Stadtwaage

The Stadtwaage (Town Weigh House) in Bremen is a historic brick building on Langenstrasse that has been a protected landmark since 1917. The building originally housed the public scales, which protected merchants and customers from fraud and were used to collect duties. The present structure dates from 1586 to 1588 and is built in the Weser Renaissance style, with characteristic sandstone ornamentation, shell-shaped window decoration, and a frieze of cherub heads. A gilded set of scales on the facade symbolized the building's original purpose. After it was destroyed in World War II, the building was reconstructed beginning in 1945. While the front gable was restored largely true to the original, the rear gable was given a historicizing design with Neo-Gothic elements, a coat of arms, and reliefs, including a Samson and Delilah motif. Today the Kulturhaus Stadtwaage houses an event hall and is the home of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen as well as the merchants' association Union von 1801.