Typisch bremisch Typically “Bremish”

This was Bremen’s first bankruptcy in the post-war economic
miracle. The mayor at that time, Wilhelm Kaisen,
saw no possibility of pumping several million D-mark into
the company, although 20,000 jobs were at stake. This was
the end for Borgward, and nearly also the end for Bremen
as an automotive location.
Although Hanomag and subsequently Mercedes-Benz
took on the former Borgward factory to make small trucks,
jobs were available for only 3,000 of the former workforce
of 20,000 employees. New hope to revive automotive
production here emerged only when the former Mercedes
boss Werner Niefer started an urgent search for a new car
site because the main factory in Sindelfingen was simply
no longer able to cope with demand.
When Hans Koschnick, Bremen’s mayor from 1967 to 1985,
heard about this, he tried to bring Bremen into play.
Bremen urgently needed new jobs. Borgward was not the
only company in difficulties: other industrial companies
such as Nordmende were insolvent and signs of the shipyard
crisis were already becoming visible on the horizon.
But initially, the car makers from Stuttgart paid no attention
to Bremen, and looked around in Düsseldorf, Hamburg
and Emden instead. And so the best land next to
the Borgward factory was offered to two allotment asso -
ciations that were being forced to move.
Hans Koschnick’s great coup
But then the long-awaited call from Daimler boss Werner
Niefer came after all. Koschnick remembers Werner Niefer
asked if he could see him even at the weekend. Of course
he could. They met for lunch and talks in the Senate guest
house. Niefer showed a certain degree of interest, but was
also sceptical. “Can you really manage things so we can
start in two to three years?” he asked Koschnick. After all,
houses would have to be pulled down and the allotments
would have to move again. On the other hand, they were
talking about 6,000 to 8,000 jobs.
“It won’t be easy, but I’ll do my best”, Koschnick replied.
“Give me two weeks”. He managed to convince the Senate,
but faced a hard struggle with the allotments, worked
primarily by traditional SPD (Social Democrats) voters, who
were supported by students from the recently founded
University of Bremen. They accused the Senate of being all
too willing to bow to the interests of a “capitalistic corpo -
ration”. Today, even the former contenders are probably
glad that Mercedes came to Bremen after all. A workforce
of more than 12,500 employees makes the car maker by
far and away the biggest employer in the region, together
with about 25,000 jobs in the supplier industry and logistics
sector.
But it was not just parts of Bremen’s population that were
sceptical, including those living in the district of Heme -
lingen that would be severely affected by factory traffic.
Koschnick remembers how suspicious Stuttgart was of the
new car factory being constructed in Bremen. “For the
Daimler factory worker, a Borgward was naturally never as
good as a Mercedes. So they reckoned “They can’t do it up
there in Bremen”. But we showed them that we definitely
could!”
Top marks for the Bremen plant
Today, no one at Daimler has any doubts any more.
Bremen always gets top marks in internal competition
between the company’s sites. The workforce in Bremen
has the reputation of being highly flexible and innovative
whenever new model series are being introduced. That is
why the Group named the Bremen plant as its “centre of
excellence” for the launch of the new C-class. In 2014,
there will be a new version of the C-class, the top-selling
model in the Mercedes car factory. The new car will be
produced not just in Bremen but also in East London
(South Africa), Tuscaloosa/Alabama (USA) and Beijing
(China). This demands intensive preparation. Already many
months before the start of production, 300 employees
from East London, Tuscaloosa and Beijing came to Bremen
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