Typisch bremisch Typically “Bremish”

from Hamburg. Ladies from Bremen don’t behave like that.
Always keep your feet on the ground, that’s the motto.
There have been and there always will be occasions when
people get carried away in the attempt to give Bremen a
new image, to make the city cool and sexy. But just as the
Roland statue stands on the Marktplatz and the Town
Musicians remain in their corner next to the Town Hall,
Bremen stays Bremen. And that also means plenty of
valuable substance that just has to be put to good use,
explains Professor Burmann. The brand core of a city must
be authentic, not some kind of marketing UFO from an
alien world that just happens to land on the Marktplatz.
There’s no point in making comparisons with Hamburg or
Berlin when you’re Bremen. This insight always prevails.
That’s certainly the way the people of Bremen see it.
Burmann found out that 77 percent of the population
think that their city is good or even very good. The growing
number of tourists from Asia, Scandinavia or Spain
taking photos day by day of the Town Hall or Böttcherstraße
verifies that Bremen also has a lot to offer visitors.
The city appeals to business as well, from the surrounding
region and also from foreign countries. More than 120
Chinese companies have opened branches in Bremen or
the general area. These contacts are enhanced by the
lively exchange between the highly international general
universities and universities of applied sciences, and recently
also by a Confucius Institute in the city.
Sometimes, Hanseatic modesty can verge on despondency.
Modern-day Bremen has little in the way of outstanding
architecture to offer. The city’s prosperity as
indicated in the statistics (after Hamburg, Bremen has the
second highest density of millionaires in relation to the
population) tends to be revealed more on the inside, in
tasteful furnishings and private art collections rather than
in opulent mansions or large daring buildings.
And so the city is spared one or other financial disaster
such as Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. Which doesn’t mean
to say that no-one dreamt of a “Weser-Philharmonie”.
“Musicon” was what they were going to call the proud
building, based on an idea sketched out by star architect
Daniel Libeskind. It was to be built by a private association.
But the plans remained in the drawer because of a lack of
funds. For the time being, classical music events continue
to be held in the attractive art-deco concert house called
The Glocke, while the trams noticeably rumble past outside,
without spoiling the music. Bremen also had ambitions
to become a Musical City, with its own productions
and a permanent cast. But it was already too late to jump
on the bandwagon, which elsewhere ended up against
the brick wall. Fortunately, a solution was found for
Bremen to extract itself from the situation, with a number
of wounds but limited damage, and to put the project into
private hands.
Growing appeal
Bremen has seen great success in the development of its
commercial estates, another indication of its growing appeal.
The Überseestadt is an undisputed success story.
Bremen’s future is growing here on an area covering 300
hectares, one kilometre wide and 3.5 kilometres long.
54.2 of the total 96 hectares earmarked for new development
have already been accounted for. Here, more than
660 companies go about their business with a workforce
of more than 11,500 employees. The development should
be completed by 2025, to the tune of more than 350 mil-
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