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Bremen ), referring to its membership in the medieval Hanseatic League). It is a port city, situated along the river Weser, about 50 km south from its outflow into the North Sea. Bremen is one of two towns belonging to the state of Bremen, the other being Bremerhaven. Population: 545,983 (1st June 2005).

table ) as head of the senate (which forms the executive branch) is elected by the Bürgerschaft (city assembly) and is thus head of the city state. Currently, the i

History

In the 8th century the troops of Charlemagne advanced to the Weser in order to christianise the tribes settling here. Bremen, which may have been an older settlement, became a bishopricsup; a deed claiming the town's foundation in 788 has now been recognised as a forgery, so the exact date is unknown. In the following centuries the bishops of Bremen were the driving force behind the Christianisation of Scandinavia.

In the 12th century the power of the archbishops was challenged by Henry the Lion. The duke was successful and became the factual ruler of the town. These events led to a civil government and a loss of clerical power. Bremen became a merchants' town, and its ships dominated the southern portions of the North Sea. This dominance ended when the Hanseatic League, originally a trade alliance of the Baltic Sea only, expanded to the North Sea. In the early 14th century ships from Bremen acted as pirates to board hanseatic cogs. In order to avoid open war aldermen from Bremen went to the Hanseatic Council in Lübeck and agreed to becoming members of the league (1358)sup.

Bremen remained a reluctant member of the Hanseatic League. The town demanded support for its wars against the chieftains of Frisia, who ruled the region around the Weser mouth, but they seldom joined campaigns in the Baltic Sea. In 1425 the conflict escalated, when the citizens burnt hanseatic documents on the market place. Bremen was expelled from the league in 1427. The consequences followed soon: the sudden loss of power led to territorial claims of neighbouring states (e.g. Oldenburg) and significant territorial losses.

On March 6, 1901 an assassin attempted to kill Wilhelm II of Germany here.

After World War II, Bremen became a part of the American occupation zone since the USA wanted to have one port town within their zone. This prevented the inclusion of Bremen into the new Land of Lower Saxony that was formed around it within the British zone, and secured Bremen independence as a Federal State of its own right in the new West German federation.

, the former moats of the medieval city walls, on the northeast. The oldest part of the Altstadt is the southeast half, starting with the Marktplatz and ending at the Schnoor district.

The Marktplatz (Market square) is dominated by the opulent façade of the Town Hall. The building was erected between 1405 and 1410 in Gothic In front of the Town Hall stand two famous statues: one is the statue (1404) of the city's protector, Roland, bearing the "sword of justice" and a shield decorated with an imperial eagle. The other is Gerhard Marcks's famous 1953 bronze sculpture i (Town Musicians) which portrays the donkey, dog, cat, and rooster of the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale.The impressive Cathedral St. Petri (13th century), to the east of the Marktplatz, with sculptures of Moses and David, Peter and Paul, and Charlemagne. (Our Lady's Church) is the oldest church of the town (11th century). Its crypt features several impressive murals from the 14th century.Off the south side of the Markplatz, the 110-metre (120 yards) Böttcherstraße was transformed in 1923-1931 by the coffee Magnate Ludwig Roselius, who commissioned local artists to convert the narrow street (in medieval time, the street of the barrel makers) into a inspired mixture of Gothic and Art Nouveau. Today, the street is one of Bremen's most popular attractions. (St Martin's Church), a Gothic brick church built in 1229, and rebuilt in 1960 after its destruction in World War II., a small, well-preserved area of crooked lanes and fishing houses from the 15th and 16th centuries, now occupied by cafés, artisan shops and art galleries.Schlachte, the medieval harbour of Bremen (the modern port is some kilometres downstream) and today a street with one pubThe Space Center opened in 2004 inside the Space Park in the Gröpelingen district and closed on 2004 26 September, since then a remarkable investment ruin., the more practice-related University of Applied Sciences (earliest predecessor founded in 1799) more recently the International University Bremen, and several high-tech industries have settled in the city. Many of Germany's space technology exports are manufactured in EADS SPACE Transportation facilities in Bremen, such as the Columbus module of the International Space Station, Europe's Ariane 5 rocket upper stages and the Automated Transfer Vehicle. Furthermore, Bremen is the home of the second biggest Airbus plant of Germany, producing wing equipment for the A300A340 and A380 families of aircraft. There is also a Mercedes-Benz factory in Bremen, building the SL and SLK series of cars. Beck's beer is brewed in Bremen.

Bremen has an international airport situated in the south of the city (ICAO code: EDDW IATA code: BRE).

It is home of the soccer team SV Werder Bremen which won the German Football Championship for the fourth and the German Football Cup for the fifth time in 2004, making SV Werder Bremen just the fourth team in German football history to win the double.

Bremen is famous for a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, the Town Musicians of Bremen, although they never actually reach Bremen in the tale.

Every year since 1036 in the last two weeks of October Bremen hosts Freimarkt ("Free market"), one of the world's oldest and in Germany one of today's biggest continously celebrated fairground festival.

Bremen is also host to one of the four big annual Techno parades, the Vision Parade, and also the birthplace of the American comedic industrial musician Kompressor.

In October-November 2005, Bremen hosted the 14th ACM Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM[1])