Halfway of the Sögestraße, The Wandelgek turned left into the Katherinenklosterhof and through the Domshofpassage to the:

Domshof

The Domshof (Cathedral Court) is a town square in Bremen, north of the cathedral and the Marktplatz.

The Domshof is used for markets as well as larger outdoor events, particularly May Day demonstrations.

Today however there was a market and the smells of cheese, nuts, herbs, spices and fish mingled before it reached the noses …

The Domshof is a trapezoid 67 m (220 ft) in width, 100 m (330 ft) long on the western side and 130 m (430 ft) long on the eastern side. Several streets radiate off the square (Schüsselkorb, Violenstraße, Seemannstraße, Sandstraße, Unser-Lieben-Frauen-Kirchhof and the Dompassage). Buildings on the square include Bremen Cathedral, the Town Hall of Bremen (although the front façades of both buildings are on the Marktplatz), Bremen Landesbank, the Deutsche Bank am Domshof (see photo below), SEB Bank (formerly BfG), the Schifffahrtsbank and the Bremer Bank.

The conversion to a banking hub first began in 1890 when Bernhard Loose built a bank on Unser-Lieben-Frauen-Kirchhof Street. In 1891 the Deutsche Bank built their historicising branch in red sandstone, which they expanded in the 1980s with a new building connected to the old by a passageway. The orphanage beside the cathedral and the neighbouring houses had to make way for the Bremer Bank erected in the Neo-Renaissance style in 1906, which was also substantially expanded in the 1980s.

The buildings around the Domshof are relatively uniform in construction, being made of sandstone (e.g. Bremer Bank) and dark red or clinker brick (e.g. the town hall and the Landesbank). The red Maintal sandstone of the Deutsche Bank and a white rendered building (Number 11) differ from the others.

Neptune fountain by Waldemar Otto, 1991, in front of the sandstone building of the Bremer bank …

A bit further was a Shopping passage. The Domshof-Passage in Bremen-Mitte is a 20th-century shopping arcade and a short street as part of the pedestrian zone in the old town. It leads west from the Domshof to Katharinenstraße, through the Katharinen-Passage to Sögestraße.

Marktplatz 1

After arriving at the Marktplatz The Wandelgek had a lunch (Apfelstrudel mit Eis and a Franziskaner Weizenbier (German style Wheat beer)), before starting his discovery of Bremen.

Hanseatic town of Bremen

Bremen, officially the City Municipality of Bremen, is the capital of the German state of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (Freie Hansestadt 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.

The Wandelgek lives in the dutch town of Deventer, which was the largest Hanseatic town of The Netherlands (in those days The Netherlands and Germany did not exist yet). Read more about my hometown in this extensive city walk blogpost:

Deventer (the ultimate historic walk for history lovers in 4 parts)

Marktplatz 2

Then The Wandelgek started to discover the really beautiful Marktplatz, which was bathing in sunlight….

M. Merian the Elder: 1630: Market square from the southeast. On the left, Schütting, on the right, the town hall, market wall with pillory (fictitious viewer position, see floor plan from 1796)

Market floor plan 1796: town hall red, palatium blue, Schütting olive; Old Stock Exchange (brown) – 1614 to 1687 an open space, otherwise 1796 as well as 1630; possible (red) and fictitious (green) lines of sight of Merian.

Unser Lieben Frauen Kirchhof (Churchyard of Our Lady)

It’s a bit macabre but hidden underneath of this marketplace is the oldest graveyard of Bremen…

Dominating the Unser Lieben Frauen Kirchhof, is the:

Liebfrauen Kirche (Church of Our Lady)

Exterior

The Liebfrauen Kirche stands northwest of Bremen’s Marktplatz, in the Unser Lieben Frauen Kirchhof. After the cathedral, it is the oldest church in the city and was the first parish church outside the cathedral precinct, thus also serving as a council church. It has been a listed building since 1917.

Die Liebfrauenkirche ist mit zwei Türmen ausgestattet. Der Nordturm ist mit der rund 6 Meter hohen Wetterfahne 84,2 Meter hoch und damit nach den zwei Türmen des Domes der drittgrößte Kirchturm der Stadt. Seine Breite beträgt 9,4 m. Die Turmuhr befindet sich in einer Höhe von 37,4 Meter.

