Typisch bremisch Typically “Bremish”

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Der Container ist heute das Symbol schlechthin für den Welthandel.
Today, the container is THE symbol for world trade.
LOGISTICS STRONGHOLD AND MARITIME ECONOMY
Bremen was the first to see the huge potential of the
container, the forerunner of globalisation. The maritime
economy and logistics play a central role in the economy
of the Federal State of Bremen.
Length: 6.058 metres, width: 2.438 metres, height: 2.591
metres – the standardised size of a 20-foot container is
the measure of all things today. TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent
units) are used to measure the freight capacity of
ships, as well as the handling activities in the major ports
of this world. International world trade would never have
grown at this speed and to this extent without the stackable
metal boxes. The standardised containers that can
take nearly all kinds of goods have made transport between
Asia and Europe or Asia and America dirt-cheap.
Transport costs account for no more than one or two
Euro in the price of a pair of jeans. Globalisation and
containers – the two are inextricably linked. Together of
course with the digital networking of the world which has
made it possible to organise global trade.
The container’s triumph was a bumpy procession to start
with, sometime back in the 1950s in the USA. The successful
haulage contractor Malcom McLean was irritated by all
the different freight regulations and the complicated procedure
facing his goods: from the truck to the warehouse,
warehouse to the ship, back to the warehouse and then
onto a truck again. A time-consuming process with many
hands hauling sacks and crates – surely there must be a
simpler way! It is said that was buying cigarettes from a