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BREMEN

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 494 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BREMEN , a See also:

city of See also:Germany, See also:capital of the See also:free See also:state of Bremen, and one of the Hanseatic towns. It lies on a sandy See also:plain on both See also:banks of the See also:Weser, 46 m. from the See also:North See also:Sea and 71 m. S.W. from See also:Hamburg by See also:rail, on the See also:main See also:line to See also:Cologne. Pop. (1905) 214,953. It has also See also:direct railway communication with See also:Berlin via See also:Uelzen, See also:Hanover and See also:Bremerhaven. The city consists of four quarters,—the old See also:town (Altstadt) and its suburban extensions (Vorstadt) being on the right See also:bank of the See also:river, and the new town (See also:Neustadt) with its See also:southern suburb (Siidervorstadt) on the See also:left bank. The river is crossed by three See also:bridges, the old, the new (1872–1875) Kaiserbriicke, and the railway See also:bridge, with a gangway for See also:foot passengers. The ramparts of the old town have See also:long been converted into beautiful promenades and gardens, the moats forming a See also:chain of lakes. The romantic old town, with its winding streets and lanes, flanked by massive gabled houses, See also:dates from the See also:medieval days of Hanseatic prosperity. On the See also:market square stands the See also:fine town See also:hall (Rathaus), dating from the 15th See also:century, with a See also:hand-some See also:Renaissance See also:facade of a somewhat later date, and before it a See also:stone statue of See also:Roland, the See also:emblem of civic See also:power. Its celebrated underground See also:wine cellar has been immortalized by Wilhelm See also:Hauff in his Phantasien See also:im See also:Bremer Ratskeller.

The town hall is internally richly embellished and has a See also:

gallery of interesting paintings. In an upper hall a See also:model of an old Hanseatic See also:frigate, with the See also:device Navigare necesse est, vivere non est necesse, hangs from the See also:ceiling. Among other See also:ancient buildings, situated chiefly in the old town, are the following: the See also:cathedral of St See also:Peter (formerly the archiepiscopal and now the Lutheran See also:parish See also:church), erected in the 12th century on the site of See also:Charlemagne's wooden church, and famous for its Bleikeller, or See also:lead vault, in which bodies can be preserved for a long See also:time without suffering decomposition; the church of St Ansgarius, built about 1243, with a See also:spire 400 ft. high; the church of Our See also:Lady, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries; the 12th century Romanesque church of St See also:Stephen; the Schiitting, or merchants' hall, origin-ally built in 1619 for the See also:cloth-traders' gild; the Stadthaus (town See also:house), formerly the archiepiscopal See also:palace, and converted to its See also:present uses only in 1819. The most important and imposing among the more See also:modern architectural additions to the city are the handsome See also:Gothic See also:exchange, completed in 1867, the municipal See also:theatre, the municipal library, the See also:post See also:office (1878), the See also:law courts (1891–1895), the See also:wool exchange, the See also:German bank, the municipal museum for natural See also:science, See also:ethnology and See also:commerce, and the fine railway station (1888). The See also:principal memorials embrace, besides the Roland, the Willehad See also:fountain (1883), the See also:monument of the Franco-German See also:War (erected 1875), the centaur fountain (1891), an equestrian statue of the See also:emperor See also:William I. (1893), and a statue of the poet Theodor Korner. A beautiful See also:park, Burgerpark, has been laid out in the Burgerweide, or meadows, lying beyond the railway station to the north-See also:east of the city. It is a peculiarity of the domestic See also:accommodation of Bremen that the See also:majority of the houses, unlike the See also:custom in most other German towns, where flats prevail, are occupied by a single See also:family only. The See also:industries and manufactures of Bremen are of considerable variety and extent, but are more particularly See also:developed in such branches as are closely allied to See also:navigation, such as See also:shipbuilding, See also:founding, See also:engine-See also:building and rope-making. Next in importance come those of See also:tobacco, See also:snuff, cigars, the making of See also:cigar boxes, jute-See also:spinning, distilling, See also:sugar refining and the shelling of See also:rice. Bremen owes its fame almost exclusively to its transmaritime See also:trade, mainly imports. By the completion of the See also:engineering See also:works on the Weser in 1887–1899, whereby, among other improvements, the river was straightened and deepened. to 18 ft., large ocean-going vessels are able to See also:steam right up to the city itself.