Der kleinere Südturm hat eine Höhe von rund 30,5 Meter und eine Breite von 8,3 Meter.

Die Dachhöhe des Kirchenschiffs beträgt 22,9 Meter.

Die gesamte Länge des Kirchenbaus beträgt etwa 59 m und die gesamte Breite etwa 34 Meter.

Das Kernmauerwerk des Südturms besteht größtenteils aus Granitfindlingen und ist nur oberflächlich mit Portasandstein verblendet.

Reiterstandbild des General­feld­marschalls Helmuth von Moltke am Nordturm:

Reduced old West entrance and former Pastor home …

Former Pastor home …

Interior

Walls

Inside, the hall church has three bays with three arches, forming a Westphalian square. Four of the nine vaults are eight-part dome vaults with a circular rib and a tenon-shaped keystone. The other five bays have cross vaults with round-bar ribs, supported by pillars that are cruciform in their core, with semicircular columns for the transverse and transverse arches and rib supports at the angles. The church was vaulted by the same builders who created the vaults in Bremen Cathedral during the reign of Archbishop Gerhard II. The chalice block capitals with stylized foliage originated, among other things, from a Westphalian stonemason’s workshop and spread northward.

The early Gothic pillars and wall piers all have elaborately cranked bases, each with a rectangular base element for each round and angular section of the pillar shaft. In vertical order, most of these bases begin at the bottom with a groove, followed by a bulge and then various gently sloping steps. The spandrels between the corners of the base elements and the curve of the corresponding pillar section are sometimes decorated with animal toes. The half-column or round bar then begins again with a groove and a bulge.

Wall Design

From 1958 to 1965, the interior was redesigned according to plans by the architect Dieter Oesterlen. The most important change for the spatial impression was the removal of the plaster, so that the church interior is now exposed to stone. Beneath the white paint at that time lay remnants of medieval wall paintings, which were removed with the plaster. A few remnants of frescoes in the vaults of the north aisle still bear witness to the original colorful painting.

Furnishings

The cross on the altar is said to have initially been only a temporary measure. However, it closely follows the principles of Reformed church design, which provide for a simple table instead of an altar, since the focus of the service should not be on a material object, but on God’s Word. On the west wall of the north aisle hangs an epitaph for Dietrich von Büren († 1686) by the Copenhagen sculptor David Etener. Several old gravestones are embedded in the floor.

Pulpit

The pulpit, dated 1709, is one of the highest quality and most elaborate in Bremen. It was donated by Simon Post, the church’s builder, a Bremen silk merchant, and his wife. We know nothing certain about the carver.[Note 3] The pulpit steps are accompanied by a railing filled with dense acanthus foliage, in which the founder’s coat of arms is concealed several times. The five panels on the pulpit walls depict Moses and the four evangelists. They are flanked by six personifications, including the four virtues: Caritas, Spes, Patientia, Justitia, and two other allegories whose interpretation can only be speculative.

Light

The windows destroyed in the Second World War were replaced between 1966 and 1973 by vibrant stained-glass windows by the French artist Alfred Manessier (1911–1993). The eastern windows and the western round window depict various aspects of the proclamation of the Word of God. The other windows serve as colored curtains of light beneath these four main windows.

The light from the many stain glassed windows was performing a show inside the church which was a feast for this photographer’s eyes …

The Flemish chandeliers date from the mid-17th century. However, the interior is more strongly characterized today by a large number of modern lamps with spherical black housings, which provide the brightness required for a church service in the lower three to four meters of the otherwise dark room due to the exposed brickwork.

Bone cellar

Fresco from the 15th century in St. Vitus Chapel, probably built as a bone cellar in the 12th century.

The bone cellar beneath the north aisle served as a coal and boiler room since 1890. Since 1992, it has been converted into a prayer room for St. Vitus Chapel, with direct access from the church and another to the container-shaped modern sacristy south of the choir. A completely unadorned central pillar supports the four bays of its Romanesque groined vault. At the arches, the imposts are at least emphasized by simple capitals. To the south, the substructure of the northeastern pillar of the hall nave was added later. The room has four former entrances, now walled up: one in the middle of the western arch of the southwest bay and one in the right corner of the opposite arch of the southeast bay date from its construction. With these two gates, the space was suitable for a flow of visitors, as was usual in crypts containing a relic.

