D.ie Bremischen Häfen - 1000 Jahre Geschichte (Dokumentation, 2014)

You are seeing Bremen as it once was What you will soon hear is a historical yet highly relevant text Water transport and trade have shaped the history of the thousand-year-old city Welcome and hello to this harbor tour We will travel together through a thousand years of harbor history The Bremen merchants' slogan "Buten und Binnen Wagen und Winnen" once determined not only daily work life It is still true today During our harbor tour we will tell you about courage and hard work About speculation and dreams of loss and profit About the pressures to modernize About harsh working conditions and the willingness to change So far the matter has worked out well for Bremen The ports are an economic success The car terminal from which vehicles roll onto the cargo ships is one of the largest in the world At the mouth of the Weser Europe's fourth-largest container port has emerged With almost five kilometers Bremerhaven has one of the longest power cables in the world How did it all start We will walk through a model with the camera It is located at the Bremen Overseas Museum and will take you back in time A structure like the one Germany is just beginning to develop And this is how the young Bremen might have looked A tributary of the Weser the Balge is used as a natural harbor Trade routes lead to the small settlement Hartmut Roder from the Overseas Museum in Bremen knows the story Bremen as a trading port is only conceivable because the tide recedes here That there was already a ferry crossing here in the Middle Ages a ferry connection to both sides of the Weser In case of doubt it's true that various paths and journeys actually crossed here The harbors were essential in the past You are the real reason for founding Bremen here The young Bremen protected from attacks easily accessible and granted a market charter thus has a solid foundation for the future The oldest preserved quarter of Bremen the Schnoor Photos from the 1930s Schnoor comes from the Low German word "Snor " meaning "cord" or "rope " Sailing and many other maritime trades are based here River fishermen inland sailors shipbuilders bone carvers cask makers moonshine distillers tobacco factories and and The bell is rusting The new harbor is to be built at the Sluice which belonged to the Bishop who is thankfully quite tight-fisted In 1247 the archbishop sold the Schlachte the riverfront harbor to the Bremen merchants and citizens due to his financial difficulties Then he was systematically reinforced Systematically reinforced means that several thousand poles were driven into the shore Slag Slaughter Now they know the true story For a long time the livestock will be soaked But Bremen is to join the Hanse It must invest in the mooring and loading areas for river ships and seafaring cog ships In 1358 it is finally time Bremen becomes a member of the Hanse A major leap The battle in the 1930s The camera pans from the Reichsbörse to the Ansgari Church to the Martini Church And this view goes upstream from the Stefani Quarter Stream The old town on the left The tea house opposite This area was once used to store cargo in warehouse buildings between the small and large Weser rivers Summer vacation in the 1930s The former Upper Harbor has been filled in The swimming beach remains At the Weser It will only be possible again in the 21st century The great Weser Bridge destroyed in World War II Continue to the Kapsche Villa And the Martini Church For shipping on the Lower Weser silting has always been a problem So by 1850 the channel was only about two meters deep And also sufficient for light workboats and tugs They then tried to make the Weser a bit deeper But there was no one there to tell them how to do it There were no large steam cranes yet There were no excavators Such things did not exist at all New harbor facilities are being planned They only make sense if they can be reached by ocean-going ships The river must be straightened and dredged But how Ludwig Franzius professor and civil engineer develops solutions The Weser Correction His plans are very convincing Because 30 million gold thalers will be made available for the construction measures It is a significant investment for German foreign trade Up to 1500 men are working on the Weser deepening and the new Bremen harbor basins Steam engines and bucket excavators are used to move about 30 million cubic meters of sand The result a 5-meter draft for ocean giants A quantum leap Finally with the Weser correction it became possible for larger seafaring ships to reach Bremen Of course this riverside harbor was no longer suitable for such a battle right there by the old town Special harbors had to be artificially built into the landscape excavated Construction of the so-called free port begins in 1885 The photos show the construction work on the 2.75-meter-deep harbor basin of the later European Harbor With the completion of the Weser Correction in 1888 the European Harbor also known as Free Port I was also opened That was a major breakthrough for Bremen We are visiting the archive of the Bremen Warehouse Company and are allowed to take a look at the wonderful photo albums The images from the founding era of the European port contain First the former port administration building of BLG Images of the opening of the world's largest harbor basin at the time follow In the first year of operation there were already 280 steam and sailing ships here In 1888 40 000 people including Kaiser Wilhelm II celebrated the opening of Port I of the European Harbor The construction ultimately costs 32 million Reichsmarks A short flight over the harbor with the harbor house and warehouse in 1930 Between the two world wars the Bremen harbors experience a golden age The ships become larger the giants of the Atlantic demand more space Crane operations here date back to the construction era These recordings give an impression of the port work and handling techniques of the 1930s Before the shed 13 a heap of North American cotton is being removed The word "Hiefen" has survived from the Zealandic dialect Roast coffee in sacks it is further processed in Bremen At around 1700 the exotic drink was only available at the town hall pharmacy in the marketplace Two hundred years later Bremen is the leading coffee import port in Germany The