City centre and retail

There's so much on offer in Bremen city centre, which occupies an area of 140,000 square metres. All destinations are quick and easy to reach for locals, commuters, tourists and people from the surrounding region – whether they're travelling on foot from the main train station, by public transport or by car.

The city centre has everything from large international chains to small independent shops that have been in business for decades.

Variety is king in Bremen city centre. It's why people of all kinds love shopping here. They also love the wide choice of cafés and restaurants that can be found down the many side streets and on the market square. In summer in particular, these are great places to relax. What's more, you can enjoy free Wi-Fi access on all major shopping routes.

The main shopping areas in the city centre are Sögestrasse and Obernstrasse, Hutfilterstrasse, the Katharinen-Passage and Domshof-Passage arcades and the LLOYDPASSAGE arcade.

Both the Sögestraße and the Obernstraße are enriched by attractive new openings. This development continues. Numerous major projects are in the planning stage.

In recent years, the strong growth experienced in Bremen's prime city centre locations has also benefited the adjacent streets. On Knochenhauerstrasse and Schüsselkorb, for example, there are now hardly any empty stores. The furniture shop BoConcept, the outfitters L'Uomo and the underwear retailer Mey are just some of the many fantastic offerings. There are also various nice places to eat.

The prime Am Wall location has long been known for its high-end stores such as Ligne Roset, Windsor and Bang & Olufsen. The location gets a new commercial building: the Wallkontor.

Footfall in parts of the city centre is on the increase. The numbers on Obernstrasse, in particular, have improved. There are many reasons for this: the opening of Zara on Obernstrasse, as well as the additions of Marc O'Polo, Tamaris, L'Occitaine and Gerry Weber, gave a real boost to the street and to Bremen's city centre in general. The statistics are also showing that online shopping and the growing number of out-of-town retail parks are not necessarily leading to a reduction in footfall. As long as the city centre is a pleasant place to shop, people will continue to go there.

The stable to upward trend in footfall and the low vacancy rate underline the appeal of central Bremen. The current and planned construction projects such as the Jacobs-Haus, the City Gate, or the Sparkasse am Brill, are proof of how attractive the Bremen trading location is on the German market.

The Viertel, or 'quarter', is another area of central Bremen that is popular with visitors from near and far. Between Ostertorsteinweg and Vor dem Steintor is a selection of quirky shops that only Berlin, Hamburg or Munich can rival in Germany. The wide variety of cafés and restaurants also helps give the area a charm of its own. The Schnoor quarter – the oldest part of Bremen – is a very different, but no less special place and is fully pedestrianised. Strolling around its picturesque lanes makes any shopping trip an experience.

But shopping in Bremen is not just about the city centre and surrounding streets. There's also much to discover in a range of outlying areas. The Waterfront and the modernised and expanded Weserpark are the best-known among people from outside Bremen.

BID stands for business improvement district. In Bremen, BIDs are also called innovation zones. They are defined areas – ranging from pedestrian precincts and shopping streets to business parks or entire districts – in which the owners of the land or buildings can arrange for improvement projects to be carried out within a specified period.