it Geestem�nde (1845). Both towns grew and established the three economic pillars of trade, shipbuilding and fishing. Following inter-state negotiations at different times, Bremerhaven's boundary was several times extended at the expense of Hanoveran territory. In 1924, Geestem�nde and the neighbouring municipality of Lehe were united to become the new city of Weserm�nde, and in 1939 Bremerhaven was removed from the jurisdiction of Bremen and made a part of Weserm�nde, then a part of the Prussian Province of Hanover.
Bremerhaven was one of the important harbours of emigration in Europe.
As a key base of the Kriegsmarine, most of the city was destroyed in the Bombing of Bremen in World War II; however, key parts of the port were deliberately spared by the Allied forces to provide a usable harbour for supplying the Allies after the war. All of Weserm�nde, including those parts, which did not previously belong to Bremerhaven, was a postwar enclave run by the United States within the British zone of northern Germany. In 1947 the city became part of the Bundesland Bremen (Bremen Federal State) and was consequently renamed from Weserm�nde to Bremerhaven. Today, Bremerhaven is therefore part of the city-state of Bremen, being to all intents and purposes a state comprising two cities, while also a city in its own right. This is complicated somewhat by the fact the city of Bremen has owned the "overseas port" within Bremerhaven since 1927. To further complicate matters, a treaty between the two cities (as mentioned in Section 8 of Bremerhaven's municipal constitution) makes Bremerhaven responsible for the municipal administration of those parts owned directly by Bremen (known as stadtbremisch
