Wempe Gerhard Diedrich Wempe opened a shop in the street Steinstraße in Elsfleth on the 5th of May 1878. Thereby, the clockmaker Wempe, who was barely 21 years old, laid the foundation for an enterprise which now has its central domicile in Hamburg, four generations later. Moreover, Wempe has offices in such prime locations as London, Paris, New York and Peking. Particularly in the shipping industry, the production of very precise timing devices, so-called chronometers, was a most significant part of the business. These were utilized to acquire an accurate determination of the ship´s position at sea- Today, these instruments are eagerly desired by collectors. The Maritime Museum “Haus Elsfleth” also has additional information pertaining to the history of Wempe and the importance of chronometers for navigation at sea. [More]
Maritime College In Elsfleth, the shipowners pressed and persuaded the Grand Duke of Oldenburg to establish a school for maritime navigation. Successfully. On the 20th of August 1832, the Grand Duke Paul-Friedrich-August founded the desired facility. Up until then, the training of prospective maritime officers had neither been binding nor uniform. Former captains and maritime pilots instructed on a private basis, the students paid tuition. In 1943, the war forced the closing of the facility. It was reopened three years later. In 1961, the school building was erected in the street Weserstraße. In 2001, the modern simulator house was opened along the pier, the Maritime Campus followed in 2009. Today, the Maritime Transportation Faculty of the Jade School of Applied Sciences is the largest of its kind in Western Europe. [More]
Oltmanns The oldest shipyard in Brake was founded by the ship´s carpenter Hinrich Oltmanns in 1791. Up until its bankruptcy in 1901, some 143 wooden sailing ships were launched here, including galiotes, schooners, brigs, barques, fully-rigged ships and Weser barges. The shipyard was also well-known outside of the region, given the high quality of services, particularly in the construction of fast vessels. Accordingly, orders were placed by customers located beyond the Weser coastline, such as Hamburg and the Netherlands. Following the death of Ide Oltmanns senior in 1856, his widow Anna Rebecka steered the company for nearly 30 additional years. The villa of the Family Oltmanns, built in 1861, is a so-called “Helgenbaas-House” and has been maintained practically unchanged until today. [More]
Ship Chandlery The Family Arnold has been operating its ship chandlery here in this location since 1884. In such a place of business, the residents of Brake as well as the crew members of the sailing ships laying over in the harbor were able to purchase everything they needed for their personal use, including colonial goods such as cocoa, coffee and tobacco. Above all, however, the assortment encompassed equipment required in the work onboard, such as buckets, cordage and blocks as well as lamps and oil. A good supplier of ships had to be capable of delivering provisions for 100 daily rations per crew member of a large tall ship within a single day. Today, the Hillrich Arnold GmbH is engaged not only in the shipchandlery, but also in trading mineral oil, and it owns a bunker vessel involved in underway operations. [More]
Hunte Flood Barrage This flood barrier is located where the Hunte flows into the Weser. Having four powerful flood gates and a breadth of some 120 meters, it protects the hinterland against storm tides. The facility began operating on the 1st of October 1979 and was one of the largest coastal protection facilities of this type at the time. Each direction of travel has ist own gate which has a breadth of 26 meters, and the two-part miter gates remain open as long as possible in order not to disrupt the shipping. The flood barrage will be closed only when the Weser rises to a water level of three meters above normal. On a daily basis, always at the top of the hour, the nearly vertical rolling lift bascule bridges are lowered in order to allow pedestrians and cyclists to reach the peninsula Elsflether Sand. [More]
Maritime Museum - Haus Elsfleth In 1890, the physician and health official Dr. Christian Ludwig Steenken (1857-1933) commissioned the construction of this Villa. Steenken was closely interconnected with the maritime economy. Indeed, Steenken was a bank director and the head of a maritime shipping line. Additionally, he was the president of the Elsfleth Herring Fishing Society and of the Elsfleth Ship and Shippers´ Society “Concordia”, predecessor of the Nautical Union of Lower Saxony. In 2005, Horst Werner, captain and ship owner from Elsfleth, purchased the beautiful landmark structure, a prime example of the Oldenburg gabled house. He donated it to the “Wesermarsch Civic Trust” with the requirement that it serve as a museum. Since 2010, the “Villa Steenken” is one of the three locations of the Maritime Museum of the Oldenburgian Lower Weser. [More]
Weser Customs in Elsfleth Amidst the confusion of the Thirty Years War, Duke Anton Günther von Oldenburg (1583-1661) achieved the impossible: He established a customs office along the Lower Weser. Indeed, in the Peace Traty of Westphalia in 1648, the Weser Customs Office was confirmed. Much to the dismay of, above all, the Hanseatic City of Bremen, each ship which navigated in either direction along the Lower Weser was required to pay a transit fee. As a result, Oldenburg benefitted from impressive revenues until 1856. The first customs station was located in Brake-Harrien, it was established in 1624 in the current City Hall of Elsfleth. At this site, a model of the old customs station of Elsfleth and of the city center can been viewed. Further information is available in the Maritime Museum “Haus Elsfleth”. [More]
Public House For nearly twenty years, from 1845 to 1866, Brake was also an emigrant harbor. Thereby, the year 1854 represented the peak with more than 7,000 passengers. The “Public House” is a witness with regard to this era. Prospective emigrants often spent weeks waiting here for the chance to set sail. During that time, facilities such as the “Public House” served them as a store or a place of dwelling. Even the local ship chandleries catered to this group of people. Indeed, the “Public House” and the ship chandleries were located beneath the same roof. In 1866, a small group of emigrants commenced the last transit from Brake into the New World. Bremerhaven had already specialized in this lucrative transport business. In 1854, more than 75,000 people were transported from Bremerhaven towards America. [More]
Lock The floodgate lock of Brake connects the sea harbor – the Stromkajen – to the inland harbor. In the past, this very point served as the entry into the “Braksiel”, which was utilized as a protected moorage for small vessels, prior to its subsequent use as an expanded harbor basin. Already as early as the beginning of the 19th century, the space for mooring was extraordinarily limited, given that the ships of the Imperial Navy overwintered here. On the 29th of October 1861, the first ship passed through the floodgate in Brake. In 1980, the facility was modernized to serve as a chamber lock independent of the tides and with the ability to protect against storm surges. [More]
Sailmaker Block The street Lindenstrasse was founded in 1798, comprising the second section between the streets Breite Strasse and Mitteldeichstrasse towards the inland harbor. However, it was first built up as of 1850. In 1874, the residential house, the workshop and the warehouse of the sailmaking company Segelmacherei Block was built. Even today, the sign continues to make reference to the original function of the site. Indeed, in this very location, the in part formidable sails for the brigs, barques and fully-rigged ships of Brake were cut on the drawing floor beneath the ceilings and seamed together in the workshop. The load roller beneath the gable facilitated the transport of the heavy canvasses and other materials. Currently, the house serves as an example of a typical craftsman´s house in Brake towards the late 19th Century. [More]