Hello and welcome to the history of the Germans, episode 126, a brief history of Bremen.

The initial idea for this episode was to draw this season to a close with the talk about

the art and culture of the Hansa. And then, when I started drafting, I realized

then I have almost entirely omitted one of the great Hanseatic cities

from our narrative, Bremen.

And that isn't right.

One cannot have a 20-episode podcast series on the Hanseatic League

and not talk about Bremen.

But it wasn't that I skipped Bremen on purpose.

The reason Bremen barely featured in our narrative is

that Bremen had a very ambivalent relationship with the Hansa.

Bremen was geographically and politically quite different from the other cities,

plowing its own furrow.

In response, the other Hansards did not trust the citizens of Bremen,

and there's also the minor issue that Bremen sheltered a lot of pirates. Still, as the Hansa

declined politically, Bremen took on an ever larger role until becoming one of the last three

Hanseatic cities that kept that long-dead medieval relic plodding along until the late 19th century.

A story of rebellion, stubbornness, piracy and emigration to America, I thought worth telling.

But before we start, my usual plea for support. As you may have noticed, the world of podcasting is changing rapidly.

Even the more prominent podcasting platforms are shutting down, Stitcher most recently,

and soon the number three in the market Google Podcasts will close its doors for good.

Listenership is getting concentrated amongst the two leaders, Apple and Spotify.

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