It has excellent railway connexions with the See also:

chief See also:industrial districts of Germany. Like Hamburg, it does pre-dominantly a transit trade; it is especially important as the importer of raw products from See also:America. In two articles, tobacco and rice, Bremen is the greatest market in the See also:world; in See also:cotton and See also:indigo it takes the first See also:place on the See also:continent, and it is a serious See also:rival of Hamburg and See also:Antwerp in the import of wool and See also:petroleum. The value of the See also:total imports (both sea-See also:borne and by river and rail) increased from £22i721,700 in 1883 to about £6o,000,000 in 1905; the imports from the See also:United States, from .£9,755,000 in 1883 to about £25,000,000 in 1905. The countries from which imports principally come are the United States, See also:England, Germany, See also:Russia, the republics of See also:South America, the Far East and See also:Australia. The exports See also:rose from a total of £26,096,500 in 1883 to £62,000,000 in 1905. The number of vessels which entered the ports of the free state (i.e. Bremen city, Bremerhaven and Vegesack) increased from 2869 of 1,258,529 aggregate See also:tonnage in 1883, to 4024 of 2,716,633 tons in 1900. Bremen is the centre for some of the more important of the German See also:shipping companies, especially of the North German See also:Lloyd (founded in 1856), which, on the 1st of See also:January 1905, possessed a See also:fleet of 382 steamers of 693,892 tons, besides lighters and similar See also:craft. Bremen also shares with Hamburg the position of being one of the two chief See also:emigration ports of Germany. There are three docks, all to the north-See also:west of the city—namely, the free See also:harbour (which was opened in 1888), the See also:winter harbour, and the See also:timber and industrial harbour. See also:Internal communication is served by an excellent See also:system of electric tramways, and there is also a See also:local steamboat service with neighbouring villages on the Weser.

Phoenix-squares

See also:

History.—According to See also:Brandes, quoting See also:Martin See also:Luther in the See also:Lexicon Philologicum, the name is derived from Bram, Bram, i.e. hem = the river-bank, or confine of the See also:land on which it was built. In 787 Bremen was chosen by St Willehad, whom Charlemagne had established as See also:bishop in the pagi of the See also:lower Weser, as his see. In 848 the destruction of Hamburg by the See also:Normans led to the transference of the archiepiscopal see of Hamburg to Bremen, which became the seat of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen. In 965 the emperor See also:Otto I. granted to See also:Archbishop Adaldag " in the place called Bremen " (in loco Bremun nuncupato) the right to establish a market, and the full administrative, fiscal and judicial See also:powers of a See also:count, no one but the bishop or his advocatus being allowed to exercise authority in the city. This See also:privilege, by which the archbishop was See also:lord of the city and his See also:Vogt its See also:judge, was frequently confirmed by subsequent emperors, ending under See also:Frederick I. in 1158. Though, however, there is no direct See also:evidence of the existence of any communal organization during this See also:period, it is clear from the vigorous See also:part taken by the burghers in the struggle of the emperor Frederick with See also:Henry the See also:Lion of See also:Saxony that some such organization very See also:early existed. Yet in the privilegium granted to the townspeople by Frederick I. in 1186 the emperor had done no more than See also:guarantee them their See also:personal liberties. The earliest recognition of any civic organization they may have possessed they owed to Archbishop Hartwig II. (1184–1207), who had succeeded in uniting against him his See also:chapter, the nobles and the citizens; and the first mention of the city See also:council occurs in a See also:charter of See also:Arch-bishop See also:Gerhard II. in 1225, though the consules here named doubtless represented a considerably older institution. In the 13th century, however, whatever the civic organization of the townsfolk may have been, it was still strictly subordinate to the archbishop and his Vogt; the council could issue regulations only with the consent of the former, while in the judicial See also:work of the latter, See also:save . in small questions of commercial dishonesty, its See also:sole See also:function was advisory. By the See also:middle of the 14th century this situation was exactly reversed; the elected town council was the supreme legislative power in all criminal and See also:civil causes, and in the See also:court of the advocatus two Ratsmanner sat as assessors. The victory had been won over the archbishop; but a fresh peril had developed in the course of the 13th century in the growth of a patrician class, which, as in so many other cities, threatened to absorb all power into the hands of a See also:close See also:oligarchy.

