Here’s the entrance to a narrow alley named the Böttcherstraße, which is a true treasure trove for those interested in Art Nouveau / Deco and Jugendstil. It runs from the Bremer Marktplatz to the Weser river …

Böttcherstraße is a 108-meter-long street in Bremen’s Old Town, which, due to its architecture, is considered a cultural monument and tourist attraction in Bremen. Most of the buildings were built between 1922 and 1931 and were primarily designed by Ludwig Roselius (1874–1943), a Bremen coffee merchant and patron of the arts. Roselius commissioned the architects Eduard Scotland (1885–1945), Alfred Runge, and the sculptor Bernhard Hoetger (1874–1949) to design the street. The street and its buildings are a rare example of Expressionist architecture. Several of the buildings can be classified as Brick Expressionist.

The ensemble has been a listed building since 1973.

History

The history of Böttcherstraße dates back to the Middle Ages. The name Hellinchstrate is documented for the year 1317. It represented an important connection between the market square and the Weser River. The current name dates back to the cooper trade, which existed until the 18th century. When the port was relocated in the mid-19th century, Böttcherstraße began to decline in importance.

Timeline

• In 1902 (other sources 1906), at the urging of the owners, Ludwig Roselius purchased house number 6 on Böttcherstraße (today the Ludwig Roselius Museum) and established the administrative headquarters of his company there, which later became Kaffee HAG. Roselius gradually acquired additional properties on Böttcherstraße.
• 1919: In the years following the First World War, several dilapidated buildings were demolished.
• In 1921, what is now the Roselius House was converted into a museum according to plans by Eeg & Runge. According to plans by architects Alfred Runge and Eduard Scotland, who were close to the “Heimatschutz” movement, the Kaffee HAG House, the St. Petrus House, the Glockenspiel House, and other office buildings were built between 1923 and 1926. The buildings were constructed of brick and sandstone, materials typical of the time.

• In 1926, Roselius commissioned the construction of the Paula Becker-Modersohn House for the Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, based on plans by Bernhard Hoetger. This building stood in architectural contrast to the previous buildings. It features relief-like exterior walls and organically shaped interiors.
• In 1931, the Atlantis House was completed, designed by Hoetger. Its architecture and materials (glass, steel, and concrete) also represent a stark contrast to the other buildings. The crucified Odin-Christ figure, attached to the facade as part of the Tree of Life, was considered controversial among the population. The Robinson Crusoe House was also built in 1931.
• In the summer of 1936, the bronze relief The Lightbringer, initially not gilded, was installed as an analogy to Hitler. However, Hitler condemned the “Böttcherstrasse culture” in his Nuremberg Party Congress speech on September 9, 1936, due to its architectural style and the content depicted (e.g., the Atlantis House). Following offers of compensation from Roselius, the golden sun disk of the Odin-Christ figure on the Atlantis House was removed, and in the inscription on the Paula-Becker-Modersohn House, “A work of witness to noble women, which stands victorious when the heroic glory of brave men fades,” the word “when” was replaced with “until.”

• In March 1937, Böttcherstraße was finally listed as a historical monument as an example of the decaying art of the Weimar era. These changes have now been reversed.
• In 1944, large parts of Böttcherstraße were destroyed. The facades were largely restored to their original condition by Kaffee HAG by 1954. In a letter dated October 13, 1944, from Werner Naumann, commercial director of Focke-Wulf, to Barbara Goette, Ludwig Roselius’s closest confidante, Naumann confirms that shareholders’ meetings of Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau took place in Böttcherstraße.
• In 1979, Ludwig Roselius Jr. sold Kaffee HAG, including Böttcherstraße, to General Foods.

• In 1981, he repurchased Böttcherstraße. The street is now privately owned.
• In 1989, significant damage was again discovered. The Bremen Savings Bank purchased the entire street, including its buildings, except for the Atlantis House.
• In 1999, all restoration work was completed.
• In 2004, Böttcherstraße was transferred to the Bremer Sparer-Dank Foundation.

In the 21st century, Böttcherstraße is one of Bremen’s internationally renowned landmarks. It houses the Böttcherstraße Museum, arts and crafts workshops, restaurants, retail stores, and a hotel. Almost all of the street’s land and buildings are owned by the Bremer-Sparer-Dank Foundation, a foundation of the Sparkasse in Bremen. It is operated by Böttcherstraße GmbH, a subsidiary of the Sparkassen-Finanzholding.

Despite its length of only 108 meters, Böttcherstraße is considered “the city’s secret main street.”

