Bremen Exchange

In the late Middle Ages the Bremer Marktplatz and Liebfrauenkirchhof passage were the most important centres of trade and commerce in Bremen.

The empty space in the vaults was made into an exchange and was soon playing host to most business activities.

On account of the dilapidation of the vaults and the ever-increasing volume of trade, the Senate of Bremen issued the First Exchange Ordinance on 14 March 1682, as a result of which the architect Jean Baptiste Broebes began construction of a single story building in the Baroque style above the cellar in 1687.

Activity in the Old Exchange concentrated predominantly on real estate, merchandise, and banking transactions, but stocks were also traded.

From 1853, this Chamber received support from the newly founded Bremen Exchange Association (Bremer Börsenverein).

After the demolition of the ruins, the vaulted cellar was lowered and made part of the modern Bachuskeller in the Bremer Ratskeller.

For this purpose they had an area on the east side of the Marktplatz cleared between 1860 and 1863, demolishing seventeen old gabled houses and Wilhadi Chapel.

The New Exchange (Neue Börse) on the Marktplatz was a large Neo-Gothic building with two towers and a passage to the Schütting (the offices of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce).

The interior was decorated by many of the most well-known artists of the time, including the painters Arthur Fitger and P. Janssen and the sculptor Diedrich Samuel Kropp among others.

With the entry into force of the Imperial Stock Exchange Act on 23 June 1896 it became a publicly funded organisation.

In the course of the November Revolution of 1918, the New Exchange was briefly in the political spotlight when the politician Alfred Henke announced the seizure of power by a Worker's council and the dissolution of the Bremen Senate and Bürgerschaft in a hall of the building, marking the beginning of the short-lived Bremen Civic Republic.

While the main building built by Heinrich Müller between 1861 and 1864 had to be demolished by the Bürgerschaft after heavy bombing in 1943, the counting house still survives.

In the following years, further programmes were adopted, including BOSS-CUBE, BÖGA (now XONTRO) and IBIS (succeeded by Xetra).

Beginning in 2000, open outcry was conclusively replaced by computer trading, whereupon the institute moved once more on the basis of changed space requirements and settled about thirty securities dealers and brokers in the Beutsche Bundesbank building on Kohlhöker street.