SS Bremen was a German-built ocean liner constructed for the Norddeutscher Lloyd line (NDL) to work the transatlantic sea route.

At the time of her construction, she and her sister ship Europa were the two most advanced high-speed steam turbine ocean liners of their day.

The German pair sparked an international competition in the building of large, fast, luxurious ocean liners that were national symbols and points of prestige during the pre-war years of the 1930s.

This speed enabled Norddeutscher Lloyd to run regular weekly crossings with two ships, a feat that normally required three.

As on her sister ship Europa, Bremen had a catapult on the upper deck between the two funnels with a small seaplane, which facilitated faster mail service.

The steam was generated in 20 oil-fired water tube boilers, eleven double-enders and nine single-enders in four banks fired by a total of 227 oil burners.

She arrived four days, 17 hours, and 42 minutes later, capturing the westbound Blue Riband from Mauretania with an average speed of 27.83 knots (51.54 km/h).

A Heinkel HE 12 floatplane, flown by 27-year-old Luft Hansa pilot Baron Jobst von Studnitz, was launched at sea twenty miles east of Fire Island with 11,000 pieces of mail in six mailbags weighing 220 pounds (100 kg) which it delivered to New York many hours before the ship docked at the North German-Lloyd pier at the foot of 58th Street in Brooklyn.

The mailplane was launched on the eastbound voyage in the English Channel near Cherbourg carrying 18,000 letters to Bremerhaven where it delivered the mail many hours ahead of the ship's arrival.

She left New York without passengers on 30 August 1939 and on 1 September, coincident with the start of the Second World War, she was ordered to make for the Russian port of Murmansk.

She made use of bad weather and high speed to avoid Royal Navy cruisers, arriving in Murmansk on 6 September 1939.

[3] Bremen was used as a barracks ship; there were plans to use her as a transport in Operation Sea Lion, the intended invasion of Great Britain.

On 16 March 1941, Bremen was set alight by 14-year-old crew member Walter Schmidt while at her dock in Bremerhaven and completely gutted.

A lengthy investigation discovered that the arson resulted from revenge stemming from a ship's officer who had punished him for not completing his assignment, not an act of war.