Bremen is an old city located inmidest the marshes of Northern Germany. It
is the smallest state of the Federal Republic of Germany. Only 15% of
the area is free from annual floods (dunes and sandy costal regions). The
remaining parts of the city are secured by dikes and drainages mechanisms. In former times
those institutions did not exist, the city could only develop itself on the
ridge of a dune along the river Weser, so the city measured about 40 km in
length, but only 1 km in breadth. Due to the central location in the marshes
and on the river Weser Bremen developed to a major sea trade center
along with other cities
(Hanse). It has still the position of a crossing
point for oversea trade.
250 years ago the city contained only "Altstadt" and the "Neustadt" of nowadays. From 1821 to 1848 the population of Bremen increased from 54,000 to 78,000 and more and more inhabitants settled at the outskirts. Since the building of the train station (1847), the expanding of the harbours in the northwest of the city (1888) and the industrialisation after the fall of the custom barriers the city area and the population increased extremly. Until 1905 261,000 people lived in Bremen. Unlike other cities Bremen did not build tenement houses but developed the typical "Bremer Haus". 1939 had 450,000 inhabitans. It was not until the bombs destroyed the old houses in the World War 2 that architects started to build apartment houses and skyscrapers (Osterholz-Tenever).
Additional information concerning Bremen:
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