Later, an entrance was added on the north side of the northeast bay of the cellar, thus an addition to the cellar, but contemporaneous to the current north façade. On the outside, it has a low segmental arch.

Outside is the famous statue of:

The Bremer Stadtmusikanten

The Bremer Stadtmusikanten (Bremen Town Musicians), which are one of the most popular photo motifs in the city today, are a bronze sculpture created in 1953 by the sculptor Gerhard Marcks. The animals are located on the west side of the town hall at the entrance to Straße Schoppensteel (Schoppensteel Street). Many people believe that a wish comes true when you grasp the front legs of the donkey or rub them and make a wish. At this point, the statue is therefore shiny.

The Brothers Grimm first published this tale in the second edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen in 1819, based on the account of the German storyteller Dorothea Viehmann (1755–1815).

In the original version of this story, which dates from the twelfth century, the robbers are a brown bear, a lion, and a gray wolf, all animals featured in heraldic devices. When the donkey and his friends arrive in Bremen, the townsfolk applaud them for having rid the district of the terrible beasts. An alternate version involves the animals’ master(s) being deprived of their livelihood (because the thieves stole his money or destroyed his farm or mill) and having to send their animals away, unable to take care of them any further. After the animals dispatch the thieves, they take the ill-gotten gains back to their master so that they can rebuild. Other versions involve at least one wild, non-livestock animal, such as a lizard, helping the domestic animals out in dispatching the thieves.

Read more about the Bremer Stadtmusikanten and their connection to the Asian story of the Four harmonious friends in this blogpost:

Souvenir 010: Painting on wood of “The four harmonious friends” – Shigatse, Tibet, China, 1999

The statue can be found at the left corner of the left side (on the Unser Lieben Frauen Kirchhof) of the (see Marktplatz map above):

Marktplatz 3

Rathaus (City Hall)

Bremer Rathaus (English: Bremen City Hall) is the seat of the President of the Senate and Mayor of Bremen, Germany. It is one of the most important examples of Brick Gothic and Weser Renaissance architecture in Europe. Since 1973, it has been a protected historical building. In July 2004, along with the Bremen Roland statue, the building was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites because of its outstanding architecture and its testimony to the development of civic autonomy in the Holy Roman Empire.

The city hall is on the northeastern side of the Marktplatz (market square) in the historic city center. Directly in front of it is the statue of Roland. On the opposite side of that square there is the ancient guildhall, called Schütting, still today the seat of the board of commerce. On the southeastern side of the square is the seat of Bremen state parliament, called the Bürgerschaft. East of both, there is the town hall and parliament, along with the Dom (Cathedral). Near the northern corner of the town hall, there is a sculpture of the Bremer Stadtmusikanten (Town Musicians of Bremen) (by Gerhard Marcks). North of it, there is the  “Kirche Unser Lieben Frauen” (Church of Our Dear Lady) or short “Liebfrauenkirche“).

The old town hall itself, originally constructed in the 15th century, is a rectangular, two-storey hall measuring 41.5 by 15.8 m. The ground floor contains one large hall with oak pillars, historically used for merchants and theatre, and the upper floor contained the main festivity hall.

The Ancient Town Hall

Bremen’s original town hall had been situated in the southern end of the block between Liebfrauenkirchhof (“Our Dear Lady’s Churchyard”), Obernstraße (“Highstreet”) and Sögestraße (“Pigstreet”). In 1229, it was mentioned as “domus theatralis” (“show house”), since 1251 repeatedly as “domus consularis” (“councilars’ house”). An arch across the Sögestraße and a repair by a mason suggest a stone building, and already existing before the arrival of Gothic style it must have been erected in Romanesque style. It is assumed that before the municipality gained a certain autonomy, the building served as a law court and therefore had at least one open hall, as old Saxon law forbade trials to be held in closed rooms. An exact description is not available, but several documents tell about the cloth shops in that location. They describe the locations of “sub” (“below”) being the town hall and the office. Depending on the interpretation of “below” as “in the hall below …” or “in front of the basement of …”, the documents suggest very different settings of the town hall and its environment. Two texts tell of a stair or staircase of the house at Liebfrauenkirchhof.

