910 GERMAN EMPIRE: — BREMEN
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BREMEN.
(Freie Hansestadt Bremen.) The State and Free City of Bremen form a republic, governed, under a Constitution proclaimed March 5, 1849, and subsequently revised by a Senate of sixteen members, chosen for life, forming the executive, and the
- Biirgerschaft ' (or Convent of Burgesses) of 150 members, invested with
the power of legislation. The Convent is elected for six years by the votes of all the citizens, divided into classes. University men return 14 members ; the merchants 40 members ; the mechanics and manufacturers 20 members, and the other inhabitants who have taken the burgher oath the rest. The Convent and Senate elect the sixteen members of the Senate, ten of whom at least must be lawyers, and three merchants. Two burgomasters, elected for four years, direct the affairs of the Senate, through a Ministry divided into twelve departments — namely, Foreign Affairs, Church and Education, Justice, Finance, Police, Medical and Sanitary Administration, Military Affairs, Commerce and Shipping, Ports and Railways, Public Works, Industry, and Poor Laws. All the ministers are senators.
Area, 99 square miles; population census (1910), 295,715. (1911), 305,724.
On Dec. 1, 1910, Bremen contained 257,930 Protestants (87 '2 per cent.), 21,074 Roman Catholics (7*1 per cent), 1,217 other Christians, 1,251 Jews ; others 14,243. Marriages in 1911, 2,609 ; births, 7,932 ; deaths, 4,670 ; excess of births, 3,262 ; still-births, 220 ; illegitimate births, 804.
Bremen contains two Amtsgerichte and a Landgericht, whence appeals lie to the ' Hanseatische Oberlandesgerieht ' at Hamburg,
In 1911-12 the revenue was 2,498,776^., and expenditure 3,027,448/. Thirty-six per cent of the revenue is raised from direct taxes, 68 per cent, of which is income-tax. The chief expenditure is for interest and reduction of the public debt. Debt, 1912, 15,080,305?., the Avhole incurred for the promotion of commerce and navigation, and for public works.
Next to Hamburg, Bremen is the largest port for the international trade of Germany. Seventy-six per cent, of the commerce was, in 1911, under the German, and about 9 per cent, under the British flag. Aggregate value of imports, 1911, 106,236, 480Z., of which 3,810,320Z. were from Great Britain ; exports,' 102,390,690?., of which 7,548,570?. went to Great Britain.
For shipping entered and cleared, see under ' German Empire. ' Merchant vessels belonging to Bremen December 31, 1911, 713 of 893,767 tons net register, including 478 steamers of 754,258 tons. Bremen has several im- portant' shipping companies, the chief of which are the ' Norddeutscher Lloyd' with, on December 31, 1911, 25 3 sea-going ships of 718,549 gross register tons, 81 of which are Transatlantic steamersof 603,553 tons ; 49 Indo-Chiuese coast-steamers of 71,725 tons and 2 training-ships of 5,833 tons ; the ' Hansa' Company, with 73 ships of 297,072 tons ; the 'Neptun' Company with 72 steamers of 51,683 tons ; the 'Argo' Company with 31 ships of 48,038 tons; the ' Roland Line ' with 11 steamers of 54,430 tons ; the ' Hamburg- Bremer Afrika Line ' with 14 steamers of 39,283 tons ; and the Rickmers Reismiihlen, Reederei u. Schiffbau, Aktien-Gesellschaft (1911), with 20 steamers of 74,142 tons.
