Hammelwarden Cemetery During the construction of the church Friedrichskirche in the 18th century, the Duchy Oldenburg belonged to the Kingdom of Denmark. Accordingly, it was named after the Regent Friedrich V. (1723-1766). This very location was at the heart of the flourishing of the maritime wealth of the region. Inside the church, there is a ship´s model of the in Elsfleth based barque "Aeolus". The vessel war built in 1872 in the nearby Eylers-Werft in Hammelwarden. Additionally, the cemetery is dotted with numerous tombstones which attest to the maritime history of the region and its residents. Notable among them is the gravesite of Rear Admiral Carl-Rudolph Bromme, known as Brommy, the Commander of Germany´s first Imperial Naval Fleet. The lyricist and honorary citizen of Brake, Georg von der Vring, also has his last place of rest here. [More]
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]
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]
Brommy's Villa Nothing more than a simple stone reminds us of the former business and residential house of the entrepreneur, shipyard owner and restaurant owner Gerhard Gross. In this very location, he and his family housed Carl Rudolph Bromme, better known as “Brommy”. Brommy was, as of 1849, a rear admiral and the commander of the German military fleet. The fleet headquarters were located in Bremerhaven; the city of Brake served as an additional base and as a winter berth, although the fleet was disbanded in 1852. In the same year, Brommy married Caroline, the daughter of Gerhard Gross. Caroline´s brother Karl, who served under Brommy as a midshipman, founded a merchant shipping line in 1876 and a company which is now an international logistics enterprise domiciled in Bremen. As of 1881, Karl was a member and, as of 1896, the president of the State Parliament of Oldenburg. [More]
Tobias Anton Tobias (1777-1849) was an extraordinarily successful personality in Brake. In 1802, he opened at the age of 25 initially a bakery. He sold his bread to the crews of the numerous ships moored in Brake. Thereby, he laid the foundation for his subsequent wealth. Shortly thereafter, he founded a brewery, a shipping line, a shipyard and a train oil distillery. Above all, his son Christian Tobias (1803-1876) was involved with a fleet of 13 ships, including the barque "Azaria", displayed as a model in the Maritime Museum, in hunting down seals and whales near Greenland as well as in the South Pacific. The inscription on the facade of the storehouse, first built in 1890, reminds us of the bygone era. [More]
House Suhren Georg von der Vring (1889-1968), until this day the only honorary citizen of Brake, was a writer and a painter. He grew up at the house of his grandfather Georg Suhren in the Schulstrasse in Brake. Georg von der Vring attended the Evangelical Educational Seminar in Oldenburg and subsequently the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin. In addition to his merit as a painter, he also gained recognition as an author. In 1927, his book “Soldier Suhren” was regarded as the first German anti-war novel. Already at the age of 14, Georg von der Vring left his city of birth, but he remained tru to Brake throughout his life. His grave is located in the cemetary Kirchhammelwarden. The Maritime Museum of the Oldenburgian Lower Weser honors the artist with a small exhibition. [More]