After the construction of the newer town hall, it was hired out to the grocers’ guild, than as a hobs store. Finally in 1598, it was sold to two owners, who converted it to or replaced it as their private houses.

The Gothic town hall

Around 1400, when the development of Bremen was at its height, a new town hall was planned and built. Most engaged were burgomaster Johann Hemeling and councilmen Friedrich Wagner and Hinrich von der Trupe. The location and design were a demonstration of confidence vis-à-vis the archbishop. Bremen Market Square, completed a century before, was now dominated by the town hall rather than by the cathedral and the archbishop’s palace. Both of its two halls, the upper hall and the lower hall, were a few inches longer and wider than the great hall of the episcopal palace. As in the palace, the entrances were placed at the sides rather than facing the square. The Ratskeller is below those halls.

With the construction of the town hall, the first Roland sculpture was erected in front of it. It was not yet as large as today.

The town hall in Gothic style was decorated with 16 large sculptures, showing emperors and prince-electors, demonstrating Bremen’s claim of being an imperial city, and four ancient philosophers.

But at the same time it was fortified; there were two wall-walks, one above the gallery towards the market square and one all around the gutters of the hip-roof. Four small towers with staircases served the access from the upper hall to the upper wall-walk. The gallery on ground level towards the market square during the first centuries was no shelter for merchants, it was reserved for trials.

On the rear side of the Gothic town hall, there was an extension, on the upper floor containing the room for the city council, called Altes Wittheits-Stube, (The Old Council Chamber). West of it, there was an outer staircase from Our Dear Lady’s Churchyard to the upper hall.

After the Rebellion of the 104 Men in 1432, the outer staircase was removed. At the end of 15th century, an office was built below the old Wittheits-Stube.

Renaissance

From 1545 to 1550, an extension with three floors, containing a new Wittheits-Stube and offices, was built between the town hall and the archbishop’s palace, showing a Renaissance style gable eastward facing the cathedral.

In the end of the century, Bremen lived through its second boom, and a great relaunch of the town hall was headed. The main artist was the architect and mason Lüder von Bentheim. The modernization took place in two steps: in the first step, from 1595 to 1596, the ten windows of the upper hall towards the market square were converted from pointed arches to large rectangular windows. About twelve years later, from 1608 to 1612, a great transformation to Weser Renaissance was started: The two middling windows and the proclamation door between them were displaced by a huge avant-corps, consisting of slim pillars and columns and large windows. On top, a decorated gable in Flemish Renaissance style was erected, two similar gables beside. Reliefs were used to decorate the facade. Many architectural elements are based on masters of the Dutch Renaissance, such as Hans Vredeman de Vries, Hendrik Goltzius and Jacob Floris. Furthermore, decorative balustrades were installed.

Baroque

Soon after the completion of those works, Germany was ravaged by the Thirty Years’ War, and after the Peace of Westphalia, Bremen had to defend against the Swedish invasion.

In 1682/83, The office on the rear side was enlarged in a form of Baroque style – with horizontal rows of windows that did not become common two centuries later.

19th century

With the German mediatization in 1803, the neighboring archbishop’s palace that had been extraterritorial, at last Hanoveran, became a municipal property. Provisionally, it was used for offices at once. In 1818/19, it was partly dismantled and rebuilt as the Neoclassical “Stadthaus” (municipal office building). In 1826, dangerous damage to representative town hall and its extensions was detected. With the repairs, the appearance of the market front was conserved, but the eastern Renaissance façade was replaced by a simple one and the rear side lost its unique design.

