City context

Bremen in north-west Germany is located on the River Weser, which reaches the North Sea some 60km down river (see Figure 6.1). The city of Bremen (population 548,000) and its downriver sister-city of Bremerhaven (population 117,000) form the city-state of Bremen. Under the German federal system, the city-state has regional government powers. The city-state of Bremen is governed by a senate with legislative powers bestowed on their Burgerschaft (parliament). In this chapter we focus mainly on the City of Bremen. Where necessary, we will distinguish between city-state and city level.

The first settlements in Bremen date back to the 1st century AD. In the 13th and 14th century, Bremen was an intermittent member of the prosperous Hanseatic League, an important late-medieval trading union with its economic centre in the Baltic Sea region. Its special political and legislative status – as an independent city-state – gave it a high degree of sovereignty from the 17th century onwards. After the unification of Germany in 1871, Bremen was formally recognised as a city-state with the official title of Free and Hanseatic City of Bremen.

Urban development only began in earnest in the 1800s. Harbour and trade-related activities sustained the economic development of the city, facilitated by Bremen's location at a ford on a navigable river with easy access to the sea. From the early 19th century, Bremen's commercial elite pressed for expansion of the harbours. The result was the foundation of the coastal town Bremerhaven in 1827. The new port facilities in this Bremen enclave were to guarantee the access of larger ships. In 1888, the large overseas harbour was built just north of the city as a response to advances in shipping technologies and in order to create a free trade zone, outside the tariff union of the new German nation-state founded in 1871.

Industrialisation and booming overseas trade fuelled a rapid growth in population, from 100,000 in 1880 to nearly 350,000 by 1930 (see Figure 6.2). This growth, and the consequent housing demand, catalysed rapid expansion of the built-up area and transformed the medieval city. Figures 6.3a-b shows the layout of Bremen at the end of the medieval era and at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, Bremen's harbour is the second largest in Germany, fourth in Europe and the 22nd largest in the world.