Launched in 1929 appropriately in the port of Bremen, she had been built and designed specifically to take the Blue riband from the British. Along with her sister ship, Europa, built at Hamburg, they were to make their maiden voyages simultaneously but a fire on board the Europa delayed her debut for almost a year.

Bremen entered the race alone and took the title from the Aquitania by a few hundredths of a knot, but it was enough to claim the record. Bremen lost her title soon after when her sister ship eventually appeared.

These two were the first liners capable of completing a roud trip in two weeks, thus enabling a weekly Transatlantic service to be set up. The liners also carried, for a short time, an aeroplane which could take off from a catapult on deck and so deliver mail a day earlier than even their fast schedules allowed for.

When war broke out the Bremen was dockside in New York but fled at once for Germany at high speed. her 130,000 hp, quadruple screws pushing her along like never before, she headed out into the far northern waters and came, via Greenland and north of Iceland into Norwegian waters and eventually reached her home port.

Although Allied aircraft and ships searched everywhere they could for her she could not be found and was believed to have sunk. However, during bombing of the port of Bremen she was set on fire and was so badly damaged that she was scrapped for munitions.