20th century

From 1820 to 1900, Bremen multiplied its population, and, in the decades around 1900, Wilhelminism preferred abundant representation. Therefore, an enlargement of the town hall was planned. In 1909, the Stadthaus was dismantled in order to build the new town hall on its ground. During that work, many Gothic artifacts were found, significantly more than historians expected. With the “Neues Rathaus” (“New Town Hall”), the town hall in 1909–1913 received an extension about twice as large as the old building. The Munich architect Gabriel von Seidl succeeded to avoid a dominance of his addition. Nevertheless, its three Neo-renaissance facades are a very late example of Historism. The fourth one, facing the Church of Our Lady and adjacent to the rest of the Baroque extension, is rather Art Nouveau.

By boarding up the outer walls, and due to heroic efforts of the fire brigade, the town hall of Bremen survived the air raids of World War II with little damage, though more than sixty percent of the city was destroyed.

The Roland Statue

The Bremen Roland is a statue of Roland, erected in 1404. It stands in the market square (Rathausplatz) of Bremen, Germany, facing the cathedral, and shows Roland, paladin of the first Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne and hero of the Battle of Roncevaux Pass.

Statues of Roland appear in numerous cities of the former Holy Roman Empire, as emblems of city liberties, Stadtrechte. The Roland statue at Bremen is the oldest surviving example. From Bremen the symbol of civic liberty and freedom spread to other cities and has become a symbol of the new Europe. It has been protected by the Monument Protection Act since 19736. In July 2004, along with the town hall, the statue was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in recognition of its outstanding architecture and symbolism of an important historical figure.

As a Legends/Myths/Sagas/Fairy Tales buff, I can truly say that I was already from a very young age impressed by the story of Knight Roland or “Ridder Roeland” as he was called in Dutch. I read children’s versions of his story and later kept reading about him and many other myths that surrounded Charlemagne. Roland’s story kept being my favorite of those and was certainly a large influence on my subsequent reading of Tolkien’s Lord of the rings, in which the story of Boromir is based on that of Roland. Think of the battle at the Parth Galen as the Battle of Roncevaux Pass and his use of the horn that could be heard in whole Gondor as the “magic” horn that Roland used to call upon help from Charlemagne in Paris.

The Dom

Bremen Cathedral (German: Bremer Dom or St. Petri Dom zu Bremen), named after St. Peter, is a church situated in the market square in the center of Bremen. The cathedral belongs to the Bremian Evangelical Church, a member of the umbrella organization Evangelical Church in Germany. It is the previous cathedral of the former Roman Catholic Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. Since 1973, it is protected by the monument protection act.

Exterior

In general, Bremen Cathedral is a medieval building. The oldest visible structures are the two crypts. The last parts built in romanesque style and in sandstone were the lower storeys of the western façade and the western towers. Since the late 1220s, vaults and walls were erected in bricks, partly hidden by sheets of sandstone. Only the outer wall of the southern row of chapels shows unhidden bricks. St Peter’s is one of the largest historic brick structures in Europe, but it comprises too many stone structures to be subsumed to Brick Gothic. During the great restoration of 1888 to 1901, the western towers and most of the western façade were rebuilt relatively close to previous structures. The crossing tower was a new addition, using the medieval crossing tower of Worms Cathedral as an example. The roofs above the transepts and the northern aisle were redesigned.

The cathedral has twin 89 meter towers (with weather-vanes 92.31 m.) referred to as the north tower and the south tower. Like several major Romanesque churches, Bremen Cathedral has a second choir in the west. The towers were constructed flanking this western choir, forming the west front of the church since 1215 and 1253. In 1346 the towers were strengthened and given pyramidal tops of uneven heights. When the towers were restored and raised in the 1890s they were given Rhenish “helmets,” which still cap the towers today. It is possible to climb the south tower for a view of the city. The north tower has no public access. The crossing tower is a completely new addition of end 19th century. For several centuries, the outside design of the crossing had been modest.

Beneath are some images of the beautiful depictions above the entrance gates of the last day of Christ, when he carries the cross to Cavalry where he was subsequently crusified …

Interior

Though the outer appearance of the building remained quite poor for more than two centuries, the importance of the church increased. The Lutheran community in the walls of Bremen lacked the status of a parish, but due to immigration from the Lutheran states around Bremen, time by time it became the largest religious group in the city. In administrative matters, the Lutherans that joined the services in the cathedral, at the same time were members of the Calvinist parishes of the municipal districts, where they lived.

