The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the River Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen/Oldenburg Metropolitan Region (2.4 million people). Bremen is the second most populous city in Northern Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is some south from the Weser mouth on the North Sea. With Bremerhaven right on the mouth the two comprise the state of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (official German name: Freie Hansestadt Bremen).HistoryThe marshes and moraines near Bremen have been settled since about 12,000 BC. Burial places and settlements in Bremen-Mahndorf and Bremen-Osterholz date back to the 7th century AD. Since the age of Renaissance, some scientists have believed that the entry Fabiranum or Phabiranon in Ptolemy's Fourth Map of Europe, written in 150 AD, refers to Bremen. But Ptolemy gives geographic coordinates, and by these dates Phabiranon is situated northeast of the mouth of river Visurgis (Weser). At that time the Chauci lived in the area now called north-western Germany or Lower Saxony. By the end of the 3rd century, they had merged with the Saxons. During the Saxon Wars (772–804) the Saxons, led by Widukind, fought against the West Germanic Franks, the founders of the Carolingian Empire, and lost the war. Bremen is located 121 km (75 miles) northeast of Osnabrück, 442 km (275 miles) north of Frankfurt am Main, 389 km (242 miles) west of Berlin, 121 km (75 miles) southwest of Hamburg, 274 km (170 miles) east of Amsterdan, Netherlands, and 298 km (185 miles) northeast of Düsseldorf.