On Heritage Day, which was celebrated all over Germany on 10^th September, there was considerable interest in tours of the historic Kontor house of the Bremen Cotton Exchange. Although there was an added tour, the available places were taken within a short time.

Altogether, almost 150 people took part. A professional tour guide of the Bremer Touristik-Zentrale (Bremen Tourist Centre) guided groups of visitors through the heritage protected building that dates from the year 1902 at hourly intervals. The attention was focused on the treasures of the house, which was designed by Bremen architect Johann Georg Poppe for the purpose of cotton trade and cotton assessment: the mosaics and the statue of Hermes in the portal, the opulent stairways and one of the last paternoster lifts in Germany. The guests could also take a look at the traditional heart of the building, the arbitrage room of the Cotton Exchange. Here, reference samples of cotton fibres from all main cotton growing countries are kept. They are used for fibre assessment in the reference laboratory of ICA Bremen, comparing the quality of provided samples to the original sample. There was also great interest in the book “A Cotton Era”, in which the 125 years old history of the Bremen Cotton Exchange is told. Many visitors took an edition with them, in exchange making a donation for the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service.

The Cotton Exchange is also open to the interested public on other days: please contact the Bremer Touristik-Zentrale, where tours of the Bremen Cotton Exchange are offered regularly.

Contact details: Bremer Touristik-Zentrale (BTZ), Tel: +49 (0) 421 – 3080010 or under www.bremen-tourismus.de/