It is part of the city center’s pedestrian zone and, unlike most other streets, is not accessible by motor vehicles due to its structural design. Pedestrians can cross under the nearby Martinistr. and thus reach the Schlachte on the banks of the Weser.

Beneath is a map with all the important buildings …

Paula Becker-Modersohn Haus

This is the official entrance to Böttcherstraße, with the facade relief Der Lichtbringer by Bernhard Hoetger…

Der Lichtbringer (The Lightbringer) is the title of a large, gilded bronze relief by Bernhard Hoetger from 1936 above the entrance to Böttcherstraße in Bremen.

The object has been a listed building since 1973.

The large-format, square relief (383 × 383 cm)[3] is dominated by the elongated figure of a curly-haired, sword-holding, naked youth, who plunges diagonally from the upper right corner, pointing his sword and warding hand at a three-headed snake or dragon creature. All other details blur into the background: an excited crowd, some landscape elements, the vaguely modeled hints of wings or a flowing cloak on the back of Der Lichtbringer, and the sun with its rays.

The history of Böttcherstraße dates back to the Middle Ages. The name Hellinchstrate is documented for the year 1317. It represented an important connection between the market square and the Weser River. The current name dates back to the cooper trade, which existed until the 18th century. When the port was relocated in the mid-19th century, Böttcherstraße began to decline in importance.

Mother and Child II (Madonna with child) by Bernhard Hoetger at Böttcherstraße – Bremen, Germany

Haus Sankt Petrus

Roselius Haus / Ludwig Roselius Museum

The Ludwig Roselius Museum shows Northern European art from the Middle Ages to the Baroque. It is located at Böttcherstraße No. 6 in Bremen, which is one of the most important tourist attractions in the Hanseatic city of Bremen.

The Ludwig Roselius Museum is a town house dating back to the 16th century. At that time, Böttcherstraße was of great importance as the access road from Bremen’s market square to the harbor. Due to its location, it was mainly home to artisans. The name derives from the coopers’ trade, who made barrels. The building was built in 1588 in the Renaissance style.

Due to the relocation of the harbor (to Bremerhaven), Böttcherstraße lost its importance at the end of the 19th century and was in danger of falling into disrepair. In 1902, Ludwig Roselius (1874–1943), a successful Bremen merchant and owner of Kaffee HAG, acquired house number 6. The inventor of decaffeinated coffee also became known as a patron of the arts, supporting members of the Worpswede artists’ colony, such as Heinrich Vogeler and Bernhard Hoetger, and was involved in the Lower Saxony Heritage Society. In 1906, Roselius had house number 6 restored by his brother-in-law Ernst Müller-Scheeßel (1863–1936). After that, the building was initially used as an office and dining room for the Kaffee-HAG employees. Ludwig Roselius also made the premises available to the Niedersachsenrunde and other associations close to him. After he had bought or leased the remaining buildings on Böttcherstraße, Roselius began the complete reconstruction of the street in 1922. His goal was to make the ensemble world-famous as a “living example of generous patronage and Hanseatic way of life.” With the exception of house number 6, Ludwig Roselius had all the houses on Böttcherstraße demolished and rebuilt in whole or in part. He assumed that house number 6 had existed since the 14th century and was therefore one of the oldest houses in Bremen. To underline the importance of the building, he placed a plaque on the facade of the house, on which all house owners from 1300 onwards were listed. He had the facade rebuilt in the Gothic style – and in his opinion true to the original – by the architects Carl Eeg and Eduard Runge. However, the art historian Uwe Bölts makes it clear that this “restoration […] should be viewed as a construct” and that Roselius’ idea of ​​​​placing the origin of the house in the 14th century does not stand up to the sources.

Haus des Glockenspiels

The Glockenspiel House on Böttcherstraße in Bremen is known for its carillon made of Meissen porcelain bells and the wooden panels designed by Bernhard Hoetger in a rotating tower section.

The building has been a listed building since 1973.

From 1922 to 1924, as part of the redesign of Böttcherstraße, Bremen coffee merchant Ludwig Roselius commissioned architects Eduard Scotland and Alfred Runge to renovate two old warehouses for the Bremen-Amerika-Bank. This bank served as the principal and commercial bank of the HAG Group until after the Second World War.

Today, the building houses the archives and administration of Böttcherstraße GmbH, the Atlantis arthouse cinema, as well as offices and retail outlets.

