Bremen (state)


Bremen, officially the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, is the smallest and least populous of Germany's 16 states. It is informally called Land Bremen, although this is sometimes used in official contexts. The state consists of the city of Bremen as well as the small exclave of Bremerhaven in Northern Germany, surrounded by the larger state of Lower Saxony.

Geography

The state of Bremen consists of two separated enclaves. These enclaves contain Bremen, officially the 'City' which is the state capital, and the city of Bremerhaven. Both are located on the River Weser; Bremerhaven is further downstream than the main parts of Bremen and serves as a North Sea harbour. Both enclaves are completely surrounded by the neighbouring State of Lower Saxony. The two cities are the only administrative subdivisions the state has.
The highest point in the state is in Friedehorst Park.

History

At the unwinding of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 the Free Imperial City of Bremen was not mediatised but became a sovereign state officially titled Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Its currency was the Bremen thaler. In 1811 the First French Empire annexed the city-state. Upon the first, albeit only preliminary, defeat of Napoléon Bonaparte, Bremen resumed its pre-1811 status as city-state in 1813.
The Vienna Congress of 1815 confirmed Bremen's—as well as Frankfurt's, Hamburg's, and Lübeck's—independence after pressuring by Bremen's emissary, and later burgomaster, Johann Smidt. Bremen became one of 39 sovereign states of the German Confederation. In 1827 the state of Bremen bought the tract of land from the Kingdom of Hanover, where future Bremerhaven would be established. Bremen became part of the North German Confederation in 1867 and became an autonomous component state of the newly founded German Empire in 1871 and stayed with Germany in its following forms of government.
Bremen, which in 1935 had become a regular city at the de facto abolition of statehood of all component German states within the Third Reich, was reestablished as a state in 1947. Being—at that time—actually located in the British Zone of Occupation the Control Commission for Germany - British Element and the Office of Military Government for Germany, U.S. agreed in 1947 to constitute the cities of Bremen and then Wesermünde—in their borders altered in 1939—as a German state named again Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, becoming at that occasion an exclave of the American Zone of Occupation within the British zone. In 1949 the city-state joined the then West German Federal Republic of Germany.

Politics

Political system

The legislature of the state of Bremen is the 83-member Bürgerschaft, elected by the citizens in the two cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven.
The executive is constituted by the Senate of Bremen, elected by the Bürgerschaft. The Senate is chaired by the President of the senate, who is also one of the mayors of the city of Bremen and is elected directly by the Bürgerschaft. The Senate selects of its members as a second mayor who serves as deputy of the president. In contrast to the Federal Chancellor of Germany or other German states, the President of the Senate has no authority to override senators on policy, which is decided upon by the senate collectively. Since 1945, the Senate has continuously been dominated by the Social Democratic Party.
On a municipal level, the two cities in the state are administered separately:
The political majorities in Bremen are based on a traditionally self-awareness of the Bremensians as liberal and open minded people. It is influenced historically by the pride to be an independent hanseatic city. Beside a trade-based class of merchants, in post-war Bremen, there was a majority of working class people, working at the shipyards. Since the 1990s the maritime industry has become more and more insignificant, but the priority to social themes in politics has remained.
Since the founding of the state of Bremen 1947, it has been ruled by a social democratic prime-minister. Comedian Jan Böhmermann, born and raised in Bremen said ironically that nobody in Bremen knowns anymore if there is a legislation or if it is just a scientific law that the mayor is always from the SPD.
Historically the SPD has formed coalitions with FDP, CDU, Grüne and Linke.
The 2019 Bremen state election was held on 26 May 2019 to elect the members of the Bürgerschaft of Bremen, as well as the city councils of Bremen and Bremerhaven. The election took place on the same day as the 2019 European Parliament election. The Christian Democratic Union became the largest party in the Bürgerschaft, while the Social Democratic Party fell to second place. The Greens and The Left made small gains. After the election, the SPD, Greens, and Left agreed to form a coalition government. Carsten Sieling resigned as mayor and was replaced by fellow SPD member Andreas Bovenschulte.
Summary of the 26 May 2019 election results for the Bürgerschaft of Bremen
! rowspan="2" colspan="2" | Party
! rowspan="2" | Votes
! rowspan="2" | %
! rowspan="2" | +/-
! colspan="2" | Seats
! rowspan="2" | Total
seats
! rowspan="2" | +/-
! rowspan="2" | Seats %
! Bremen
! Bremerhaven
! colspan=8|
! align=right colspan=2| Total
! align=right| 1,469,506
! align=right| 100.0
! align=right|
! align=right| 69
! align=right| 15
! align=right| 84
! align=right| 1
! align=right|
! align=right colspan=2| Voter turnout
! align=right|
! align=right| 64.1
! align=right| 13.9
! align=right|
! align=right|
! align=right|
! align=right|
! align=right|

Coat of arms

The coat of arms and flag of Bremen state include:

Economy

The unemployment rate stood at 9.5% in October 2018 and was the highest of all 16 German states.
Year200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017
Unemployment rate in %13.012.412.513.213.216.814.912.711.411.812.011.611.211.110.910.910.510.2

Education

The University of Bremen is the largest university in Bremen. Furthermore, Bremen has a University of the Arts Bremen, a University of Applied Sciences in Bremen and another one in Bremerhaven, and more recently the Jacobs University Bremen.