Baumwollbörse

Baumwollbörse stands on Bremen’s market square, where its Neo-Renaissance façade marks the city’s early twentieth-century architecture. Johann Poppe designed the building, completed in 1902 for Bremen’s cotton exchange. Steel framing made it Bremen’s first building of its kind, combining modern construction with richly ornamented stonework. Weathering led to renewed ornamentation between 1922 and 1924, preserving the elaborate exterior.

Inside, a grand staircase carries railings by Hermann Prell and glass mosaics created by Puhl & Wagner. Bremen’s cotton exchange began in 1872, building on a trade that had brought North American cotton to the city since 1788. Futures trading began here in 1914, before the First World War and inflation disrupted the business. Bombing during the Second World War damaged the structure, and repairs brought its reopening in 1956 without the former tower. The Rules of the Bremen Cotton Exchange still guide international cotton contracts and dispute resolution.