Die Küste, 74 ICCE (2008), 356-367 356 Bremen and Bremerhaven By STEFAN WOLTERING and IVEN KRÄMER Upon explicit request of the authors this article has not been peer reviewed C o n t e n t s 1. Introduction. 356 2. Historical Development of Bremen’s Ports . 356 3. Status Quo. 358 4. Current Construction Projects. 360 4.1 Containerterminal Enlargement . 360 4.2 Enlargement of Vessel Turning Zone . 363 4.3 New Building of Sea Lock “Kaiserschleuse” . 364 4.4 Creation of New Berths for Automobile Handling . 365 4.5 Jade-Weser-Port – Construction of a New German Deep-Water Container Port . 366 5. Upcoming Projects . 367 1. I n t r o d u c t i o n Bremen/Bremerhaven, Germany’s number two seaport with an annual throughput of about 70 million tons of cargo (2007) has, like many other seaports, undergone a phase of substantial growth and change. The booming container traffic sector (4.9 million TEU in 2007) and Bremen’s role as the main hub for European automobile distribution have been principal drivers of the local port business and, in anticipation of a further duplication of cargo handling volumes, the largest investment scheme in Bremen’s port history is already well under way. The current number four container terminal on the European continent is to be enlarged by 1700 metres of new quay wall and about 90 hectares of new reclaimed land. A new sea lock to strengthen the position of the automobile logistics centre is under construction and dredging work to adapt the River Weser as the main navigational channel to future ship sizes will be carried out in 2008/2009. Furthermore, new logistics facilities for Europe-wide dis- tribution centres are expanding in and around the ports, so that Bremen and Bremerhaven are well prepared for the next few decades. 2. H i s t o r i c a l D e v e l o p m e n t o f B r e m e n ’ s P o r t s The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen consists of the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. The two-city state has a surface area of about 400 m² and a population of about 680,000, making it Germany’s smallest Federal Land. Bremen is mentioned for the first time in a his- torical document which dates back to 782 AD. Its citizens were busy traders who used the River Weser to take their goods to market. In the 13th century, Bremen joined the powerful city alliance of the Hanseatic League. In 1410 Bremen received the privilege to set beacons and buoys on the Weser in order to direct maritime traffic and in 1541 Bremen was granted “stacking rights” by Emperor Charles V. This privilege, which meant that all goods passing through a trading place had to be un- Die Küste, 74 ICCE (2008), 356-367 357 loaded and offered to the local merchants for a certain time, boosted trade so that Bremen became increasingly significant as a city republic and a trading metropolis with highly influ- ential merchants and traders. A major milestone in Bremen’s port history was the year 1827. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, when Bremen became a French department for some time, the Bremen Senate along with Mayor Johann Smidt faced the problem of ongoing siltation of the River Weser. They devised a plan to build a new port for Bremen closer to the North Sea and per- suaded the Kingdom of Hanover to sell them 89 hectares of land, where the river Geeste joined the Weser. This project was intended to make the city more independent of the prob- lems of shipping on the Weser at that time and also as a precaution against Hanover’s ambi- tions in the shipping trade. And so the construction of the new port was simultaneously the origin of the city of Bremerhaven. In 1830 the American “Draper” was the first ship to call at the new port which, in response to growing business, was substantially enlarged in 1847 with the construction of the New Harbour. Another fundamental decision was taken in 1859, when Bremen and Hanover agreed on the construction of the Geeste line to connect the port of Bremerhaven to the emergent con- tinental rail network. This development opened up a much wider hinterland for the ports, as goods could now be transferred from ship to rail and transported to destinations throughout the whole country. Besides the ongoing success of Bremerhaven, the late 19th century was also marked by new developments in Bremen itself. New port facilities with state-of-the-art rail-mounted cranes were constructed and management of the port was transferred to the newly founded Bremer Lagerhaus Gesellschaft (now BLG Logistics Group). But for the time being, one problem remained unsolved: the Weser fairway, which was no more than two metres