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Important business location and home to well-known companies - thanks to its port, Bremen has been doing good business for centuries. It goes without saying that a number of major brands also have their home in the Weser city. Visitors can take a look behind the scenes at some of the companies.

Flying high with Airbus

How heavy is a liter of milk on the moon? How do you sleep in weightlessness? And where do astronauts get water? In 1961, the first astronauts Bremen a new era - that of space flight. The traditional northern German companies Focke-Wulf, Hamburger Flugzeugbau and Weser Flugzeugbau gave rise to the Entwicklungsring Nord, or ERNO for short, which quickly made a name for itself in international space flight. Today, the successor company Airbus is one of the world's leading aerospace centers. And anyone who has always wondered what it's like in space can find out here at the Visit of the 1:1 model of a space laboratory the answer.

At Airbus, guests experience the 1:1 model of a space laboratory © WFB/Jonas Ginter
At Airbus, guests experience the 1:1 model of a space laboratory © WFB/Jonas Ginter

Beck's and Co

Bremen and beer have belonged together for a long time. In the High Middle Ages, for example, the city had just a few thousand inhabitants, but already had over 300 brewing sites. Beer was therefore not only a foodstuff, but also a staple, just like bread. At that time, people probably drank two to three liters a day on average. The biggest export from Bremen is Beck's beer today. Founded in June 1873 as "Kaiserbrauerei Beck & May o.H.G", today around 3,000 bottles are opened every minute worldwide. One Tour of the brewery and the company's own museum takes you through the raw materials room and the brewhouse, past malt silos, the fermentation and storage tanks, and of course ends with a tasting.

Beck's Brewery
Great success story: 3000 Beck's beers are opened every minute worldwide © Michael Ihle / AB Inbev, Brauerei Beck & Co

A Mercedes from the Weser

The largest private employer in the Hanseatic city and probably one of the best-known brands worldwide is Mercedes-Benz. The large company employs around 12,500 people. At Guided tours in the plant visitors experience first-hand what makes the cars so unique and how much work goes into a Mercedes-Benz. Tip: On the company grounds there is also a Off-road vehicle coursewhich off-road fans can complete at the wheel of a GLK.

Mercedes plant in Bremen
Mercedes-Benz is the largest private employer in Bremen © Mercedes-Benz Customer Center Bremen

All coffee

Overseas trade and port belong together, just like Bremen and the coffee. In 1673, probably the first coffee house in Germany was opened in Bremen. Today, almost every second imported coffee bean is imported via the Hanseatic city. Many small and large entrepreneurs around the coffee business settled in the Weser city, probably the most famous was Johann Jacob. In 1907, he opened his own roastery and became a pioneer in terms of variety and distribution. The whole story is expected to be available from the end of June 2020 in the Headquarters of the world famous Jacobs coffee to experience. And another exciting coffee story takes place in Bremen, that of Melitta: Originally founded in Dresden as the child of a household goods store, then based in Minden, Melitta came to Bremen in the 1960s. Bremen and took over the Bremen-based large-scale roaster Carl Ronning GmbH. This meant that the coffee brand had become a filter, so to speak. Incidentally, during the Corona pandemic, the company started manufacturing respirators in April 2020 - filter is filter after all.
You can find more information about the culinary Bremen here.

Kaba and Co.

Once called Kraft Foods, the company now operates under the name Mondelez International and has its German headquarters in BremenSome of the brands behind Mondelez are over 100 years old, such as Philadelphia, Milka and Kaba. During a stroll through Überseestadt, for example, you will pass the building with the well-known stylized palm tree logo, where "Kaba - the plantation drink" was once produced. The coffee merchant Ludwig Roselius was not only the inventor of decaffeinated coffee (Kaffee HAG), he also popularized the chocolate drink. You can see the old Kaba packaging in the Übersee-Museum.

Fresh, frosty, Frosta

They are always 9 centimeters long, 2.6 wide and 1.1 high - the fish sticks. Why? Because they are cut from a standardized frozen block weighing 7.5 kilograms. And the block determines the size of the sticks so that there is no waste. With the triumph of the freezer, frozen fish and the Frosta company from Bremerhaven conquered the market. Today, Frosta also offers products other than fish and is also a pioneer in sustainability. Since 2015, you can see how the sticks are made in Frosta's glass production facility in Bremerhaven. Incidentally, the city has the largest fishing port in Europe, which you can see in the Shop window fishing port can experience.

Green and white like Werder Bremen

A handful of boys from middle-class circles and a soccer ball got things started. The latter had been won by the students in a tug-of-war competition, and they used it to kick a ball around the Stadtwerder peninsula for the first time. That was in 1899 and the birth of today's SV Werder Bremen, now one of Germany's biggest sports clubs with 40,376 members. Its professional team was a founding member of the Bundesliga, belonged to it continuously with the exception of the 1980/81 season and has been the sole Bundesliga record participant with 56 seasons since the 2019/20 season.

How to get to Bremen by train: Plan arrival.

Cover photo: A Beluga Airbus loaded with aircraft wings from the Airbus plant in Bremen © Airbus

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Geschrieben von Fabian