Bremerhaven has three active passenger rail stations, Bremerhaven Hauptbahnhof in the city centre, Bremerhaven-Lehe north of the centre and Bremerhaven-Wulsdorf in the southern part of the city. A fourth station, Bremerhaven-Speckenbüttel near the border to Langen has been out of service since 1988, though it might reopen when the Bremen S-Bahn scheme becomes operational. Bremerhaven's central station lost its last long-distance train in 2001. Now only regional connections to Bremen, Cuxhaven, Osnabrück and Hamburg are available. The railways in Bremerhaven, however, still carry a heavy load of freight traffic, mostly new cars, containers and food.

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Tourist attractions

Panoramic view to Bremerhaven from Bremerhaven Radar Tower. On the left side the city including „Columbus-Center“, some tourist attractions and the de:Havenwelten just under construction

Columbus Center and the "Seute Deern"

The Wilhelm Bauer at the German Maritime Museum

Bremerhaven has only a few historical buildings, and the high street and city centre are almost exclusively post-war. The main attractions for tourists are the German Emigration Center (since August 8, 2005) and the German Maritime Museum (Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum) on the historical harbour with many museum ships, such as the Type XXI U-boat Wilhelm Bauer, the Seute Deern (a three-masted sailing vessel), and the Hansekogge, a vintage ship dating from 1380. The Lloyd-Werft shipyard is renowned for building and renovating large cruise liners, for example the Norway. The fishing port also houses an aquarium (the Atlanticum). The zoo reopened on 27 March 2004, after a lengthy renovation. It features Arctic wildlife, both terrestrial and marine. Attractions include the Klimahaus, simulating travel adventure along the 8th line of longitude.

Every five years Sail Bremerhaven is held, a large sailing convention that attracts tall ships from all over the world. The last time it was held was in 2005, coinciding with Sail Amsterdam.

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Trade

Overseas Port of Bremerhaven

The port of Bremerhaven is the sixteenth-largest container port in the world and the fourth-largest in Europe with 4.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of cargo handled in 2007. ^[3] In addition, more than 1,350,000 cars are imported or exported every year via Bremerhaven. Bremerhaven imports and exports more cars than any other city in Europe except for Rotterdam, and this traffic is also growing.

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Politics

The Bremerhaven government is a coalition between the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats.

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Sport

Bremerhaven is home to the basketball team Eisbären Bremerhaven, who play in the German Bundesliga.

The Fischtown Pinguins, also known as REV Bremerhaven, are a professional hockey team in Germany's 2nd Bundesliga league.

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References

1. ^ Monthly population data (German). Statistisches Landesamt Bremen. Retrieved on 2007-07-23.
2. ^ Verfassung für die Stadt Bremerhaven (VerfBrhv); § 8(1) Zum Stadtgebiet gehören alle Grundstücke, Fluß- und Hafenanlagen der ehemaligen Stadt Wesermünde. Gemeindeverwaltungsmäßig wird die Stadt Bremerhaven im Gebiet des stadtbremischen Überseehafens aufgrund eines Vertrages zwischen den Städten Bremen und Bremerhaven zuständig.
3. ^ Van Marle, Gavin. "Europe Terminals stretched to limit", Lloyds List Daily Commercial News, 2008-01-31, pp. 8-9. 

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External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Bremerhaven

• Official website of the city
• Information about holidays and sightseeing in Bremerhaven
• Auswandererhaus
• Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum
• Shows 360 QTVR Panos from Bremerhaven
• Fullscreen panos from Bremerhaven