronomy comes. Incidentally, the name "Schlachte" has nothing to do with "slaughtering", but is derived from driving in piles for the purpose of bank reinforcement.
Bremen's beautiful residential area
and the typical Bremen house
In Bremen it is very worthwhile to leave the center and look at the residential areas. The houses are very different from other cities, because there is a special type of house, the Bremer house, which can be found everywhere.
These houses were built in terraced houses. Entrepreneurs built entire streets in one go. Monotony is avoided by numerous details and architectural elements.
The dominant style is classicism, historicism and art nouveau. The roofs are mostly not visible due to their low inclination and the simultaneously raised facade, i.e. an attic, which reinforces the classicistic impression, since the building looks as if it had a flat roof. The facade often ends with a roof cornice, also a classical decorative element.
Each house has a staircase leading to the front door on the mezzanine floor.
Next to it there is a small staircase to the servants' apartments in the basement.
A small front yard with a wrought iron fence is included in each house
upstream. Bay windows or wrought-iron conservatories or glazed verandas in front of the mezzanine are also popular.
There are gardens behind the houses, some with old, tall trees.
The spatial program on the mezzanine consists mostly of two large rooms, one facing the street and one facing the garden.
There is often ground-level access to the garden from the basement, since the streets were often filled up when the district was shot.
Because of the high ceilings and wooden floors, the houses are in high demand these days, especially since they are often in quiet areas close to the center.
Beautiful streets can be found in Schwachhausen, Ostertorviertel or in Neustadt.
Walks are worthwhile and there are also nice cafés in various places.
Bremen has a very high quality of living.
Bremerhaven
The German Emigration Center
a visit to a museum like a movie
The German Emigration Center is an impressive museum. It addresses emigration by sea from Bremerhafen to America by walking through staged exhibition rooms in which the circumstances of the emigrants are immediately comprehensible. It's like moving in a movie. The premises are designed with great attention to detail, so that one wonders whether film set designers were at work. During the walk through the museum, you experience the entire situation from embarkation to the crossing to arrival in the New World based on reconstructed real family stories. You can hear a lot, or just look at details, or let the atmosphere sink in, or admire the concept of the museum and its makers - the atmosphere is intense. The hall with the harbor scene is one of the first highlights and maybe that's why it stays in one's mind for a long time. You enter a nocturnal harbor scene, the quay is illuminated by nostalgic lamps, a huge, riveted ship's hull rises out of the turbulent harbor water and the emigrants of the 19th century stand on the quay - silent, expectant, anxious, full of hope, full of melancholy - you can feel it really the mixed feelings, the irreversibility of the decision - and is impressed. The whole thing is accompanied by harbor noises, metal that screeches rubbing against each other and you soak up the mood. You finally go up the gangway yourself and disappear into the hull of the ship, where you then experience the circumstances of the crossing, the cramped and miserable third class, the illnesses on board, the hardships, the hygienic conditions. It's all haunting when you hear virtual passengers coughing in the cramped cabins and wonder if there are serious illnesses on board.
Eventually you arrive in America and even as a visitor you experience an almost liberating feeling, a relief that you've made it, when you finally stand in a New York general store or in a saloon.
Eventually you arrive in America and even as a visitor you experience the feeling of liberation, the feeling of having made it, when you finally stand in a New York general store or in a saloon. ​ The emigration destinations were not only in the USA, but also in Argentina, Brazil and Australia. and so many ships went to Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo or even to Melbourne. ​ The museum was opened in 2005 and focuses on emigration via Bremerhaven, after all the largest emigration port in Europe, through which seven million people started their journey to the New World. The tour begins in a replica of the North German Lloyd waiting room, as it was only a few meters from the site of today's museum, namely where the zoo by the sea is today. So you are right at the New Port, where the tourists romp, where you can find museum ships and lots of restaurants. ​ In 2007 the museum was voted the best museum in Europe 2007. It illuminates an important part of German history and now has a radiance far beyond the borders of Bremerhaven. The topic affects all of Germany and therefore the Emigration Center is less a regional museum than a museum that affects all of Germany. ​ In 2012, the museum was expanded to include a section on immigration, ranging from the Huguenots to the present-day Ukrainians. ​ The entrance fee is high at 18.50 euros per adult, but it's worth it.