With one round remaining, Bremen is two points ahead of Schalke and looks set to gain direct entry into the Champions League. Schalke edged Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 and will go into Champions League qualifying unless it overtakes Bremen in the final round next Saturday.
"It was a nice season finale in our stadium," Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf said.
Duisburg lost 3-2 at home to newly proclaimed champion Bayern Munich, and Rostock went down 2-1 at home to Bayer Leverkusen with both goals coming from the penalty spot.
Energie Cottbus made sure of staying in the top division by beating Hamburger SV 2-0 behind goals by Stiven Rivic and Dennis Soerensen in each half. The third team to be relegated will be decided next week and will be either Arminia Bielefeld or FC Nuremberg, last season's German Cup winner.
Bielefeld was held to a 2-2 draw at home by Borussia Dortmund, which scored a late equalizer. Nuremberg lost 1-0 at Hertha Berlin.
Wolfsburg crushed 10-men Stuttgart, the outgoing champion, 4-0 and is now tied with Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburg on 51 points to have a chance of reaching the UEFA Cup.
In Bremen, the home team dominated hapless Hannover from the start. Hugo Almeida shot Bremen ahead in the 15th minute after Naldo had outplayed the entire Hannover defense and passed to the unmarked striker. Naldo himself headed in off a free kick before the half-hour, and Tim Borowski - playing his last home game before moving to Bayern Munich next season - and Ivan Klasnic, Markus Rosenberg and Aaron Hunt completed the rout with second-half goals.
Szabolcz Huszti got a consolation goal for Hannover in the last minute.
Mladen Krstajic scored with a diving header off a corner in the 65th to give Schalke its win over Frankfurt. Schalke now has 61 points, two behind Bremen, and needs to win at Nuremberg next week and hope for Werder to slip up at Leverkusen.
"We had to wait a long time for the goal. We made our own life difficult," Schalke co-coach Michael Bueskens said. "At least we still have a chance."
Duisburg was three goals down at halftime, but got some hope when it scored twice early after the break. Andreas Ottl put Bayern ahead after three minutes and Lukas Podolski added two goals inside two minutes for a big lead before the game was 20 minutes old.
Mihai Tararache and Markus Daun scored between the 48th and 53rd minutes, and Duisburg had time to try to at least delay relegation until the final round. But Bayern, which clinched the title two games ago, held on and missed several good chances despite missing its top three stars and scorers - Luca Toni, Franck Ribery and Miroslav Klose, all rested because of minor injuries.
Simon Rolfes and Gonzalo Castro converted penalties for Leverkusen to send Rostock to the second division. The last-place team got one goal back from Addy-Waku Menga.
In Wolfsburg, Marcelinho capitalized on an error by Stuttgart goalkeeper Raphael Schaefer, who fumbled a long-distance shot, to score in the 16th, and Edin Dzeko doubled the lead by curling a shot into the upper corner from the edge of the area in the 24th.
Stuttgart then fell apart and Ricardo Costa and Ashkan Dejagah added goals for Wolfsburg.
Bielefeld could have saved itself - and sent Nuremberg down - if it had held on to its 2-1 lead at home. But Alexander Frei's free kick in the 83rd bounced off the post, hit Bielefeld goalkeeper Rowen Fernandez in the head and ricocheted into the net.
The home team lead twice and still could not win. Thorben Marx scored from a penalty before former Bielefeld player Delron Buckley tied the game. Artur Wichniarek regained the lead for Bielefeld, only to see Frei's bizarre goal make it level again.
Bielefeld travels to Stuttgart in the final round.
Raffael scored the only goal for Berlin against Nuremberg 15 minutes from time.
Also, VfL Bochum won 3-1 at Karlsruhe.
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