Most of the rebuilding fell to Archbishop Adalbert (1043–1072). The cathedral was rebuilt as a pillared basilica with rounded Romanesque style arches and a flat timber ceiling. Two stubby, flat-topped towers were added to the west front. A crypt was built under the west part of the nave. The building plan was based on the cruciform shape of the cathedral at Benevento in Campania, Italy which Adalbert was familiar with. He also brought craftsmen from Lombardy to make repairs and embellish the cathedral, much to the consternation of local builders and artists. Adalbert ignored the criticism and forced his vision for the cathedral. On Adalbert’s orders parts of the fortification of the cathedral district [de] (not the unwalled market town beside) were torn down to provide low-cost stone for the cathedral. Adalbert’s short-sightedness resulted in Saxons sacking the city and the cathedral in 1064. Under Adalbert’s rule the oldest visible part of today’s cathedral was built, the western crypt.

Under his successor, Liemar (1072–1102), the eastern crypt was built and the cathedral reached almost present-day extent on the ground.

In 1104, the archdiocese lost most of its administrative power to the newly established archbishopric of Lund.

During the rule Prince-Archbishop Gerhard II (1219–1258), the conditions for works on the cathedral improved: On Christmas 1223 the rivalry of Bremen and Hamburg was finished by a papal decision, Bremen became the only see of the archbishopric. In March 1224, another papal decree authorized an indulgence campaign to subsidize a “repair” of the cathedral. The construction of the lower storeys of the western façade and towers – in pure romanesque style – may have begun before the decree and even before the onset of Gerhard’s rule.

Between the towers, a rose window was added, it has already been depicted in Bremen’s first municipal seal, cut in 1230. Than, successively and most of it under the same rule, at first the two westernmost bays of the nave were vaulted (still almost Romance style), then the aisles in very early Gothic architecture, then central nave, choir, crossing and transept in advanced early Gothic style. Differing from the Romance parts, the vaults and new walls were constructed in brick as were many other large ecclesiastic and public buildings in northern Europe.

Central nave and choir have double bays with six sections each. The pillars at their corners are supported by flying buttresses (since 1502–’22 only on the southern side). The pillars of the middling ribs, carrying only one fourth (or eighth) of the weight, have none, except of the choir, where they were added as late as in 1911.

Pulpit

The floor mozaiques are gorgeous…

The High Choir

A depiction of the last supper…

A beautiful illustrated book was showcased. Was this a modern take on illustrating the Bible?

To get space for the increasing audience of the services, some galleries were built inside the central nave and the northern aisle. Between 1693 and 1698, Arp Schnitger installed a huge organ that would be played until 1847, one of the most valuable equipment, Bremen Cathedral ever had. in the same period, in 1694/96, the Lutheran church received a new main altar with a canopy, resembling St. Peter’s Baldachin in Vatican Basilica. About 80 years later, the western rose window had to be changed (for a simpler one), in order to prevent damages of the organ caused by humidity.

The Wandelgek left the Church and walked onto the Marktplatz. This gorgeous square was surrounded by monumental buildings, from the Hanseatic period, when trade phenomenally enriched this town.

At least parts of the market place had been in function since the age of Charlemagne (Hence the before mentioned Roland Statue). Its southern side originally was the bank of river Balge (river), a branch of the Weser and Bremen’s first port. There was an easy access for boats, but this section of the bank was too low for permanent buildings. From late 12th to late 13th century, the area of the market place was levelled and plastered in several stages. Theories that before the construction of the Bremen Town Hall in 1405 to 1410 all or only most of the market activities took place near Liebfrauenkirche have been falsified by archeological findings. Meantime with the townhall, Roland Statue was erected on the market square. Some time later, a stone wall was built between the inner and the outer areas of the square. The inner space was used for the market. A rule was made which allowed only merchants whose vehicles could pass one of the seven openings in the wall to sell their products. The city council made this rule in order to ensure that there was sufficient space for pedestrians between the market stalls.