deep. Almost every winter, a thick, unyielding layer of ice covered the Weser between Vegesack and Brake, bringing maritime traffic to a standstill and threatening to cut Bremen off from the trading routes. The Royal Prussian Academy of Construction consequently accepted a proposal submitted by Ludwig Franzius, Bremen’s chief civil engineer, to counteract silting of the Weser. Franzius’ ingenious idea was to design the Lower Weser without barriers or narrows, to remove islets and sandbanks, and to shape it like a funnel, so that the incoming tide could reach Bremen unobstructed. The higher speed of the ebb tide meant that the Weser would clear the silt from the riverbed itself. The anticipated costs of the project amounted to 30 million marks, which in those days was an incredible sum, equivalent to 500 million euros by today’s standards, so that the city was allowed to levy a tax of one mark for each ton of cargo from all ocean-going ships. In 1887 work began to ensure that ships could make their way unobstructed from the city of Bremen to the North Sea, and a number of new large harbour basins were also built. The early 20th century was marked by another package of construction measures involv- ing two new sea locks, an increasing number of harbour basins in Bremerhaven and a com- pletely new 300-hectare industrial harbour in Bremen. Furthermore, Bremen’s ports contin- ued to specialise, with the development of grain, banana and passenger facilities. During World War II, there was extensive destruction of the ports between 1940 and 1945. Cargo volumes recovered only slowly and did not reach the status of 1938 again until the early 1950s. New projects, such as a ro-ro terminal in Bremerhaven and an additional harbour basin in Bremen, were then undertaken to enhance the port capacities. May 1966 saw the start of a new era when the first container was discharged at the Über- seehafen in Bremen. From then on, local port development was dominated by the continuous enlargement of the container facilities, with at least one new terminal per decade. The second 358 Die Küste, 74 ICCE (2008), 356-367 mainstay of the ports, the automobile business, began in the 1970s when German car produc- ers started to sell their products overseas. Only a little later, they were joined by Japanese and later Korean cars as they conquered the European roads. Looking back on this colourful history with centuries of expertise in handling cargoes ranging from cotton, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, beer, wine and linen to today’s containers, au- tomobiles, fruit and break-bulk, it is the courage to tackle new trends and the determination to shape new developments that have made Bremen and Bremerhaven what they are today: one of the largest seaport complexes on the European coast. 3. S t a t u s Q u o Over the years, a pronounced division of labour has evolved at the twin ports. While Bremerhaven specialises in handling containers, vehicles and fruit, the terminals in Bremen city, 60 km upriver to the south, concentrate on bulk goods (e.g. ore, coal and grain) together with conventional general cargo (including project cargo, steel and steel products as well as forest products). Total cargo throughput at Bremen’s ports in 2007 amounted to almost 70 million tons, an increase of 7 per cent year on year. The terminals in Bremerhaven handled roughly three quarters of the total amount (including 4.9 million TEU and more than two million automobiles) and were thus able to increase their share of cargo throughput. Fig. 1: Aerial view of the overseas port of Bremerhaven Die Küste, 74 ICCE (2008), 356-367 359 More than 100 scheduled services regularly call at the terminals in the two-city state, linking Bremen and Bremerhaven with all major transhipment locations throughout the world. Every year, some 10,000 ocean-going vessels tie up at the quaysides in the twin ports, and roughly half of them are fully containerised ships. Liner customers include such familiar names as Maersk Line, MSC, China Shipping, Cosco, Deutsche Afrika Linien, Evergreen, Hamburg-Süd, Hanjin, Hapag Lloyd, Hyundai, K-Line, Mitsui OSK Lines, NYK, OOCL, Yang Ming and Zim. The port is also regularly called at by numerous feeder vessels which link Bremerhaven Container Terminal with ports, for example, in the upcoming Baltic region (Baltic Container Lines, Samskip, Team Lines and Unifeeder etc.). Fig. 2: Aerial view of the ports of Bremen City Bremerhaven is the largest European hub for the overseas automobile import and export trade. In 2007, more than two million vehicles were transhipped on the banks of the River Weser.