100 Jahre Wesermünde - Die vergessene Großstadt

In the organizer's words:

The merger of the Prussian towns of Geestemünde and Lehe created the town of Wesermünde on the Lower Weser in October 1924. 100 years later, the Prussian town is almost forgotten. Yet the young town grew continuously and successfully. By 1927, Wesermünde was an important shipyard location and had developed into the largest fishing port on the European continent.

At the same time, the villages of Weddewarden and Schiffdorfer Damm were added, as well as parts of Langen near Speckenbüttel. In the following years, what is now Surheide and housing estates in southern Wulsdorf were built. In 1939, even Bremerhaven in Bremen was absorbed into Wesermünde. In around 15 years, Wesermünde grew to become a major city and the second largest city after Hanover in the province of the same name, from which Lower Saxony emerged in 1946.

Wesermünde also formally belonged to Lower Saxony for a short time. However, the story ended after just 23 years, as Wesermünde became Bremerhaven in 1947 when it was assigned to the state of Bremen. Even today, the urban area of Bremerhaven essentially corresponds to the former Wesermünde. But the name and history of the city, in which the Lower Weser towns were once united to form Bremerhaven, has been forgotten.

100 years after its foundation, the Historisches Museum Bremerhaven is therefore holding a special exhibition to commemorate a Prussian town whose inhabitants once experienced a rapid upswing as well as disenfranchisement, expulsion and death during the National Socialist dictatorship.