State Questions: Bremen

The coat of arms of Bremen shows the silver key on a red field: the key of Saint Peter, patron of Bremen Cathedral. On the image panel this is answer 3. The other three shields belong to other federal states: look at the heraldic animal, the colours, and the number of fields.

Hemelingen is located in Bremen. The three wrong answers are districts or boroughs of other federal states. For the test it is enough to know the one name that belongs to your state.

The state parliament of Bremen is elected for 4 years. Each federal state sets its own electoral term in its own constitution, so the figure differs from state to state. The Bundestag is always elected for four years.

In local elections in Bremen you may vote from the age of 16. The local voting age is set by each state and is either 16 or 18 depending on the state: for Bundestag elections it is uniformly 18 nationwide.

The state flag of Bremen is red-white. Background: the red-and-white "bacon flag" with eight stripes has been Bremen's mark since the Hanseatic era.

The place to go is at the State Center for Political Education. Every federal state maintains such a body: it provides politically neutral information on politics, history, and society, and hands out brochures and books free or very cheaply. The public order office, consumer advice centre, and churches have different remits.

Bremen is one of Germany's three city-states; the other two are Berlin and Hamburg. A city-state is simultaneously a city and a federal state: it has no surrounding territory and combines municipal and state responsibilities in one administration.

Bremen lies in the north-west of Germany, completely surrounded by Lower Saxony; it consists of the two cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. On the map this is answer 1. The quickest way to find the state is to orient yourself by its neighbours and whether it touches the coast.

In Bremen the head of government is called President of the Senate. The three city-states each use their own title: Berlin a Governing Mayor, Hamburg a First Mayor, Bremen a President of the Senate. In the 13 territorial states the office is called Ministerpräsident.

Bremen has no Senator for External Relations. Under the Basic Law, foreign policy is exclusively a federal matter: no state maintains diplomatic relations of its own. Portfolios such as finance, justice, the interior, education, and the environment, by contrast, exist in every state government.