Bremen
Bremen Bremen | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Kingdom of Hanover Act 1924 | 20 November 1924 |
| Government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy |
• Governor | Alexandra |
| Tobias Rühl | |
| Doris Reichenau | |
| Legislature | Parliament |
| Area | |
• Total | 419.38 km2 (161.92 sq mi) |
| Population | |
• 2019 estimate | 682,986 |
• Density | 1,268/km2 (3,284.1/sq mi) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2019 estimate |
• Total | $36 billion |
• Per capita | $52,709 |
| HDI |  0.959very high |
| Currency | Pound sterling (GBP) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| Driving side | right |
Bremen, officially the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, is a self-governing Free Hanseatic City of the United Kingdom. Faced by the North Sea to the north and surrounded by the much larger Hanover on the European mainland, it has a population of 682,986 and a total area of 419.38 km2.
As a Free Hanseatic City, Bremen, while not independent of the United Kingdom, is otherwise a self-governing territory with a wide range of powers and a high degree of autonomy, similar to the Crown Dependecies of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Bailiwick of Jersey, and the Isle of Man. As such, the city's administration is headed by the Lord Mayor, whom is appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, whom represents the monarch, whom is officially titled as Governor, as the city's head of state. Its current status came about as a result of extensive negotiations between the British and Bremen governments, in which the United Kingdom, hoping to seek territorial concessions from the defeated Germany, sought to incorporate Bremen into the United Kingdom, which the latter initially resisted for fear of losing their traditionally independent status. Eventually, in the lead-up to the Treaty of Versailles which ended the First World War, a compromise was reached and later codified in the May 1919 Agreements in which Bremen, while it would lose its status as an independent country, would otherwise be recognised as an autonomous, self-governing territory not part of the United Kingdom, a status that it retains to this day as one of the two Free Hanseatic Cities alongside Hamburg.