A walk to the “Überseestadt” district in Bremen took us to an almost forgotten area. These grounds were the birthplace of Coffee Hag, a great coffee manufactory.
In 1906, Ludwig Roselius founded the Kaffee-Aktien-Gesellschaft (Kaffee HAG), the first company in the world to produce decaffeinated coffee. In Bremen, he built his factory in the timber port. In consecutive phases of construction, several buildings were built after plans by Hugo Wagner (1906-1907) and Hildebrand and Günthel (1899, 1914-1915) in today’s Hag Street and on the Fabrikufer in Bremen-Walle.
In 1907 the company was able to start production. It processed 13,000 pounds of coffee a day. The innovation was that production was done with conveyor belts. In the First World War, the coffee production was stopped but could be resumed in 1922.
In 1929 Roselius extended production. The cacao pulver Kaba and in 1950 the coffee brand Onko were included in the product range. In 1979 the company was sold.
The old factory buildings are now part of the Bremen monuments.
View of the coffee Hag area
We took a little detour to see the buildings in the Überseestadt during our visit to Bremen. Even today you can find a coffee roastery in the area.
The company Lloyd Kaffee operates a roasting mill and a coffee shop here. There are seminars on the subject of coffee and you can, of course, buy freshly roasted coffee. The smell of fresh coffee was simply wonderful.
A highlight of the area is the marble hall. Unfortunately, we could not visit this protected monument. It was decorated with Carrara marble in 1914 and we heard it is equipped with beautiful display cabinets. Original packaging, signs and porcelain from the history of Kaffee Hag are on display.
But we could take a look at a small section of the former coffee company. Part of the facility is now used as an office and warehouse. Other parts of the building seem to be empty and slowly decay.
When you peek through the wildly growing vegetation, you can discover the old company logos on some buildings.
Other logos are well visible and have brought me back to my childhood. Kaba in different flavours was a big deal back in the day. I especially liked the strawberry milk. It also made for yummy ice cream after a few hours in the freezer.
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