Weserstadion

Weserstadion – the ground whose façade makes electricity

The Weserstadion stands exactly where its name says: on the river, in the Bürgerpark district, about twenty minutes' walk from Bremen's market square. No other Bundesliga ground sits this close to a medieval old town — and none has an outer skin that generates power.

Photovoltaics as cladding, not as an add-on

During its redevelopment the Weserstadion was clad in photovoltaic panels — not an array on the roof but a continuous skin across roof and walls. It is one of the largest solar installations ever built onto a football stadium, and across a year it produces considerably more electricity than the ground consumes.

From outside you see a dark, glossy shell that shifts colour with the light. Approach from the river side in the evening for the better view.

Around 42,000 seats, not a metre of running track

This is a football-only ground and the stands sit tight to the pitch. The home end is the east stand — known in Bremen simply as the Ostkurve. That is where the active support gathers, and where the phrase above everything comes from: Lebenslang Grün-Weiß, green and white for life.

The home club is SV Werder Bremen, founded in 1899, four times German champions — 1965, 1988, 1993 and 2004 — and winners of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1992.

Getting there

Trams 3 and 10 run from Bremen's main station to the ground; with time to spare, walk the two kilometres through the Bürgerpark and along the river. It is the pleasantest way home any German stadium offers.

Bremen sits on the high-speed line between Hamburg and the Ruhr. Its airport is barely ten minutes from the main station by tram — the shortest such connection in Germany.

What lies within walking distance

Bremen's market square, with the town hall and the Roland statue, is a UNESCO World Heritage site; the Roland has stood there since 1404. Around the corner are the bronze Town Musicians of Bremen. The Schnoor, the city's oldest quarter, is a tangle of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century lanes where the houses are as narrow as a single room.