Baltic Sea 2022
Day 1: Thursday 26 May 2022
Lugano – Bremen
Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral, catholic). Full name: Hohe Domkirche Sankt Petrus. Köln is in North Rhine-Westphalia, and this cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne (Erzbischof von Köln). It is a fine example of medieval gothic architecture, declared a World Heritage Site in 1996. It is Germany’s most visited landmark, attracting 6 million visitors a year. Its 157m makes it the tallest twin-spired church in the world, and after Ulm Minster (161.5m) the second tallest church in Europe, and the third tallest church in the world (The tallest Catholic, as well as the tallest domed church building, is the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace (158 m) in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast). Its construction was started in 1248, and halted around 1560. It was not till the 19th century that it was completed (1814-1880). The two towers give the cathedral the largest façade of any church in the world.
Bremen Town Hall (Rathaus) (c. 1400, with 16th century extensions). Seat of the President of the Senate and Mayor of Bremen, an important example of Brick Gothic and Weser Renaissance architecture. It stands on the market square, opposite the ancient guildhall (Schütting), the seat of the board of commerce.
We were thankful to see the Ukrainian flag flying from the Rathaus, in a show of solidarity for that courageous country in the face of despotic tyranny. Something the Germans know all about.
Bremen Cathedral, western façade – Bremer Dom or St. Petri Dom zu Bremen (Evangelical), one of the largest historic brick structures in Europe. Restored 1888-1901. The first church on the site was built about 789 CE, but was burnt down by the Saxons soon after, along with the rest of Bremen. Bremen was sacked by the Danes in 845, and the successor to the see was Archbishop Saint Ansgar, who became a prominent missionary credited with the beginnings of the conversion of Danes and Swedes to Christianity.
Bremen Marktplatz with the statue to Roland. The statue was erected in 1404 to honour the paladin (the foremost warriors of Charlemagne’s court) of the first Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne. He is renowned as the hero of the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. This battle was fought in 778, in which a large force of Basques ambushed a part of Charlemagne’s army on a pass in the Pyrenees, following his invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. The suicidal rearguard action of Roland and Frankish lords became the quintessential role model for knights and chivalry in the Middle Ages.
From Bremen the statue, a symbol of civic liberty and freedom, spread to other cities and has become a symbol of the new Europe. The legend has it that Bremen will remain free and independent so long as Roland stands watch over it. A second statue is reputedly kept in secret readiness to replace this statue should it be lost for any reason.
Bremen Cathedral, northern façade. The church was rebuilt and enlarged in 1035-1043, but was again destroyed, along with most of Bremen, by a fire. The extant pillared basilica with rounded Romanesque style arches and flat timber ceiling were added during the time of Archbishop Adalbert (1043-1072).
Bremen Railway Station. It was opened in 1886-1891. Badly damaged during WW2, it was renovated and is now a protected heritage site of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen
Travel Diary
Very crowded train after Basel to Köln, but managed to find seats. We stretch our legs in an hour’s break in sunny Köln. Glowering over us as we exit the station modern monstrosity is the familiarly stern cathedral, looking drawn and unimpressed by the chaos of traffic, tourist hordes and drunken football supporters swirling around its base like moths, their proboscises selfie arms seeking the ideal memorable shot.
Another packed train brings us to Bremen, one of the previously great European cities turned into modern malls of identical shops by WW2 bombing. In compensation, we find a lovely long park and lake, whose curious zig-zag reveals to be the inheritance of a medieval fortification moat, now adorned with wild fowl and well-tended gardens. Cindy explores this park while I teach online, and I replicate her walk in an early morning jog, enjoying the peace and company of various decorative fowl. We eat traditional German food, that is kebab, in a Turkish takeaway.
Bremen is a City State surrounded by Lower Saxony, population 566 k, and metropolitan area 2.4 M. It was a key member of the Hanseatic (‘Hanse’ is the Althochdeutsch word for band or troop) League, which started in Germany, and ultimately reached Saint Petersberg, the Baltic States, and Poland as far as Krakow, as well to the Netherlands in the west, and Bergen, Norway and south-eastern Sweden. The League was based on free trade, mutual defence against pirates, and a common legal system. It was a loosely aligned confederation of city-states, and dissolved by 1669, due to external competition and national pressures, as well as internal friction. It is viewed as perhaps the most successful and durable trade alliance in history. Its governance structure could be a precursor of the supranational model of the EU. And in fact, the New Hanseatic League was formed in 2018. Interestingly, no city in Britain ever joined it: a precursor of the isolationist thinking that embodies Brexit?
The Hanseatic League was an economic and defensive alliance that shared some architectural features, in particular the brick Gothic monuments which characterise harbour towns across the north of Europe. Whereas Lübeck was the central node for seaborne trade in the Baltic, Bremen (and nearby Bremenhaven, the second largest German port after Hamburg) is strategically placed on the North Sea. Its official name is Freie Hansestadt Bremen, and it lies on the River Weser, the longest river that flows entirely in Germany, reaching south as far as Fulda and Suhl, for a length of 744 km, counting the combined lengths of Weser (452km) and the Werra from Suhl.
The Dambusters Raid of May 1943 destroyed the dam on the Edersee, on the Eder, a tributary of the Fulda River, which flows into the Weser.
Bremen till the mid 19th Century was an independent city, within the confederal jurisdiction of the HRE (Holy Roman Empire). In 1871 the German Empire (Kaiserreich, or Second Reich) formed, absorbing Bremen. It was the principal port for international movements, such as for central European emigrants to the Americas. Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG (now part of Airbus) was founded in Bremen in 1923. Most of the city was destroyed by allied bombing, as well as heavy shelling during its capture by the British 3rd Infantry Division in April 1945. The Rathaus (Renaissance-fronted gothic) and the 11th century Bremer Dom survived the bombing, to stand defiant to time and human cyclical destructive logic.