Bremen, one of the three free cities of Germany, is situated on the Weser, 39 miles by rail SSE. of its port, Bremerhaven, and 76 miles NW. of Hanover. Pop. (1875) 102,177; (1890) 124,955, or with suburbs, 145,000, nearly all Protestants. Bremen is divided into the Old and the New Town—the former on the right, the latter (dating from 1620) on the left bank of the river, which is spanned by four bridges. The ramparts and bastions round the old town have been levelled and formed into public promenades, which are laid out with excellent taste. Among the principal buildings, the cathedral (1043-70; reconstructed 13th to 17th centuries; being restored in 1888), the Gothic town-hall (1409), with its famous wine-cellar, said to contain hock of the vintage of 1624, the 'Schütting' or guildhall (1537), the exchange, the museum, the post-office, and the observatory of Dr Olbers, from which he discovered the planets Pallas and Vesta, are remarkable. Its position makes Bremen the emporium of Brunswick, Hesse, and other countries through which the Weser flows. Besides its excellent water-communication, it is connected by railways with the whole of Western and Central Germany. Bremen is an exceedingly thriving place, and now ranks as the second commercial city in Germany. Till of late all large vessels had to stop at Bremerhaven, and only ships not drawing more than 7 feet of water came up to the town itself; but a comprehensive scheme for the deepening of the river-bed, so as to allow the passage of ships drawing 16 feet of water, was carried out in 1885-95, at a cost of £1,500,000. Bremen carries on an extensive commerce with Great Britain, North and South America, the West Indies, Africa, the East Indies, and China. Its great foreign trade, however, is with the United States, from which alone it imports annually produce of the estimated value of £10,000,000, exporting in return goods to the value of about £5,000,000. Bremen ships about 50 per cent. of all emigrants sailing from Germany, principally to the United States. The total number of vessels arriving at Bremen annually is about 2500, with a tonnage of above 1,500,000 tons. The ships belonging to the port number about 400 (170 steamers) of a tonnage of 400,000 tons. The annual value of the imports is over £30,000,000, of exports £25,000,000. Bremen claims to be the first port in the world for the import of tobacco and rice; for cotton and indigo the first on the Continent; for wool and petroleum it fairly rivals Antwerp and Hamburg. In the year 1858 the imports were valued at only £8,237,000, and the exports at about £8,000,000. The chief imports are tobacco, coffee, sugar, cotton, rice, skins, dyewoods, wines, petroleum, timber, and hemp. The exports consist of woollen goods, linens, glass, rags, wool, hemp, hides, oil-cake, colours, and wooden toys. Large quantities of tobacco are re-exported. There are manufactures of woollens and cottons, cigars, paper, and starch, and breweries, distilleries, rice-mills, and sugar-refineries. The cigar and sugar manufactures have of late declined, the former owing to the increase of duty. Bremen is the headquarters of the North German Lloyd Steamship Company (1857), and has steam-communication with all parts of the world.
Bremen first became of historical note in the 8th century, when it was erected into a bishopric by Charlemagne. It soon attained considerable commercial importance, and became one of the principal cities of the Hanseatic League (q.v.). It frequently suffered at the hands of the French, and was in 1810 incorporated with that empire; but recovered its independence in 1813, and by the Congress of Vienna was admitted in 1815 as one of the Hanse towns into the Germanic confederation. In 1867 it became a member of the North German confederation, and now it forms part of the German empire. In 1884 it agreed to a surrender of its privileges as a free port, to take effect from 1st October 1888; but certain new docks and warehouses (the Freihafen Gebiet), as well as the Bremerhaven docks, are excepted from this arrangement. The area of the territory is about 100 sq. m.; pop., including the town of Bremen (1890) 179,714. The government is intrusted to a senate of 16 members, 2 of whom are chosen burgomasters, and to a municipal council of 150 burgesses.