In 1304 the commonalty rose against the See also:

patricians and drove them from the city, and in the following See also:year gained a victory over the exiles and their See also:allies, the knights, which was long celebrated by an See also:annual service of thanksgiving. This was the beginning of troubles that lasted intermittently throughout the century. Bremen had been admitted to the Hanseatic See also:league in 1283, but was excluded in 1285, and not readmitted until 1358. Owing to the continued civic unrest it was again excluded in 1427, and only readmitted in 1433 when the old aristocratic constitution was definitively restored. But though in Bremen the efforts of the craftsmen's " arts " to secure a See also:share of power had been held in check and the See also:gilds never gained any importance, the city See also:government did not, as at Cologne and elsewhere, develop into a close patrician oligarchy. Power was in the hands of the wealthy, but the avenues to power were open to those who knew how to acquire the necessary qualification. There was thus no artificial See also:restraint put upon individual enterprise, and the question of the government having been settled, Bremen rapidly developed in See also:wealth and See also:influence. The See also:Reformation was introduced into Bremen in 1522 by Heinrich von See also:Zutphen. Archbishop See also:Christopher of See also:Brunswick-See also:Wolfenbuttel (1487–1558), a brutal libertine, hated for his lusts and avarice, looked on the reforming See also:movement as a revolt against himself. He succeeded in getting the reformer burned; but found himself involved in a See also:life and See also:death struggle with the city. In 1532 Bremen joined the league of See also:Schmalkalden, and twice endured a See also:siege by the imperial forces. In 1547 it was only saved by See also:Mansfeld's victory at Drakenburg.

Archbishop Christopher was succeeded in 1558 by his See also:

brother Georg, bishop of See also:Minden (d. 1566), who, though he himself was instrumental in introducing the reformed model into his other See also:diocese of See also:Verden, is reckoned as the last See also:Roman See also:Catholic archbishop of Bremen. His successor, Henry III. (1550-'1585), a son of See also:Duke See also:Francis I. of See also:Lauenburg, who had been bishop of See also:Osnabruck and See also:Paderborn, was a Lutheran and married. Protestantism was not, however, definitively proclaimed as the state See also:religion in Bremen until 1618. The last archbishop, Frederick II. (of See also:Denmark), was deposed by the Swedes in 1644. In 1646 Bremen received the privileges of a free imperial city from the emperor See also:Ferdinand III.; but See also:Sweden, whose See also:possession of the archbishopric was recognized two years later, refused to consent to this, and in 1666 attempted vainly to assert her claims over the city by arms—in the so-called Bremen War. When, however, in 1720 the elector of Hanover (See also:George I. of See also:Great See also:Britain) acquired the archbishopric, he recognized Bremen as a free city. In 1803 this was again recognized and the territory of the city was even extended. In 1806 it was taken by the See also:French, was subsequently annexed by See also:Napoleon to his See also:empire, and from 18ro to 1813 was the capital of the See also:department of the Mouths of the Weser. Restored to See also:independence by the See also:congress of See also:Vienna in 1815, it subsequently became a member of the German See also:Confederation, and in 1867 joined the new North German Confederation, with which it was merged in the new German empire.

See Buchenau, See also:

Die freie Hansestadt Bremen (3rd ed., Bremen, 1900, 5 vols.) ; Bremisches Urkundenbuch, edited by R. Ehmck and W. von Bippen (1863, fol.); W. von Bippen, Geschichte der Stadt Bremen (Bremen, 1892–1898) ; F. Donandt, Versuch einer Geschichte See also:des bremischen Stadtrechts (Bremen, 1830, 2 vols.) ; Bremisches Jahrbuch (See also:historical, 19 vols., 1864–1900) ; and Karl See also:Hegel, Stadee and Gilden, vol. ii. p. 461 (See also:Leipzig, 1891).

End of Article: BREMEN

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