There’s so much more to Bremen than just Beck’s beer
There’s more to Bremen than just Beck’s beer Nancy Truman
In Bremen’s marketplace, the massive Romanesque/early Gothic St. Petri Dom, with its twin Rhenish-helmet-capped spires towering overhead, stops me in my tracks — not unlike when I first saw the imposing white Duomo at the heart of Milan, or the Notre Dame in Paris, or even the restored Dom of Cologne. Though austere, the inside is worth a peek. You can also climb the south tower for a panoramic view of Bremen and visit the eight mummies in the lead cellar below the nave.
Bremen, which straddles the Weser River in the northwest and is home to Beck’s beer, is one of two cities comprising Germany’s smallest federal state. The other is Bremerhaven, 60 km down river at the North Sea and 1,000 years younger. Both cities offer way more than good beer: especially when it comes to art and culture.
In Bremen’s market square, 2,000 brass and steel buttons embedded in the cobblestones are like breadcrumbs leading visitors to discover its history, as well as art galleries, shops and restaurants. A member of the powerful Hanseatic League — a confederation of merchant guilds from some 160 cities across Northern Europe that dominated trade from the 13th century to the beginning of the 18th century — Bremen luckily still has mementos of its past. A 15th century Gothic town hall, and 17th century ornate upper hall bear witness to the city’s wealth and prominence. The upper hall’s ornate council chambers and reception room — seen only on a guided tour — has historic battleship models suspended from the ceiling and large murals made up of proverbs and allegorical pictures. The town hall and a 5.5-metre-tall statue of Roland — nephew of the first Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne and a hero of independence for many Hanseatic states — facing St. Petri, were designated UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2004 as outstanding examples of civic autonomy and sovereignty.
Deep in the Ratskeller, vaults from 1405 hold the world’s largest collection of German vintage wines, including the oldest drinkable wines. In the Rose Cellar, master vintner KarlJ osef Krötz offers a glass of Riesling, quickly noting it’s not from the vast cask dominating the cave: The Rüdesheimer white 1653 was last tasted by Queen Elizabeth in 1974. The oldest bottled wine — a Rüdesheimer Apostelkeller 1727 stored in the Apostles’ Cellar in 12 ancient casks — was awarded 100 points by Robert Parker and sells for 1,500 (C$2,263) a bottle.
At Gerhard Marcks’ 1953 bronze statue of The Bremen Town Musicians in the courtyard, you’ll find tourists queuing for a selfie — grasp the donkey’s front legs with both hands for good luck; using one, locals say, is like two donkeys shaking hands. The Brothers Grimm fairytale about four disparate animals — a donkey, cat, dog and rooster — that set out to become musicians in Bremen, but along the way chase a gang of thieves out of their house with their “music,” became an allegory for what can be achieved through cooperation. In front of the state legislature building, an underground collection box for the city’s less fortunate — easily mistaken for a small brass sewer cover — crows, meows, barks or brays when fed coins.
Nearby, a gilt relief titled “Bringer of Light” points the way to the bustling Art Deco Böttcherstrasse — a laneway connecting the marketplace to the Weser River, where tourists mingle with locals, browsing the shops for a special souvenir, perhaps a blue-and-white striped bag of loose-leaf tea from Tee-Handels-Kontor Bremen, or a jar of colourful hard candies made on site at Bremen Bonbon Manufactur.
Created in the late 1920s by local coffee merchant Ludwig Roselius and architects Bernhard Hoetger, Eduard Scotland and Alfred Runge, Roselius’s daughter initiated its reconstruction after the Second World War from his original blueprints. The jewel of the Böttcherstrasse is the Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, the world’s first gallery dedicated to the work of a female painter. Hoetger, who was her friend, designed the building and Roselius pulled together a collection of her work. In her short life, Modersohn-Becker produced a lot of paintings, many of which are housed here.
Down river at Bremerhaven, the port is bustling anew with tourists and locals who come for two exciting interactive museums — Deutsches Auswanderer Haus and Klimahaus Bremerhaven 8° Ost. Built on the site where the New Harbor departure centre stood for 120 years, visitors to the Deutsches Auswanderer Haus take a simulated journey to North America with an emigrant. At Klimahaus Bremerhaven 8° Ost, visitors travel through nine communities on five continents along Longitude East 8 to learn how climate change is influencing them.