Bremen

in full Freie Hansestadt Bremen (German: Free Hanseatic City-State of Bremen), Gemeinde (commune), Kreisfrei Stadt (county town), and capital of the Land (state) of Bremen, which comprises the two cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven, Germany. It is situated on the Weser River some 43 miles (70 km) from the North Sea, is one of the largest ports of Germany, and is one of the more dynamic of that nation's cities. Bremen is also one of the major industrial cities of northern Europe. Together with the port of Bremerhaven, situated 37 miles (60 km) to the north, it forms the smallest (in area and population) of the Länder of Germany but is of vital economic significance. This article describes both the Land and the city that dominates it.

The earliest settlement (called Breme or Bremum) on the right bank of the river was favoured by an advantageous position at the junction of important early trading routes from the Rhine River to the Elbe and from the North Sea to southern Germany. In 787 Charlemagne, the Western (Holy Roman) emperor, established the diocese of Bremen (to become an archbishopric in 845), which became the base for missionary activity covering the whole of northern Europe. The market rights—including customs and coinage—that were conferred on Bremen in 965 brought increased mercantile activity, and the young city soon became one of the commanding religious and economic centres of northern Germany, especially after entering the Hanseatic League—an economic and political association of the rising urban mercantile class—in 1358. The imperial free city, as Bremen became known, occupying a strongly fortified position on either side of the Weser, defended its independence in the Thirty Years' War (1618–48) and later repelled both Swedish and Hanoverian aggression. As an autonomous republic—the oldest in Germany—it joined the German Confederation in 1815 and the reconstituted German Empire in 1871. It attained increasing economic importance as a leader in international trade and world shipping by entering the German customs union (Zollverein) in 1888, through expanding its port facilities, and by developing manufacturing industry.

The city of the late 20th century is an interesting amalgam of medieval and modern architecture. The outstanding features in the Altstadt, or Old Town, in the restored heart of the city, are the famous marketplace with its 11th-century cathedral; the Gothic Town Hall with its Renaissance facade; the statue of Roland (1404), symbolizing market rights and imperial jurisdiction; a picturesque row of old, gabled houses; and the modern-style Parliament. Districts heavily bombed in World War II (69 percent of the houses were destroyed) have since been rebuilt, allowing for growing traffic and extensive public parks. About 3 miles from the city centre, the modern satellite town of Neue Vahr, built between 1957 and 1962, is one of a ring of peripheral settlements that have coalesced with the expanding and dynamic city.