The Carillion

The carillon between the gables of the building was inaugurated in May 1934. It consisted of 30 Meissen porcelain bells, blue on the outside and gilded on the inside. They measured up to 210 millimeters in height and up to 160 millimeters in diameter. On one side of the white rim, they bore the Meissen underglaze porcelain mark (crossed swords without a finial, with or without a dot between the blades), and on the other side, in gold on the glaze, the designation of the note the bell produced (e.g., F-sharp). At the top of the bell, between the feet of the suspension bracket, was a painter’s mark: the crossed swords of the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory.

Unique at the time was the combination of the carillon with a rotating tower segment, located between the Carillon House and the Roselius House, standing at right angles to it. Ten carved and colored wooden panels depicting scenes of famous ocean conquerors rotate to the sound of the carillon. The panels were designed by Bernhard Hoetger and carved by Victor Kopytko. With this commission, Ludwig Roselius intended to once again “create a monument to the pioneering spirit and drive of humanity.”

The carillon, which had a paper cylinder control, was the third truly operable carillon ever built in 1934, and the only one installed outdoors without a surrounding resonating body. All other carillons are installed in towers, bay windows, or similar structures.

The Second Carillon

After partial destruction—only seven bells survived World War II—the second carillon was installed in 1954. In contrast to the first bells, this time, all-white bells were installed. The new carillon was hung in the old copper scrollwork, which was then restored to its original form.

In the 1960s, a bell came loose during the carillon and shattered on the ground. No one was injured, but not a single piece of porcelain could be recovered; the souvenir hunters had done a great job. At that time, it was almost impossible to reorder a Meissen bell. The replacement bell, acquired a few years later, did not sound right for the carillon, and many technical problems had not yet been solved to achieve a perfect sound from the bells.

Four different melodies were played three times a day (Christmas carols during Advent): “To sailors, the anchors have been lifted,” “Over Bremen fell a rain” (composer Ludwig Roselius), “Lullaby on the coast” (composer Ludwig Roselius), and “On the Weser, the Weser song.” The composer Ludwig Roselius was a relative of the coffee merchant of the same name.

The Third Carillon

After being shut down in 1990 and undergoing extensive restoration, including the wooden panels, the system was put back into operation in 1991. This third carillon – also with 30 Meissen porcelain bells – was developed by the company Turmuhrenbau Ferner in Meissen, had a computer control system, and could also be played from a keyboard.

On March 25, 2000, on the occasion of the completed renovation of Böttcherstraße, the original F-sharp 1 bell of the 1954 carillon was auctioned off in the American style.

The carillon was overhauled in 2002 and received new control electronics (Turmuhrenbau Ferner) in early 2009. The system is now fully remote-controlled, can be connected to musical instruments via radio, and allows the recording of new pieces.

Playing times (the system automatically shuts off in frosty weather):

January 1 – March 31 at 12:00, 15:00, and 18:00
April 1 – December 31, between 12:00 and 18:00 on the hour

The chimes begin on the hour with the Westminster chime (12:00). Since October 13, 1990, the following melodies have been played along with the rotating image panels (10 melodies (8:26)ⓘ/?):

1. Up, Sailors, Anchors Weighed (Folk Song)
2. Helmsman, Let the Watch (Richard Wagner)
3. Nordic Sea Song (Carl Loewe)
4. Merry Sailor’s Song (Folk Song)
5. Weser Song (Pressel)
6. If I Were a Little Bird (Johannes Brahms)
7. Thoughts Are Free (Folk Song)
8. Roland, the Giant, at Bremen Town Hall (Folk Song)
9. We Want to Set Sail on Land (Folk Song)
10. The Great Longing (Schwarze)

The intonation of the carillon – which also includes five Christmas carols – was undertaken by Professor Schwarze from Dresden. The carillon comprises 30 tones in two and a half octaves.

“Ocean Conquerors” Figure Panels

The ten wooden panels, rotating to the sound of the carillon, depict famous ocean-going sailors – from the Vikings to the Bremen flight of 1928 and the airship pioneers.

• Leif Eriksson (c. 975), Icelandic explorer, and Thorfinn Karlsefni (c. 1010), Icelandic navigator and trader
• Didrik Pining (c. 1428), German navigator, and Hans Pothorst, 15th-century German explorer
• Christopher Columbus (~1451–1506), credited with the discovery of America

• Robert Fulton (1765–1815), American engineer, built the first practical steamships and the submarine Nautilus

• Captain König (1887–1933), captain of the North German Lloyd, first Atlantic crossing by U-boat (unarmed merchant submarine) in 1916

• Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown and Captain Alcock, pilots, first non-stop flight across the Atlantic in 1919; Major and engineer George Herbert Scott, British airship pilot, first airship crossing of the Atlantic in 1919
• Charles Lindbergh (1902–1974), first solo crossing of the Atlantic from New York to Paris
• Captain Hermann Köhl, Colonel James C. Fitzmaurice, Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld, first east-west crossing of the Atlantic by powered aircraft
• Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, Hugo Eckener: airship designers
• Earth, moon, stars, and space, as well as hand and footprints and the text: Leif Erikson: “You know only knowledge. You do not know the will’s hot drive, which first gives birth to knowledge.”