Fulda of the North German people brings Brazilian tobacco The barrels are unloaded at the overseas port This port is the hub for the exotic goods that are becoming increasingly commonplace in colonial stores throughout the German Empire The colonial goods were actually the key point To move from Bremen a dreamy trading city and Hanseatic city of the late Middle Ages into the modern era They were actually the key products that caused a significant goods turnover to take place in Bremen and that industry established itself here processing these products further In 1934 the overseas port will account for over four million net registered tons of maritime traffic A world record Sales were expected to grow many times over A harbor operating at full capacity seven days a week The heart of the city a magnet not only for tourists When Papa Schwertfeger wants to treat the family to something special he goes to the harbor The son remembers the visits fondly What has always impressed me the most when approaching the harbor is that you already have so many different smells in your nose Later I found out that raw coffee or coa has a distinct smell or that cotton has its own odor And the ports were also open and you could go anywhere at any time walking past the ships And those were just the dimensions and the smells and the sounds And of course I must also say these typical dockworkers who existed back then Real solid workers where there was still a lot of manual labor With the stanchion they went around and they looked very powerful already And as a child and later as a teenager I could also imagine becoming that strong The harbor tour was an essential part of any visit to Bremen for tourists Back then it was not a given Color films for the 8mm camera for floating and fixed subjects here the Molenkopf And behind the ship in the overseas harbor the old warehouses and the Atlas works Bremen with a railway bridge and cathedral and on the right the Beck's brewery Bremen is growing and so are its ports for example the industrial port More mooring spaces are needed all the time The industrial harbor can be put into operation as early as 1910 The Hanseatic ships of the German Steamship Company are carrying a locomotive manufactured by Henschel in Kassel In this period the harbor provides work for thousands of men and few women Much work Also by six o'clock everyone had to be there and then the distributors came out There were choir stalls in there Each choir stall had a distributor They had a list and then people were called by name And then they got a card with and in this card was a small mediation certificate inside And there it was where they had to go Also once the company once the ship or just BLG sheds so and so And that is what they then handed over in the shed or on board with the foreman He collected it and distributed the people on the ship or if it was land in the shed Just as he had previously imagined it as it must be Yes and then the work began Whoever arrived first gets the better job So to speak So everyone tried their best when they had their sheet That he would get there as quickly as possible where he was supposed to work The Pierce with suction arms and conveying systems of the grain transportation facility It was put into operation in 1897 Amazing the 400-meter-long wall of silos 1 and 2 Approximately 1000 tons of heavy cargo are unloaded per hour from the ships and distributed onto container ships They transport the cargo further into the interior Two years before the opening 450 000 tons of grain are already imported More than ever in Bremen's commercial history The Helgen of AG Weser Without ship and with ship The launch of the Bremen 4 The world marvels at the superlatives The construction of the ocean giant consumed 22 000 tons of steel The Queen of the Seas is 280 meters long A Borgward column is heading for shipment Cars from Bremen cars of reputation was the slogan of the young automotive history Their Bremer chapter begins in 1927 with Goliath the lightning cart Those with a sense for it could have sensed back then what was building up over Germany The Do-X was the largest airplane in the world in 1930 The landing approaches and test starts from the Bremen turning basin They tend to have a more peaceful background However torpedo boats destroyers and cruisers are already being celebrated Long before the Nazis set the course of Germany Ships of the Reichsmarine visit the Bremen harbors and dock at the head of the Europa harbor One may board Frau Peitzmeier recalls At the beginning of the war one could tour the warships And there was the Admiralpromi and there were too And that was already bad it became even worse Then came the many bomb attacks and the entire harbor was full of warships and the whole city full of soldiers And those from the navy who marched in the evenings up and down the Wallerstraße with their girls War in Bremen The Hanseatic city is just two flight hours from the bases The bomb-carrying aircraft have been removed from the British Isles The Allies fly 173 air raids on Bremen We were in the bunker every day And I had to go to school in Walle as well Specifically at the school at Holzhafen I was completely settled in and they had already been there in the morning and then you could pick up your schoolwork and shortly after that the alarm went off We could run out of the class without saying hello here That was mandatory Allied aircraft dropped a total of over 900 000 bombs on Bremen They kill more than 4 000 people I remember the firestorm And that is a roar and it howls This is terrible And the trees they bent all the way to the ground And that was terrible And since then I've always been afraid of water and fire And I can't be in tight spaces I also don't like elevators And I don't like being around so many people Everything has to be free for me I always need a lot of space After the war the legendary mayor Wilhelm Kaisen will write about his memories Bremen was nothing but a scorched wasteland a death zone The survivors must grasp their horror with words process it They call the area around Stefaniekirche the death zone Doventor Udbremen and Walle The Allies set the boundaries of the Bremen enclave in November 1944 Bremen like the rest of northern Germany It is liberated by the British The Hamburg port is to become a British bridgehead The