By Isla Quinn
Stand on the market square and turn slowly. A giant in stone. A town hall covered in carving. A cathedral behind. Bremen packs its pride into one open space, then hides a smaller surprise round the side.
The knight
The Roland has stood in front of the town hall since 1404. The city’s tourist board calls it the city’s landmark and a symbol of its freedom and trading rights. UNESCO describes a statue of Roland, a paladin of Charlemagne, put up to represent the rights of a free and imperial city, and calls it one of the oldest and most representative of its kind. It adds that the statue has been repaired and restored many times and that some original material has been replaced.
The sources do not agree on his height. UNESCO’s summary says the statue stands 5.5 m tall. The tourist board gives an overall height of 10.21 metres and calls it the largest free-standing statue of the German Middle Ages. Our reading: the smaller number is the figure and the larger one includes the canopy and base. Neither source says so.
The board also mentions a small figure at his feet, from the legend of Countess Emma von Lesum. A man who could not walk unaided was chosen to measure out grazing land, crawled a large area, and is remembered in the name Bürgerweide.
The town hall
UNESCO calls the old town hall a Gothic hall building of the early fifteenth century, put up after Bremen joined the Hanseatic League and renovated in the early seventeenth in the style known as Weser Renaissance. The board dates the Gothic building to 1405. UNESCO gives the old hall as 41.5 m by 15.8 m, with a ground-floor hall of oak pillars that served merchants and theatrical performances. The seventeenth-century front, it says, picked out the three middle axes of an eleven-bay colonnade with a projecting bay and a high gable, and added sandstone carving of allegorical figures.
The new town hall beside it was designed by Gabriel von Seidl of Munich and built between 1909 and 1913, according to UNESCO. The board describes a Güldenkammer with gilded leather wallpaper from 1618 to 1620, redesigned in 1905 in Art Nouveau style. UNESCO inscribed the town hall and Roland together; the board gives 2004 and adds that Bremen’s is the only town hall in the world so honoured. That is the board’s claim, and we have not tested it.
The animals round the corner
On the western side of the town hall stands a bronze group by Gerhard Marcks, made in 1953 according to the board. It is two metres tall, so not life-size. Touching the donkey’s shiny front legs is meant to bring luck and a wish, the board says, and touching only one leg with one hand marks you as a newcomer.
The story is a Brothers Grimm tale. Wikipedia says four ageing animals, a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster, set off for Bremen to become musicians, frighten off three robbers in a cottage and settle in the house. Contrary to the title, they never reach Bremen. Wikipedia gives 1819 for publication in the Grimms’ collection (KHM 27), while its infobox gives an origin date of 1812. We show both.
The oldest quarter
The Schnoor, the board says, is Bremen’s oldest district, first mentioned in the thirteenth century, with surviving buildings from the fourteenth. It counts 111 small houses, more than 100 of them listed, along alleys narrow enough to touch both sides with outstretched arms. The name comes from an old German word for string, because ropes and cords were once made there.
Böttcherstrasse
The board gives the lane two lengths, 110 metres in the summary and 108 in the text. It says Ludwig Roselius, a coffee merchant, had it built between 1922 and 1931, with buildings designed by Bernhard Hoetger in what the board calls a rare example of expressionist architecture. A glockenspiel house has 30 Meissen porcelain bells and ten carved panels that turn as it chimes.
Dates in order
- 1404: the Roland, according to UNESCO and the board.
- 1405 or the early fifteenth century: the Gothic town hall, according to the board and UNESCO.
- 1909 to 1913: the new town hall, according to UNESCO.
- 1922 to 1931: Böttcherstrasse, according to the board.
- 1953: Marcks’s bronze, according to the board and Wikipedia.
- 2004: World Heritage listing, according to the board.
What kind of sources these are
UNESCO’s World Heritage page, the city’s tourist board pages, and one Wikipedia article for the fairy tale. The board promotes the city, so we left out tours, opening hours and prices, and the cellar restaurant and its wine.
Quick answers
How tall is the Bremen Roland? UNESCO’s summary says the statue stands 5.5 m tall. The Bremen tourist board gives an overall height of 10.21 metres. The sources do not explain the difference.
Where is the Town Musicians statue in Bremen? According to the Bremen tourist board, it stands on the western side of the town hall, and it is a bronze by Gerhard Marcks from 1953.
Why do people touch the donkey’s legs? The Bremen tourist board says touching the donkey’s shiny front legs is meant to bring luck, so visitors make a wish while doing it.
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Roam first. Shop later.