The brewery of the local beer Schüttinger is also in this building.

In Bremen, a stone plaque on the Glockenspiel House in Böttcherstraße commemorates it was 80 years ago that the first cross Atlantic flight was made by an aircraft manufactured in Bremen, named the Condor …

The plaque beneath is of a man on a horse seemingly trampling on a weed …

There is also this statue of the bust of a naked woman …

Haus Atlantis

Built between 1930 and 1931 according to plans by Bernhard Hoetger, the house is intended to embody the utopia of the legendary continent of Atlantis. The building features a modern geometric shape, constructed from glass, wood, and reinforced concrete, and was furnished in the Art Deco style. The rooms were used primarily as a lecture and reading room. When Böttcherstraße was sold in 1988, the building was separated from the street and today belongs to the Swedish company Pandox AB. The company undertook extensive renovation work and integrated the building into a hotel built next door. The staircase and the Himmelssaal (Sky Hall) have been preserved virtually in their original state to this day, making them important testimonies to German architecture from the interwar period.

The Atlantis House on Böttcherstraße in Bremen was built in 1930/31 according to designs by Bernhard Hoetger. The staircase and the Himmelssaal (Heavenly Hall) are largely preserved in their original state. It is one of the most interesting examples of German architecture from the interwar period.

The building has been a listed building since 1973.

Ludwig Roselius, who was closely associated with ethnic-Nordic thought, was inspired by the controversial ethnic-racist Atlantis theory of mythologist Herman Wirth, which he published in his 1928 book *The Rise of Humanity*, for the most recent building in the Böttcherstraße ensemble. Roselius was enthusiastic and decided to incorporate Wirth’s speculations into a building under Hoetger’s direction.

In contrast to the other buildings on Böttcherstraße, Hoetger built Haus Atlantis as a steel and glass structure. The building’s supporting structure consists of steel beams that curve barrel-shaped in the roof to define the form of the Himmelssaal (Sky Hall). At regular intervals, Hoetger placed standardized teak windows, glass block elements, and wooden panels between the beams. Haus Atlantis was inaugurated on June 23, 1931.

There was a small exhibition with older black and white photographs of the interior …

There was a cinema theater and this film by one of my favorite directors Zhang Yimou was showing …

There were two beautiful staircases in this building. The firts one was sober but beautiful when seen from the top downward …

The 2nd was a famous staircase, with its elegant spiral staircase—a key work of Art Deco in Northern Germany— which leads to the Hall of Heaven. Eight beer-mat-sized round panes of white glass are embedded in each of the 89 steps, which circle a central axis of three skyward-stretching pillars. The railing is cast in concrete, pierced by glass lenses. Cold light falls into this stair tower through white and blue glass bricks.

Beneath is the beautiful blue and white glass roof above the staircase …

The Hall of Heaven, a parabolic dome made of blue and white glass bricks, has a special effect of light and space and was intended to be a mystical place. The symbols of the main portal are repeated on the front, and the Tree of Life appears in blue glass bricks on the sides of the parabolic roof.

The staircase and the Hall of Heaven have been largely preserved in their original form to this day and are among the most interesting examples of German architecture of the interwar period.

Currently (as of January 2024), the Himmelssaal is operated by the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bremen. The Himmelssaal is used for weddings, civil ceremonies, funerals, and conferences.

The Wandelgek loved the beautiful wooden floor work and the blue and white glass roof …

As is common in Art Deco and Art Nouveau style buildings, even the fixtures for light and the heating system are designed …

Robinson Crusoe Haus

The Robinson Crusoe House at Böttcherstraße 1 and Martinistraße 19 in Bremen was built in 1931 according to a preliminary design by Ludwig Roselius as the last house on the street. It is one of the most interesting examples of German architecture from the interwar period.

The building has been a listed building since 1973.

