Bremen (state)

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 Bremerhaven (Stadt Bremerhaven). Both are located on the River Weser; Bremerhaven ("Bremen's harbour") is further downstream on the mouth of the Weser with open access to the North Sea. Both enclaves are completely surrounded by the neighbouring State of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen). The highest point in the state is in Friedehorst Park (32.5m).

The territory of Bremen in the 14th and 18th centuries

The territory of Bremen since 1800

When the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806, the Free Imperial City 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 (until 1873). In 1811, the First French Empire annexed the city-state in an effort to enforce Napoleon's Berlin Decree, closing the European continent to British trade.

At the Congress of Vienna of 1815, Bremen's emissary, and later burgomaster, Johann Smidt, lobbied successfully to have the city's independence confirmed as one of the 39 sovereign states within the new German Confederation.

In 1827, Bremen bought land at the mouth of the Weser from the Kingdom of Hanover, in order to build a new seaport, Bremerhaven. 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's defeat of Austria and its annexation of Hanover, Bremen joined the North German Confederation 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.[4] In November 1932, at the last broadly free election of the Weimar Republic, the Social Democrats won 31.2% of the vote, and the Communists (KPD) 16.8%, compared to 20.8% for the Nazis.[5][6]

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%),[5] 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. During these years, Bremen's small Jewish community (1,438 people registered at the beginning of 1933)[7] 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 Lashmer Whistler 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 in west Berlin 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, informally referred to as "West Germany" until 1990.

Bremen's post-World War II economy boomed in line with the West German Wirtschaftswunder of the 1950s and 60s. This saw the growth, and permanent settlement, in Bremen of a large migrant worker population, drawn largely from Turkey 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 (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 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.[15]

With financial assistance from the European Union, 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.[15]

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.[2]

The unemployment rate stood at 9.5% in October 2018 and was the highest of all 16 German states.[16]

The University of Bremen 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, a University of Applied Sciences with campuses in both Bremen city and Bremerhaven, and more recently the Jacobs University Bremen, an international research university located in Vegesack.

• Bombing of Bremen in World War II
• Former countries in Europe after 1815
• Timeline of Bremen (city) history

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bremen (state).

• Official state portal
• Official governmental portal
• Constitution of the state, German only
• Geographic data related to Bremen (state) at OpenStreetMap