Beginnings

Bremen, in northern Germany, was founded more than a thousand years ago, and in the 14th century, it became a leading trading center as a member of the Hanseatic League. For at least seven centuries, it has had an internationalist outlook and, via its connection to the North Sea by the Weser River, has long been a major port. In the post–World War II occupation of Germany by the former Allies, Bremen became the entrepôt for American forces, and relations with the United States have long been favorable.

In the past couple of decades, though, Bremen’s port and shipbuilding employment began to drop, and the city sought other ways to develop its economy. Not surprisingly, it decided that education and research that lead to high-tech jobs is the way of the future. The possibility of following up on that idea came in the 1990s with the closing of an old army base. Talk began of utilizing the property—which consisted of numerous handsome brick buildings on an attractively wooded “campus”—in some civilian manner.

Initially it was proposed that the Hochschule Bremen, an already existing technical institute, relocate to the site, but this proved more expensive than originally imagined. And several political leaders and academicians questioned how such a lateral move could improve the local economy, though they really had no better alternative proposal. Bringfriede Kahrs, the Bremen senator for education, science, and the arts, and her deputy minister, Rainer Köttgen, actively sought alternative ideas for use of the property, and they were joined in this quest by Jürgen Timm, the rector (president) of the local state institution, the University of Bremen. Kahrs was primarily interested in jump-starting the region’s ailing economy, and Timm primarily wanted to improve his university and, by extension, the national system of education.

Out of their attempt to come up with a more creative project, both Kahrs and Timm asked various faculty at the University of Bremen to brainstorm the possibilities. After several meetings, there were proposals that leading American universities be asked to consider establishing branch campuses on the old military base, with unspecified relationships to the University of Bremen. Visions of something like Silicon Valley emerging in Vegesack, the area of Bremen where the former army base was located, arose in their minds, and words like “international” and “research” and “science and industry” were repeatedly mentioned. Finally, the small, informal task force compiled a list of the top 50 or 60 American universities. They then queried their colleagues to see if any had a good working relationship with individual faculty members at any of these institutions who might be approached concerning their universities’ possible interest in such a project. Six or eight faculty members agreed to contact colleagues in the United States.