Bottcherstrasse

Bottcherstrasse runs just 110 meters between the Marktplatz and the Weser riverside, but the narrow brick lane packs in an unusually dense stretch of Expressionist and Art Deco architecture, rebuilt between 1902 and 1931 when coffee merchant Ludwig Roselius bought up the street's crumbling cooper's workshops and commissioned architects including Eduard Scotland and artist Bernhard Hoetger to redesign it as a showcase of German craft and design. The entrance arch is topped by Hoetger's gilded relief of the Lichtbringer, a glowing bronze figure of St. Michael slaying a dragon, and the brickwork throughout uses dark clinker brick laid in wave-like relief patterns unique to Bottcherstrasse. Along the lane, visitors pass the Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, the Ludwig Roselius Museum, the Haus des Glockenspiels with its porcelain-bell carillon, artisan glassblowing and pottery workshops, and small courtyards opening off the main path. Walking the full length takes 30-45 minutes at a slow pace, longer with stops in the museums or workshops; visiting in late afternoon lets the low sun pick out the texture of the dark brick facades and the gold leaf on the Lichtbringer relief. The lane is busiest around midday when day-trip groups pass through en route between the Marktplatz and the river, and quietest early in the morning before the museums and shops open.