Bremen

Bremen (), or }} officially the City Municipality of Bremen,, }} is the capital of the German state of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. With about 577,000 inhabitants, the Hanseatic city is the 11th-largest city of Germany and the second-largest city in Northern Germany after Hamburg.

Bremen is the largest city on the River Weser, the longest river flowing entirely in Germany, lying some upstream from its mouth into the North Sea at Bremerhaven, and is completely surrounded by the state of Lower Saxony. Bremen is the centre of the Northwest Metropolitan Region, which also includes the cities of Oldenburg and Bremerhaven, and has a population of around 2.8 million people. Bremen is contiguous with the Lower Saxon towns of Delmenhorst, Stuhr, Achim, Weyhe, Schwanewede and Lilienthal. There is an exclave of Bremen in Bremerhaven, the "Citybremian Overseas Port Area Bremerhaven" (). Bremen is the fourth-largest city in the Low German dialect area after Hamburg, Dortmund and Essen.

The city traces its origins to a settlement in the early Middle Ages and became the seat of a bishopric in 787. During the High Middle Ages, Bremen grew into a flourishing trading center and joined the Hanseatic League in the 13th century, establishing commercial links across Northern Europe. Its autonomy as a free imperial city was recognised within the Holy Roman Empire, and despite periods of conflict, Bremen retained a strong civic identity. In later centuries, the city developed into a key hub for shipping and overseas trade, contributing to Germany’s maritime economy.

Bremen is a major cultural and economic hub of Northern Germany. The city hosts a variety of galleries and museums, ranging from historical sculptures to major art museums, such as the Bremen Overseas Museum or the Weserburg. The Bremen City Hall and the Bremen Roland form the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace of Bremen". Bremen is well-known through the Brothers Grimm's fairy tale "Town Musicians of Bremen", and there is a statue dedicated to it in front of the city hall. Bremen's port, together with the port of Bremerhaven at the mouth of the Weser, is the second-largest port in Germany after the Port of Hamburg. Bremen Airport lies in the southern borough of Neustadt-Neuenland and is Germany's 12th-busiest airport.

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