Northwest German trade and industry exhibition
The Northwest German commercial, industrial, commercial, marine, offshore fishing and art exhibition in 1890 in Bremen (so the full name) was one of the City of Bremen , the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg and the Prussian province Hanover jointly organized exhibition, modeled on the world exhibitions the enjoyed great popularity from the middle of the 19th century. The exhibition - the largest in Germany to date - opened on May 31, 1890 and closed on October 15, 1890. The number of visitors during this period is estimated at 1.2 million.
prehistory
Due to the customs connection , the correction of the Weser , the expansion of the port facilities and the rapidly growing colonial and overseas trade, Bremen experienced unique economic and urban development at the end of the 19th century, which was accompanied by a wave of German national euphoria. In this general climate of optimism and belief in progress, the first plans for a large trade and industry show from 1876 were resumed and under the direction of the businessman and former President of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce Christoph Hellwig Papendieck from 1888 through a private initiative with extensive support from the Bremen Senate put into practice. The brewery owner Lambert Leisewitz was an important sponsor .
Goal of the exhibition
The aim of the exhibition was to make the importance of Bremen and the north-west as a whole clear for the German Reich and to document and increase the rapid economic upswing and technological progress in the region, or as the Weser-Zeitung wrote on the occasion of the exhibition opening:
“ The cause of the exhibition is in three parts, which in turn form a peculiarity of our age: the desire to show what one can do and to find friends and buyers for it; the desire to learn what one cannot yet, but would like and should be able to; Finally the desire to see the wide range of products from so many specialists and their competition in order to make it usable for covering one's own needs. "
The exhibition
The exhibition extends over a total area of 37.5 hectares (375,000 m 2 ) made available by the Bremer Bürgerpark and thus took up the considerable size of two thirds of the area of the Paris World Exhibition of 1889.
The main entrance to the exhibition grounds is a replica of an old Bremen city gate (the Ostertor ). An electric tram line set up especially for the exhibition connected the exhibition with the main train station and the city center.
The main building on the exhibition grounds (the six exhibition halls and the large festival hall) were built under the direction of the architect Johann Georg Poppe in just seven months for around 500,000 marks in a strongly historicizing style with borrowings from the Baroque and Renaissance styles. With the exception of the Festhalle (which later became the multi-storey car park ) with its large dome, all buildings were made of wood. There were also numerous company pavilions, restaurants and ancillary buildings, which were spread over the entire exhibition building.
The overall exhibition was divided into 21 exhibition groups, which dealt with a wide variety of scientific, industrial, commercial and also artistic subjects. B. a machine hall with the latest petroleum engines , as well as a horticultural hall with a display of award - winning long-stemmed roses .
In addition to the actual product and service shows, the exhibition offered various entertainment offers and attractions: a mountain and valley railway, a maze, a tethered balloon, water cascades, a boathouse in the form of a pagoda on the Hollersee, as well as a replica of a medieval Bremen street with handicraft and Restoration companies. The program of the exhibition included visits by dignitaries from home and abroad, concerts, theater performances, illuminations, fireworks, a lottery and the award of honorary diplomas and medals for outstanding exhibits.
The then implemented fountain monument Siegfried the Dragon Slayer by the sculptor Constantin Dausch was preserved .
The festival hall / the parking garage
The festival hall at Hollersee was the most monumental building on the exhibition grounds. It was used as a restaurant, for banquets, concerts and other festive events. While almost all the buildings were demolished after the end of the exhibition in October 1890, the festival hall was retained as a parking garage , but was destroyed by a major fire in 1907. Today the Parkhotel stands in the same place .
The trade and colonial exhibition
The colonial and trade exhibition was of particular importance among the various solo exhibitions , both in terms of the way in which its exhibits were presented. The aim was a show that went beyond the mere collection of commercial products from previous exhibitions. The goods were therefore presented in the context of their origin and production, supplemented by panoramas, models, animals, plants, tools, etc. Appearances by people from the respective regions ensured additional authenticity.
The great public interest in this exhibition led to an extension of the show beyond the end of the Northwest German Trade and Industry Exhibition. This was followed by the formation of a support association for the establishment of a trade museum , which ultimately led to the creation of a municipal museum for natural, ethnic and commercial studies , today's Überseemuseum .
The Engelhardt & Biermann Pavilion / The Waldbühne
The last building on the exhibition grounds that is still preserved today is the former pavilion of the Bremen cigar company Engelhardt & Biermann , designed according to plans by the architect Carl Bollmann . The wooden building was initially dismantled at the end of the exhibition and then rebuilt on the border between the Bürgerpark and the Stadtwald, where it has been operated as a restaurant with a beer garden since 1891 under the name Waldschlösschen - and later Waldbühne .
Electric tram
In connection with the Northwest German Trade and Industry Exhibition, the first tram line with a single-pole overhead line in Europe, which was set up on the occasion of the exhibition by the Bremer Pferdebahn AG in cooperation with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company from Boston, should be emphasized . The 2.3 km long route connected the main entrance of the exhibition grounds on Hollersee with the main train station and the Bremen stock exchange on the market square in the city center. Thanks to the successful demonstration of this new technology, the Bremer Pferdebahn received a license to electrify the entire Bremen network at the end of the exhibition and was called Bremer Straßenbahn AG from 1891 .
The second commercial and industrial exhibition
In 1913, planning began for another trade and industrial exhibition in Bremen, which was dropped when the First World War broke out in 1914.
literature
- The Northwest German trade, industry, trade, marine, deep-sea fishing and art exhibition . Compiled from official sources and correspondence from excellent reporters, Romen'sche Buchhandlung, Bremen 1890
- Official catalog of the Northwest German Trade and Industry Exhibition . Rudolf Mosse publishing house, Bremen 1890
- Oliver Korn: Hanseatic industrial exhibitions in the 19th century: Republican self-expression and regional economic development . Publisher: Leske + Budrich, Leverkusen 1999, ISBN 3-8100-2348-5
- Wilhelm Lührs : A hundred years ago - the north-west German trade and industry exhibition . Bremisches Jahrbuch , Volume 69, Bremen 1990.
- Hartmut Roder (ed.): Bremen - trading city on the river . Hauschild Verlag , Bremen 1995, ISBN 3-929902-87-7 .
- Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .
