Study in Bremen, Germany

Germany is a place of many cultures, from the jovial beer halls of Bavaria to the venerable institutions of culture and learning in Dresden and Berlin. In Bremen, a compact city close to the North Sea, elements of all these facets can be found. While its historic Altmarket district will remind visitors of old neighborhoods in Frankfurt and Munich, its ultra-modern system of public transit seems more like the dream of a Berlin engineer; meanwhile, the University of Bremen stands astride the city like an intellectual colossus, and various laboratories and scientific organization remind the world of why Germany is still a global leader in science, engineering, and cutting-edge research.

While the notoriously grim weather of the North Sea undercuts the pleasantness of life in Bremen to a certain extent, it is still widely regarded as one of Germany’s most livable cities. It is well-adapted for pedestrian traffic (one of the advantages of Bremen’s small size and high population density), and has numerous reliable connections to cities throughout Germany and the rest of Europe. More importantly, the city of Bremen has a distinct playful side and a wonderfully off-color sense of humor. Festivals are held at various times throughout the year, including the famous Eiswette, in which a hapless local tries to make it all the way across the frozen river without getting dunked in icy water.

In more serious moods, Bremen shows its true colors as one of the most learned cities in Germany. While local colleges, universities, and other educational institutions are abundant and diverse, the University of Bremen is the most renowned by a wide margin. Founded in 1971, it lacks the rich historical texture that characterizes many other top European universities, but what it lacks in age it more than makes up for in state-of-the-art modernity. Like most universities in Germany, it emphasizes math, physics, and engineering, but it has also distinguished itself from its fellow universities through the cultivation of an innovative, interdisciplinary, and experiential approach to learning. Referred to by admirers as the “Bremen Model,” this unusual pedagogical method has been adopted by several universities throughout Germany, and has so far proven to be an extremely effective way of education students and producing inventive original scholarship.

The Goethe-Institut – an international Germany cultural organization that is particularly well-known for its promotion of Germany language studies among foreigners – has its headquarters in Bremen and is a major contributor to the city’s intellectual and cultural life. Germany language classes held at the Goethe-Institut are extremely popular among discerning foreign students who want to get the best quality of instruction they can find. An immersion experience in the German language through living and working in Bremen, coupled with classes at the Goethe-Institut or one of its numerous local competitors, is seen as one of the fastest and most effective ways of developing fluency in German.