Built as a passenger liner under yard No 872 by DESCHIMAG Weser Yard, Bremen for the Norddeutscher Lloyd at Bremen.
14 December 1926 ordered.
18 June 1927 keel laid down.
16 August 1928 launched under the name BREMEN, christened by Reichspresident von Hindenburg.
Tonnage 51.656 gross, 21.583 net, 30.882 dwt, dim. 286.10 x 31.00 x 24.20m., length bpp 270.7m., draught 10.32m.
Powered by 4 steam turbines total 92.500 shp., speed 28 knots, four propellers.
Bunker capacity 7.552 ton oil, daily consumption 800-1000 ton.
Passenger accommodation for 811 first, 500 second, 300 tourists and 617 third class. Crew between 966-1000.
27 June 1929 trials and delivered to owners on 05 July 1929. Her delivery was delayed by a strike on the yard.
Building cost 65.000.000 D Mark.
16 July 1929 maiden voyage from Bremerhaven via Southampton and Cherbourg to New York.
She was fitted out with a plane Type HE 12 on board, and when she was nearing the coast of the USA the plane was launched via a catapult installation about 400 miles from New York, to deliver the mail on board hours earlier than when it was brought in by the BREMEN.
The distance between Bishop Rock and Ambrose Lightvessel she made in 4 days, 17 hours and 42 minutes, with an average speed of 27.83 knots.
Her return voyage from New York she set also a record of 4 days 14 hours and 30 minutes between Ambrose and Eddystone, averaged speed 27.91 knots.
After this voyage she took over the Blue Riband from the British liner MAURITANIA.
On her 7th December 1929 voyage the ship went through the worst storm Captain L. Ziegenbein ever experienced, it made her two days and six hours late, she made that crossing with a average speed of 17.6 knots. During the voyage once the complete foredeck to the superstructure was under water.
She could not beat the record, and lost the Blue Riband to the Italian liner REX in 1932 which made the crossing with a average speed of 28.92 knots
30 August 1939 she sailed from New York after extensive U.S. search for forbidden cargo and arms, without any passengers under command of Captain Adolf Ahrens with destination Murmansk. She arrived there on 06 September
The distance of 4065 miles she did in 6 days 13 hours and 36 minutes, average speed 25.66 knots.
She was one of the 22 German ships that took refuge there, after outbreak of World War II.
10 December 1939 she sailed from Murmansk with course Bremerhaven, where she arrived on 12 December 1939.
After arrival taken over by the German Navy and used as a floating accommodation at Bremerhaven.
16 March 1941 the second officer discovered fire in the yacht room where the mattresses were stored, the fire evidently set by a 17th year old disgruntled cabin boy, after he got a box on the ear.
The fire running out of hand the BREMEN was completely burnt out, and partially capsized.
She was refloated and bought by the German Navy, she was moved to the Kaiserhafen in Bremerhaven, were all-usable parts were removed in 1942, before she was partly broken up.
1946 Towed to a sandbank in the River Weser at Nordenham, the wreck was visible from Bremerhaven.
Demolition continued into 1956.
On Germany 1977 50pf + 25pf sg 1821, and 2004 0.55 Euro sg?, Grenada 1988 $4 sg 1819 and Madagascar 1993 140f sg 1007.
Gambia 2004 7D sg4780, scott?
Source: German Ocean Liners of the 20th Century by W H Miller. Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen by E.Drechsel.
http://www.janmaat.de/bremen_te.htm