Bremen ports are to serve as an American supply base In May 1945 Bremen and the Bremen port become American enclaves The harbor is 90% destroyed Larger areas are spared because the Allies want to use them later for the landing of supplies There are still 12 cranes operational in the European Port There were 250 But even the remaining ones cannot be used The power supply is destroyed Hundreds of wrecks block the shipping lanes in all harbors This is the rest of the administrative building of AG Weser U-boat remains are carefully examined by the Americans for technical details evaluated and finally disposed of The American enclave in the British sector is supplied by the Waterman shipping company's vessels Also the supplies for the US Army in southern Germany are unloaded in Bremen What arrives as goods is in demand There were also food items You could also sneak in a little bit There was coffee Then the most ingenious tricks were devised What to get for home But whoever was caught was then imprisoned He was first sent to the Domshof bunker In 1945 Bremen was assigned to the American occupation zone The port facilities of Bremerhaven are almost intact They were not bombed The Americans expected a long-term occupation They needed a supply port for the US Army a port of embarkation 0.5 million soldiers will come to Germany in the next 10 years Many will bring their families Others will seek and find a connection here Some may have ancestors ose who once sailed from a Bremenhaven ketch to the new world In 1947 General Omar Bradley arrives at the Columbus Carke The successor of General Eisenhower ad enabled the invasion of South Germany American soldiers bring far more into the country than their personal sea chests This is Chico's Place in Bremerhaven It is the legendary jazz bar In 1958 the Nigerian Asuko Chico Eyo opened it The musical establishment The bar will become Germany's most popular jazz club The only one who will also become known in New York Outstanding musicians from the Army Bands play here until the early morning Jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie make guest appearances The Americans will quickly change Bremen and Bremerhaven On June 6 1945 the Black Warrior the first troop transport arrives at the Columbus Carje One million tons are being transferred to U S bases With new methods with palletizing Loaded into crates or Connex containers the U S Army meets its massive demand Also included in the delivery are F-84 jet fighters tracked vehicles and tanks for Germany the future NATO partner and the still highly controversial new Bundeswehr No one will have counted them exactly But at least 200 000 private cars are coming For the G I s in Bremerhaven Vintage cars currently sought The Americans revived the destroyed Bremen Suddenly 1947 1948 became a bustling activity again registered in the still partially destroyed harbors Back to Bremen The Bremerhaven residents are cautiously adapting to their new role in the city-state of Bremen Beginning of the 1950s The ship the camera head downstream along the Weser We see the Himmelinger Harbor with the Roland Shipyard and the Hasted Power Plant The old Weserwehr ahead Here the water level is regulated ships from the Upper Weser are guided through And generates electricity with turbines Passing by the Röhrs gravel barge At the Ottilio-Hoffmann-Haus and the Weser Terraces Along the Easter Dyke to the Old Wall The water feature or the inverted chest of drawers in common language the urban storage unit Before the ruins at Osterdeich and Altenwall traffic is returning to normal This is where the Water and Shipping Office is located For now The river bath facility near the temporarily reopened Great Weser Bridge Here you see again the former impressive villa of the wine merchant Kampf From the ruin later the high-rise of Kühe and Nagel will be Davor is keeping a coastal motor ship on course for the Hegemann Yard in Himmelingen Some excursion steamers have survived The MS Friedrich is in front The ships are once again carrying passengers across the Weser For life must go on At the beginning of the 1950s a delicate tourism along the Schlatte starts up again These private recordings were made by an American family during a visit to relatives in Schwachhausen The vacation impressions hint at a tentative new beginning Some tourists may have been curious about the former opponents Some look for signs of a possible normality a future Our Weser cruise continues We pass by the Stephanikirche Through the railway bridge Along the levee from Hohentoershafen The Gasworks in Pußdorf appears immediately Finally one can see the Weserbahnhof to the right behind the bridge Beginning of the 1950s The most obvious external signs of the war have been largely removed The three major port cities are fully occupied The end of the war is 6 years ago The Krusau from Flensburg a multi-purpose cargo ship with 3 hatches and a deck crane It is installed The 10 loading trees and the heavy cargo tree can carry 60 to 80 tons There are few film recordings from the early 1950s These images of cargo handling are a rarity First the harbor then the city so is the legendary motto of Mayor Wilhelm Kaisen He sets priorities and achieves success The reconstruction leads to a long- lasting boom in the economy and ports Bremen invested 130 million marks into the reconstruction of its ports until 1950 The Volkswagen later became a symbol of the Federal Republic As an export nation made in Germany The rising Federal Republic relies on functioning gates to world trade The thriving import and export bring the world to Bremen Ships from all nations dock in the harbors and give the city an international flair The Bremers are confronted with the vast wide world Some learn some habits of the foreign visitors The Chinese were very friendly That was still during Mao 's time Back then were invited to eat with the captain One could not tell who was the captain and who was the officer They were all wearing blue jackets and sneakers They all looked the same That's when they invited us There was the whole table full of everything Everyone was served from front to back eating with chopsticks and enjoying themselves If we didn't manage it and tried hard I didn't realize that until later When you finished your plate you immediately got another portion Copyright WDR 2021