In the end of the 18th or beginning of the 19th century, the wall was removed and replaced by a circle of columns. At the same time, the market place lost its outstanding importance as a centre of trade and commerce even though it continued to be used as a market until mid 20th century. In 1836, the square was repaved with sandstone. Inside the circle of columns, darker stones depicted a wheel with 10 spokes. At centre of the wheel, reddish stones form a Hanseatic Cross. With a diameter of 4.8 m (16 ft), it commemorates the importance of the Hanseatic Legion during the Wars of Liberation (1813-1815). Between February and June 2002, the pavement was renewed without changing its historical layout.

Rathscafé/Deutsches Haus

In the photo beneath, the building in the left is the Rathscafé/Deutsches Haus (1908–1911).

The old Rathscafé (Town Council Café), now named Deutsches Haus, is a listed building on the market place (Marktplatz) in Bremen. It is part of the monument ensemble No. 1–21.

In the Middle Ages, a municipal wine-house was situated on the corner of Bremer Marktplatz/Liebfrauenkirchhof and Obernstrasse. Later on, the building was redecorated with a Renaissance gable. Until the 17th century, the building was used as a wine warehouse. Later on it passed into private ownership and was remodeled on several occasions. In 1900, it was used as a lingerie store. Thereafter, it was purchased by the city and demolished to provide space for a new building.

Rathscafé

As the building was situated in the immediate neighbourhood of the Town Hall, it was decided to launch an architectural competition to attract bids for its reconstruction from throughout Germany. The competition was won by the young Bremen architect Rudolf Jacobs. In accordance with his designs, it was reconstructed between 1909 and 1911 as a four-storey building with a saddle roof on the Marktplatz which at that time was called Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz. Jacobs succeeded in creating a building which attracted expert attention. The building is an important component of the area’s development given its relationship to the Marktplatz itself as well as to Unser-Lieben-Frauen-Kirchhof, the cemetery located opposite.

Built in the early 20th century, the building was inspired by the Heimatschutzarchitektur and Reformarchitektur trends, common in Germany at the time. Documenting the art and culture of the old town, the group of three gabled houses is decorated both outside and inside with items from excavations, collections and acquisitions. They include the freestone gable decorations, the 18th-century oriel windows, the portals and, inside the building, the 18th-century hallways.

In 1547, the merchants of Bremen charged the Flemish mason and architect Johann den Buschener from Antwerp, who constructed a new building in 1538/39. Due to financial limits, the fine design of the façades lasted much longer. Buschener only completed the stepped western gable, which is on the borderline of Late Gothic and of Renaissance style, and the main entrance, which was not yet central. The eastern gable, pure Renaissance, was crafted in 1565 by a local mason named Karsten Husmann. In 1594, the cornice overlooking the market square was enhanced by a magnificent maritime gable. Lüder von Bentheim, the architect of the Renaissance refresher of the townhall, was engaged in it, too.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the façade was altered several times: In 1756, Theophilus Freese removed the decentral entrance by a decent central one and reduced the number of horizontal cornices, thus changing the style to a modest kind of Baroque. In mid 19th century the line of low shops in front of the basement was removed, and for the first time a twin staircase to the entrance door was built.

In Wilhelminism, people disliked the noble modesty of the building. In 1895 to 1899, the number of corniches was raised and above the windows relief ornaments were placed. The present bombastic portal was constructed. Above the door, a Low German inscription was added, lately invented by Bremen’s mayor Otto Gildemeister

buten un binnen

wagen un winnen

(literally “Outside and in, risk it and win”) was added as a motto, meaning that merchants from Bremen are called upon to risk their assets at home and abroad in order to gain fortune. The motto was created by mayor Otto Gildemeister.

The building with its magnificent interior and its valuable furnishings burnt to the ground on 6 October 1944. Reconstruction was completed in 1956. Except for the dormers on the façade overlooking the market square, the exterior was rebuilt, as it had been since 1899, while the interior was reconfigured. In 1951, the chamber of commerce moved into the ground floor. The second stage of the reconstruction took place over the next five years, including the second floor interior. In 2009, the façade and copper-covered roof were repaired and the dormers were rebuilt. The firm which performed the work received an award in 2010 from the Landesamt für Denkmalspflege (State of Bremen office for the preservation of monuments and historic buildings).

