Well, what would the building say? That the construction was a difficult birth and, according to the report (1958), no one wanted it because of the cost? Two years later, 16 million marks were budgeted for the future problem child and construction began. At the opening, which took place on October 31, 1964, only Bremen’s mayor Wilhelm Kaisen, among others, congratulated on the “Miracle of Bremen”. Suddenly there was the only large hall for sports, music, trade fairs and entertainment between Hamburg and Holland. Okay, she had now swallowed 30 million – but don’t worry about it.
And what else was going on there? Sammy Davis, Jr., for example, came from the USA by plane, but upon arrival at Bürgerweide he forgot all of his luggage in the taxi, which then had to be searched for a good hour and a half. For Harry Belafonte, a five-page stage instruction stated that if possible, the flowers should be presented to him by a blonde lady at the end of his concert. Udo Jürgens had bad luck at a performance when his wife angrily left her seat in the front row because she had noticed that Udo’s cup on the grand piano did not contain chamomile tea, but rather hard liquor. At another of his concerts, for a hefty surcharge on the ticket price, visitors were able to purchase the right to toast with Udo (sweaty in a white bathrobe) backstage after the concert – again without tea.
The Bremen young James (Hansi) Last was one of the first artists who managed to perform on the same day from 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. due to the high demand for tickets. Both times there was pure non-stop dancing. Years later, because of him, a family of fans from New Zealand arranged their annual vacation so that they could visit James Last at a concert in his hometown.
When the master found out about this, he spontaneously invited the entire family to his dressing room. Udo Lindenberg not only caused a stir with his “Drönland Rock Revue” at its German premiere in Bremen, but also a full hall. At that time, the revue was directed by none other than theater director Peter Zadek, and the choreography was carried out by pantomime Sammy Molcho, who is considered a worldwide specialist in body language.
In 1967, Mick Jagger and his Stones played in the Beck’s curve of the “6-day race”, which in the first few years was simply left standing and not even covered. When the Rolling Stones performed in the hall again in 1976, the curve was gone and the singer signed the guest book with “Love – Mick Jagger”. Even Franz Josef Strauss (CSU) dared to come to the Hanseatic city of Bremen and turned into a superstar during his election campaign appearance in the town hall. In a two and a half hour speech, he captivated not only his supporters with his brilliant rhetoric. In the early days of the hall, a number of horses were housed in the neighboring slaughterhouse at the “Bremer Indoor Riding and Jumping Tournament” due to lack of space (Halls 3 and 4 did not yet exist). However, since a veterinary paragraph in an ancient law stated: “Animals that are taken to the Bremen slaughterhouse are no longer allowed to leave the slaughterhouse alive,” the four-legged friends of the entire national dressage team suddenly had a problem. They spontaneously decided to change the use of the slaughterhouse – this is as bureaucratic and unbureaucratic as it gets. Speaking of horses in the town hall: At the end of 1977, Bremen sports journalists chose a horse named Sumuru as “Sportsman of the Year”.
Around six months earlier, the animal from the Bremen coffee merchant Walther J. Jacobs’ stud had galloped away from all the competition at a Hamburg derby. And so that Sumuru didn’t slip on the slippery floor during the ceremony in the packed hall, he was dressed in matching felt slippers. The audience was asked to remain completely calm and not to take photos with flash. When Sumuru was presented with a basket of fresh carrots during the ceremony, it was as quiet as a mouse in the arena. There was thunderous applause as they left the hall.
2023-10-30 19:19:42
#town #hall #tell.. #Bremen #city #magazine
