Typisch bremisch Typically “Bremish”

Der Bremer Schlüssel ist ein jahrhundertealtes Symbol
der bremischen Identität.
The Bremen Key is a centuries-old symbol of the city’s identity.
sector has reconstructed its home with great commitment,
also in monetary terms. The gold leaf for example
was paid for personally by the Executive Board at the head
of the organisation. The merchants have therefore made a
special avowal to Bremen as a business location and to the
common good – or also renewed a centuries-old avowal.
Throughout history, prosperous citizens of Bremen,
grown wealthy with trading and shipping, have always felt
obliged to let society share in their economic success.
This “philanthropic energy” of which publicist Matthias
Wegner speaks, is just as steadfast a part of the Hanseatic
identity as a cosmopolitan outlook and a love of tradition,
reflected in the many merchant festivities with their strict
rituals, notably the Schaffer banquet. “In the Middle Ages
and in the early modern period, practically all donations
went to the poorhouses and orphanages, to churches
and to the construction of the city walls”, wrote historian
Herbert Schwarzwälder. It was the era in which the
“honourable merchant” took shape and with him, the
value-oriented Hanseatic merchant tradition. This old role
model of responsible entrepreneurial behaviour is now
returning with a vengeance in the idea of Corporate Social
Responsibility, the common good of the 21st century.