The first coffee house in the German-speaking countries came into being in Bremen in 1673. Its exact location is not known, but from 1679 onwards, it was located in the Schütting.

In the basement of the Schütting, a traditional gentlemen’s club, the “Club zu Bremen”, has its club rooms. Since the year 2000, it has been open to female members, too.

Das Haus Jonas und Kaune/Haus am Markt 9

Das Haus Am Markt 9 (früher Zum Jonas und Haus Kaune, heute Beck’s Bistro) im Stadtteil Bremen-Mitte am Bremer Marktplatz, stammt aus dem 17. bzw. 20. Jahrhundert. Das Gebäude wird aktuell (2023) hauptsächlich als Restaurant und Tagungslokal Beck’s Bistro genutzt.

Das Gebäude steht seit 1973 unter Bremischem Denkmalschutz.

Das dreigeschossige schlichte Giebelhaus wurde um 1600 im Renaissancestil errichtet. Das sogenannte Kaune-Haus (nach Kaufmanne C.H.F. Kaune) diente später als Consumptionshaus. Die Consumptionsabgabe als Steuer auf Nahrungs- und Verbrauchsgüter wurde in Bremen 1665 eingeführt, um Mittel zur Verteidigung der Stadt zu gewinnen. Ratsherren, Älterleute und angesehene Bürger waren in einer besonderen Deputation vertreten. Die Consumptionskammer war zunächst im Rathaus, bis die Stadt das Bürgerhaus Am Markt 9 erwarb, und die Kammer 1819 ins Neue Stadthaus verlegt wurde. Das danach privatisierte Haus wurde 1886 in den Obergeschossen umgebaut. Es wurde im Zweiten Weltkrieg zerstört und die mit Notdach gesicherte Ruine 1962 abgebrochen; das rundbogige Renaissanceportal des Hauses mit verziertem Balken und darüber zwei weiblichen Plastiken (Musen) blieb an alter Stelle erhalten.

Das heutige dreigeschossige Gebäude mit steilen Satteldächern wurde nach Plänen von Bernhard Wessel (Bremen) 1963 für die Haake-Beck-Brauerei gebaut. Die Fassade erhielt grauen Obernkirchener Sandstein, also anders als der gelbe schlesische Sandstein der benachbarten Raths-Apotheke. Einige Räume des Restaurants erhielten Namen wie Kapitäns-, Raths- und Marktstube.

Der Bildhauer Paul Halbhuber (Bremen) gestaltete 1963 den Relieffries mit gastronomischen Motiven (Speisen, Getränke, Geselligkeit, Musik, Kartenspiel sowie Zeitungslesen). Die Bronzeplastik Der Trinker an der Eingangstür zum Raths-Keller stammt auch von Halbhuber.

Der drehende Wetterfisch Jonas über vier vergoldeten quadratischen Platten mit Ankermotiv auf dem Giebel wurde von der Goldschmiedin Erika Albrecht (Bremen) nach einem Entwurf von Hallhuber gefertigt. Das Lokal wurde dann auch Zum Jonas genannt. Der alttestamentarische Schriftprophet Jona im Zwölfprophetenbuch (Buch Jona) soll, da er Gott gegenüber ungehorsam war, auf der Schifffahrt nach Tarsis von einem „großen Fisch“ verschlungen worden sein und „drei Tage und drei Nächte im Bauch des Fisches“ gewesen sein, der den reuigen Sünder auf Befehl des HERRN wieder ausspie und somit rettete. Ein so großes Seeungeheuer, so deutete man viel später die Sage, konnte wohl nur ein (in Wirklichkeit friedlicher) Wal sein, als Symbol für die Gefahren auf hoher See.

Neben dem Gebäude stehen rechts das Deutsche Haus von 1951 sowie links die viergeschossige Raths-Apotheke von 1958.

Das Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Bremen befand: „… Der Entwurf Wessels versuchte mit den Mitteln der Zeit in der Qualität der Gestaltung und des Materials der Würde des Marktplatzes zu entsprechen.“

It was time to leave the Marktplatz and discover some other parts of Bremen. See my next Blogposts for those discoveries.