Freie Hansestadt Bremen

The story of Freie Hansestadt Bremen

Start on Bremen's market square with the Gothic town hall and the Roland, a stone knight who has guarded the city's freedom since 1404. The Böttcherstraße, a small street of expressionist brick, holds the Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, the first museum in the world devoted to a woman painter. The Kunsthalle shows art from Dürer to Monet, and the Übersee-Museum takes you to Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania. Then wander through the Schnoor, the old fishermen's quarter with its tiny houses. In Bremerhaven, the German Emigration Center follows millions who sailed for America, and the German Maritime Museum keeps a real Hanseatic cog from 1380. Bremen food is northern and warming: Kohl und Pinkel (kale with smoky sausage) in winter, Knipp, a fried oat-and-meat slice, and Bremer Klaben, a fruit bread for Christmas. In October the Freimarkt, held since 1035, is one of the oldest fairs in Germany, and in December the Christmas market spreads along the river at the Schlachte.