Vintage map - Bremen-North 1949

DICO-Plan of Bremen-North (Bremen-Nord) in 1949: Vegesack and its shipyard Bremer Vulkan, Blumenthal and Lesum, in the American enclave city of the post-war period.

This DICO-Plan shows the “Stadtgebiet Bremen Nord”, that is, the northern part of the city of Bremen (Bremen) along the Weser, in 1949: Vegesack, Grohn, Aumund, Blumenthal, Farge, Lesum and Burg. It bears a printing authorization notice (“Druckgenehmigung”) dated January 3, 1949. At this date, Bremen is an American enclave in the middle of the British occupation zone since 1945, and a state in its own right since 1947. The city was occupied on April 26, 1945, after 173 air raids that destroyed 62% of its territory, and only has 259,221 inhabitants left. Today, Bremen forms together with Bremerhaven the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (Freie Hansestadt Bremen), a state composed of two cities.

Bremen-North has only existed as a whole since November 1, 1939. On that day, the city of Vegesack, already part of Bremen, and the Prussian municipalities of Lesum, Grohn, Schönebeck, Aumund, Blumenthal and Farge, which belonged to the province of Hanover, were annexed to Bremen in exchange for Bremerhaven, which was integrated into Wesermünde. Nearly 130 years earlier, from 1811 to 1814, this region had been part of the canton of Vegesack, in the French department of Bouches-du-Weser, under Napoleon.

Places and neighborhoods shown:

• Vegesack and its port - the port of Vegesack is Germany's first artificial port: built from 1619 to 1623 by Dutch engineers, it is paid for and administered by the Haus Seefahrt, Bremen's maritime institution. The name is said to come from an old inn, “Thom Fegesacke,” which existed around 1500. The locality received city rights in 1850.
• The Bremer Vulkan - the shipyard, founded in 1893 by politicians and merchants from Bremen, is marked on the map at the border of Vegesack and Blumenthal. In 1949, German shipbuilding is still restricted by the Allies. The Petersberg Agreement, signed in November 1949, loosens these restrictions for ocean-going vessels.
• The Bremer Woll-Kämmerei, in Blumenthal - this large combed wool spinning mill was founded in 1883 (1884 according to some sources) by Bremen wool importers, on the banks of the Weser to directly receive raw wool. The comb still appears in the coat of arms of Blumenthal. The population of Blumenthal went from 3,501 inhabitants in 1885 to over 34,000 today.
• Lesum and Knoops Park - on the north bank of the Lesum, then Prussian, wealthy Bremen residents had villas and large gardens built for them, such as Knoops Park, which the map names.
• The Farge-Vegesack railway line - Blumenthal was connected to the railway network in 1888 by this line. The map legend also distinguishes bus and tram lines and their transfer stops.

Cartographic reference: this plan is published by the Dierssen-Cobliner GmbH company, abbreviated as DICO, whose cartographic workshops are in Blumenthal, and it was drawn by Dr. Herbert Morawe. The same company also features, on the map, a carpentry and furniture workshop. Around the map, dozens of advertising inserts from local businesses in Vegesack, Blumenthal, Grohn and Lesum remind us of the post-war economy: hotels, bakeries, hardware stores, printers, a photo studio, a lottery in northwestern Germany, and even an association that offers its help to rebuild ruins and furnish the homes of war invalids and refugees. Directories of streets and public buildings are classified by Ortsamt (Vegesack, Blumenthal, Lesum), and a grid of letters and numbers allows you to locate every place.

In short: for anyone who has ties to Vegesack, Blumenthal or northern Bremen, or is interested in German reconstruction and shipbuilding, this map shows northern Bremen just after the war, with its shipyards, its spinning mills and the advertisements of neighborhood merchants.

What area does this map of Bremen-North cover? It covers the northern part of the city of Bremen along the Weser, from Rekum and Farge in the northwest to Lesum and Burg in the southeast: Vegesack, Grohn, Aumund, Blumenthal, Lesum, as well as the Werderland.

In what year was this map published? This map dates from 1949, the year of the printing authorization it bears, dated January 3, 1949.

Reproduction of the “DICO-Plan der Freien Hansestadt Bremen, Stadtgebiet Bremen Nord,” published in 1949 by Dierssen-Cobliner GmbH in Bremen-Blumenthal.

Printed on 200 g/m² textured art paper. Landscape orientation, standard 50x70 and 70x100 cm formats: easy to frame.