At the southern end of Böttcherstraße (formerly Bötticherstraße) stood around 1900 several small, two-story, eaves-facing warehouses, which were dilapidated and demolished around 1921 as part of the new development on Böttcherstraße. Ludwig Roselius, coffee merchant and founder of the Kaffee HAG company, initiated the purchase of the first properties before the First World War. In the early 1920s, he had convinced the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and the city’s building authorities with his plan to create a small colony for artists and small-scale artisans with studios, shops, and apartments near the market square, in keeping with the North German building tradition. After the properties further north had already been built on, the two houses facing Martinistraße were inaugurated in 1931. With their gable facades facing Martinistraße, the Robinson Crusoe House (left) and the Atlantis House completed the development of the street to the south.

Until 1944, many of the rooms of the Robinson Crusoe House served as the meeting place for the Bremen Club. The oldest social club in Germany was formed in 1931 through the merger of the Bremen Society and the Society Museum, founded in 1783. In addition to the club rooms (dining room, bar, gallery, and Scotland Room), there was also a Vogeler Hall on the second floor, in which nine paintings exemplify Heinrich Vogeler’s artistic development. The hall on the ground floor was initially used by Kaba to present the cocoa beverage invented by Ludwig Roselius.

In October 1944, incendiary bombs destroyed almost the entire Böttcherstraße. The building was largely restored to its original condition by Kaffee HAG by 1954.

Today, panels in the stairwell, reminiscent of woodcut printing plates, carved by Theodor Schultz-Walbaum during the reconstruction in 1954, commemorate the building’s history.

In 1979, Ludwig Roselius Jr. sold Kaffee HAG, including Böttcherstraße, to General Foods. He repurchased Böttcherstraße in 1981. In 1989, the Sparkasse Bremen purchased the entire street, including its buildings, except for Haus Atlantis. In 2004, Böttcherstraße was transferred to the Bremer Sparer-Dank Foundation. It is operated by Böttcherstraße GmbH, a subsidiary of the Sparkasse Bremen financial holding company.

This building houses the Crusoe Hall, which hosts temporary exhibitions, as well as offices and apartments (as of 2014).

The character Robinson Crusoe from Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel chose Roselius, symbolizing Hanseatic drive and pioneering spirit. Furthermore, Crusoe was the son of a Bremen merchant named Kreutzner, who had emigrated to England (Hull and then York), where he became wealthy. In English, Robinson’s name, Kreutzner, was formed into the name Crusoe, as can be read at the beginning of the novel.

Roselius provided the preliminary design for the Robinson Crusoe House. His in-house architect, Karl von Weihe, “enthusiastically” adopted Roselius’s sketchy, small drawing. His daughter, Hildegard Roselius, wrote: “Together, the two friends designed the house, just as it has been rebuilt today.” The detailed design was undertaken by the Böttcherstraße construction department, headed by Weihe. Roselius designed a house partly inspired by more conventional, historic Lower Saxon architectural forms, with a modern and rather expressionistic stepped gable. The daughter commented: “I can still see it today [1954], this sketch, a torn sheet from a notebook. And I can still see the gable rising up under my father’s hands. […] He drew the gable as high as his sense of proportion allowed. Then he finished the drawing with an energetic horizontal stroke. […] His entire being lay in this horizontal stroke: controlled energy, clarity of will, and a sense of balance.”[4] The stepped gable facing Martinistraße, in its new version, incorporates old design elements of Bremen gabled houses and structures the gable with large-format windows with small-scale glazing. This gable, in its original version from 1931, was considerably more stringent than the gable after 1954.

Like all buildings on Böttcherstraße, the red bricks characterize the facades. The common arcade motif is incorporated into the Atlantis House with a thick, round column on each side, thus marking the entrance to Böttcherstraße on both sides.

The interior was designed by the architects Alfred Runge and Eduard Scotland, who had already designed two other buildings on Böttcherstraße.

The building’s furnishings were lost. What remains are wooden panels depicting scenes from the story of Robinson Crusoe, carved and colored by Theodor Schultz-Walbaum, in the stairwell.

Notable features include the twelve colored leaded glass windows on the ground floor, created by Bernhard Hoetger in 1926, and the bronze figures of the Silver Lion, Carrying the Day, and the Panther, Carrying the Night, from 1912.

A photograph of the central window between the silver lion and the panther.

Slowly The Wandelgek moved on through the narrow alley like street toward the end of Böttcherstraße which was at the Weser riverside.

The fact that Böttcherstraße was once a street where coopers manufactured barrels to transport goods, shows Bremen was long ago a harbor and trade town, hence its membership of the Hanze trade guild.

The harbor is gone now and moved to Bremerhaven, but there are still ships on the river Weser that visit the quay of Bremen. For that and more see my next upcoming blogposts.