Bremen: The Hanseatic City on the Weser

Bremen, the Free and Hanseatic City, was the principal port of the Hanseatic League on the Weser, and it was one of the three Hanseatic cities that survived as Free Hanseatic Cities into the modern era. The city was founded in 787, and it was the seat of an archbishopric from the ninth century onward. The archbishop was one of the most powerful ecclesiastical princes in northern Germany, and the archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen was, for several centuries, the ecclesiastical capital of the north.

Bremen was, in many ways, a different kind of Hanseatic city from Lübeck and Hamburg. The city was smaller, less wealthy, and less powerful than its two larger neighbours, and the city’s history was more closely tied to the archbishopric. But the city was also a major commercial centre, and the city’s merchants played an important role in the League’s trade with the West.

The founding of Bremen

Bremen was founded in 787 by Charlemagne, who built a fortress on the site of an earlier Saxon settlement to protect the northern frontier of his empire. The fortress was built on a hill above the Weser River, at the point where the river is joined by the Leine, and it gave its name to the city that grew up around it. The fortress was destroyed by the Vikings in the ninth century, but it was rebuilt several times in the following centuries, and the city survived and grew.

Bremen’s early history was closely tied to the archbishopric. The city’s archbishopric was established in 787, and the archbishop was, in the early Middle Ages, the principal ecclesiastical authority in northern Germany. In 831, the archbishopric of Bremen was merged with the archbishopric of Hamburg, and the archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen was, for several centuries, the ecclesiastical capital of the north. The archbishop’s authority extended over the missions to Scandinavia, to the Slavic lands, and to the Baltic.

A useful background: the archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen is the oldest Christian institution in northern Germany, predating even the city’s emergence as a major commercial centre. The archbishop was, in effect, the city’s feudal lord, and the city council was the commune that grew up against the lord. The relation between council and archbishop was, for centuries, the principal political question of the city.

Bremen and the League

Bremen joined the Hanseatic League in the late thirteenth century, and it quickly became an important member. The city’s merchants had long traded with England and the Netherlands, and the city’s privileges in these regions were extensive. The city’s principal trade was in wool and cloth, and the city’s merchants were the principal channel through which the goods of the Westphalian cities reached the markets of the North Sea.

Bremen’s role in the League was, however, more limited than that of Lübeck or Hamburg. The city was smaller and less wealthy than its two larger neighbours, and the city was often overshadowed by them. The city’s principal contribution to the League was its role as a gateway to the Westphalian cities and the Rhineland, and the city’s merchants were the principal channel through which the goods of these regions reached the North Sea.

A useful comparative: Bremen’s functional relationship to the League was similar to Hamburg’s, but on a smaller scale. Both cities were the North Sea-facing “western” counterparts of the Wendish cities; both relied on the archbishop for ecclesiastical legitimacy (Lübeck had no archbishop of its own); and both produced wool and cloth as their principal commercial output. But Bremen lacked Hamburg’s Atlantic ambition and Lübeck’s Baltic prestige, and the city never became the presiding city of the Hansetag or the League’s commercial capital.

The trade of Bremen

Bremen’s principal trade was with England, the Netherlands, and the Westphalian cities, and the city’s merchants were the principal channel through which the goods of these regions reached the North Sea. The city’s principal exports were the cloth of the Westphalian cities, the metal goods of the Harz mountains, and the agricultural products of the surrounding countryside. The city’s principal imports were the wool of England, the wine of the Rhineland, and the herring of the North Sea.

The trade of Bremen was closely linked to the trade of Hamburg. The two cities were the principal ports of the North Sea coast, and their merchants competed for the trade of the region. The competition was sometimes fierce, but the two cities also cooperated, and the relationship between them shaped the politics of the North Sea coast.

The political institutions of Bremen

Bremen was, in its internal politics, a more complicated case than Lübeck or Hamburg. The city was governed by a council, presided over by a number of Bürgermeister, and the council was elected by the city’s citizens. But the city’s archbishop also had a role in the government, and the relationship between the council and the archbishop was a constant source of tension.

The archbishop’s power was gradually reduced in the course of the Middle Ages, and by the fifteenth century the archbishop had only a ceremonial role. The archbishop’s palace, the Schlachte, was located in the city, and the archbishop maintained a small court, but the archbishop’s political power was essentially gone. The archbishop’s ecclesiastical power, however, remained, and the archbishop was, in principle, the spiritual head of the city’s citizens.

A specific note: the Bremen archbishopric dispute of the 16th–17th centuries (whether Bremen should be Lutheran or Catholic, and the rival claims of Lutheran and Catholic archbishops) is a story of its own. The dispute was part of the larger religious conflict of the Thirty Years War, and it was only resolved in 1646 with the Peace of Westphalia, by which Bremen became definitively Lutheran.

The architecture of Bremen

Bremen’s most famous building is the Rathaus, the town hall of the city, which stands on the market square and which is one of the most distinctive town halls in Germany. The Rathaus was built in the early fifteenth century, and it is a remarkable example of the Weser Renaissance style that developed in northern Germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Rathaus’s façade is decorated with reliefs and inscriptions, and its interior is decorated with paintings and woodcarvings.

A useful note: the Weser Renaissance is a regional style that developed in the Weser valley (Hesse, Lower Saxony, Westphalia) in the 16th and 17th centuries. The style is characterised by elaborately decorated gables, ornamental terracotta, and interior painting. Bremen’s Rathaus is the most famous example, but the style is also seen in buildings in Hamelin, Höxter, and other Weser towns.

Bremen’s other important medieval buildings include the Dom, the cathedral of the city, which was built in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and which is one of the oldest churches in northern Germany. The cathedral’s crypt houses the lead sarcophagus of the city’s patron saint, Willehad, who was the first bishop of Bremen. The cathedral’s tower, the Bleikeller, is one of the most distinctive features of the Bremen skyline.

Bremen as a free imperial city

Bremen was, from 1186 onward, a Free Imperial City, subject to the emperor alone and not to any intermediate lord. The city’s status as a Free Imperial City was confirmed by several imperial charters, and the city retained the status until 1806, when it was annexed by Napoleon’s empire. After the Napoleonic Wars, the city became a Free City of the German Confederation, and it was one of the four Free Cities of the German Empire until 1937.

A specific note: the Drei Hansestädte (the three Hanseatic Cities — Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen) lost their Free Imperial City status with the Gleichschaltung of 1934 and 1937. The three cities’ Hanseatic titles were, in a sense, the last vestiges of medieval municipal sovereignty in Germany, and their abolition in 1937 was a deliberate symbolic move on the part of the Nazi regime. Lübeck was, ironically, one of the first cities in which the regime had come to power via democratic elections (1932).

Bremen today

Bremen is today a city of about 570,000 inhabitants, and it is one of the most important commercial centres of northern Germany. The city, together with its outport Bremerhaven, has one of the largest ports in Germany, and the city’s economy is based on the port, on the automotive industry, on the food industry, and on the aerospace industry. The city’s Hanseatic heritage is celebrated in several museums, and in the Bremer Stadtmusikanten — the famous donkey-dog-cat-rooster statue that commemorates the Brothers Grimm fairy tale (see the article on the Bremen Town Musicians).