a city, a large river port and seaport in the Federal Republic of Germany, on the Weser River, 133 km from the river’s confluence with the North Sea. Administratively, the city of Bremen and the city of Bremerhaven, which fulfills the functions of a forward port for passenger ships and large freighters for Bremen, together form the Land of Bremen. Its area is 404 sq km; within its boundaries the population is 755, 400 (1969); of this number the population of the city of Bremen proper is 606, 000.
In the economy of the city and the Land, industry, transport, commerce, banking, and insurance play the main role. Of the economically active population 41.1 percent is employed in industry; 30.9 percent is employed in transport, commerce, and banking; and about 1 percent is employed in fishing and farming (1969).
The city of Bremen is a large international transport center; six railroad lines and three Autobahns converge there. The city also has an airport. In the postwar period, connections with other regions of the country have been substantially improved. (There are new canals along the middle reaches of the Weser; railroad lines have been electrified to Hannover and further into the southern portion of the Federal Republic of Germany, to the Ruhr, to Hamburg, and to Bremerhaven; Autobahns have been constructed leading to Hannover and Osnabrück.) The port of Bremen occupies third place in freight turnover (over 14 million tons in 1969; including Bremerhaven, 20.5 million tons) after Hamburg and Wilhelmshaven. Imports arriving through Bremen include cotton, wool, jute, tobacco, coffee, grain, fruit, lumber products, petroleum, and ores. Exports consist of industrial products, coal, coke, and potassium salts. Part of the freight turnover is freight passing through Bremen destined for Austria and Switzerland.
The basic branches of industry are connected with Bremen’s port and foreign trade functions. One-fourth of the country’s shipbuilding capacity is concentrated in Bremen (the shipyards Bremer Vulkan and AG Weser); there are two aircraft plants (Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke), a large ferrous metallurgy plant with the overall cycle of production (Klöckner-Werke), and two oil refineries. There are also automobile industry enterprises (manufacture of trucks), general machine construction plants, electrotechnical plants, textile mills (wool and jute), and the food-processing industry (flour, rice, coffee, tea, and others). Bremen is also an important center of wholesale trade in cotton (the cotton exchange), tobacco (tobacco exchange), wool, jute, grain, and coffee. There are also specialized educational institutions in Bremen, including a construction and engineering school and a school of navigation.
O. V. VITKOVSKII