Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of

Bergisches Land The Bergisches Land (, ''Berg Country'') is a low mountain range region within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, east of Rhine river, south of the Ruhr. The landscape is shaped by woods, meadows, rivers and creeks and contains over ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...

. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of

Elberfeld Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929. History The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "''elverfelde''" was in a docu ...

founded the first electric suspended

monorail A monorail (from "mono", meaning "one", and "rail") is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail or a beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, ...

tramway system, the Schwebebahn ''floating tram''.

History

Barmen was a pioneering centre for both the early

industrial revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

on the European mainland, and for the socialist movement and its theory. It was the location of one of the first concentration camps in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

KZ Wuppertal-Barmen Kemna concentration camp (german: Konzentrationslager Kemna, KZ Kemna) was one of the early Nazi concentration camps, created by the Third Reich to incarcerate their political opponents (ostensibly in protective custody) after the Nazi Party first ...

, later better known as Kemna concentration camp. Oberbarmen (Upper Barmen) is the eastern part of Barmen, and Unterbarmen (Lower Barmen) the western part. One of its claims to fame is the fact that

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' The Communist Manifesto ''The Communist Manifesto'', originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (german: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), is a political pamphlet written by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Commissioned by the Comm ...

'', was born in Barmen. Another of its claims is the fact that

Bayer AG Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of business include pharmaceutica ...

was founded there by

Friedrich Bayer Friedrich Bayer (born Friedrich Beyer, 6 June 1825 in Barmen now Wuppertal – 6 May 1880 in Würzburg) was the founder of what would become Bayer, a German chemical and pharmaceutical company. He founded the dyestuff factory ''Friedrich Bayer'' ...

and master dyer Johann Friedrich Weskott with the express purpose to erect and operate a

dyeworks A dye is a wiktionary:colored, colored substance that chemically bonds to the wikt:substrate, substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally ...

Legacy

The

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

118173 Barmen is named in its honour, celebrating the 1934

Synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''wikt:synod, synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin ...

which issued the

Barmen Declaration __NOTOC__ The Barmen Declaration or the Theological Declaration of Barmen 1934 (German: ''Die Barmer Theologische Erklärung'') was a document adopted by Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the German Christian movement. In the view of the de ...

defining Protestant opposition to

National-Socialist The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

ideology.

Personalities

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Julius Kemna Julius Kemna (December 8, 1837 in Barmen – June 8, 1898 in Breslau) was a German machine manufacturer and industrialist. He was the founder of Kemna Bau. Biography Early life Julius Kemna was born the only son of Johann Abraham Kemna ...

(1837-1898), entrepreneur and company founder *

Hermann Ebbinghaus Hermann Ebbinghaus (24 January 185026 February 1909) was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first person to describ ...

(1850–1909), psychologist *

Julius Richard Petri Julius Richard Petri (31 May 185220 December 1921) was a German microbiologist who is generally credited with inventing the device known as the Petri dish, which is named after him, while working as assistant to bacteriologist Robert Koch. Li ...

(1852-1921), microbiologist *

Wilhelm Dörpfeld Wilhelm Dörpfeld (26 December 1853 – 25 April 1940) was a German architect and archaeologist, a pioneer of stratigraphic excavation and precise graphical documentation of archaeological projects. He is famous for his work on Bronze Age site ...

(1853–1940), architect and archaeologist *

Carl Duisberg Friedrich Carl Duisberg (29 September 1861 – 19 March 1935) was a German chemist and industrialist. Life Duisberg was born in Barmen, Germany. From 1879 to 1882, he studied at the Georg August University of Göttingen and Friedrich Schiller Un ...

(1861-1935), chemist and industrialist *

Ferdinand Sauerbruch Ernst Ferdinand Sauerbruch (; 3 July 1875 – 2 July 1951) was a German surgeon. His major work was on the use of negative-pressure chambers for surgery. Biography Sauerbruch was born in Barmen (now a district of Wuppertal), Germany. He ...

(1875-1951), surgeon *

Adeline Rittershaus Adeline Rittershaus (29 July 1876 – 6 September 1924) was a German philologist, a scholar in old Scandinavian literature, and champion for the equality of women. She earned her doctorate in 1898, at the University of Zurich, being one of the fir ...

(1876–1924), philologist and champion for the equality of women *

Johann Viktor Bredt Johann Viktor Bredt (2 March 1879 – 1 December 1940) was a German jurist and politician. He served as Minister of Justice of the Weimar Republic in 1930/1. Biography Bredt was born in Barmen on 2 March 1879 as the only son of Viktor Richard Bre ...

(1879-1940), jurist and politician * Else Brökelschen (1879-1976), politician (CDU) *

Max Bockmühl Max Bockmühl (2 September 1882 – 5 January 1949) was a German inventor and chemist. Life Bockmühl studied chemistry and pharmacy. He worked as chemist in Germany. Together with Gustav Ehrhart working for I.G. Farbenindustrie AG at the ...

(1882–1949), chemist * Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970),Ruhr-Uni-Bochum.de: Rudolf Carnap
/ref> member of the Vienna Circle of positivists * Wilhelm Philipps (1894-1971), generalleutnant * Robert Tillmanns (1896-1955), politician (CDU) * Martin Blank (1897-1972), politician (FDP) *

Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller __NOTOC__ Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller (29 August 1897 – 20 May 1947) was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. He led an infantry regiment in the early stages of the war and by 1943 was commander of the 22nd Air Landing ...

(1897–1947), "The Butcher of Crete" *

Walter Julius Bloem Walter Julius Bloem (October 22, 1898 – presumed dead 1945) was a German writer who became known under the pseudonym Kilian Koll. Bloem was an officer in the First and Second World War as well as a member of the SS. Life Bloem was born in 18 ...

(1898–1945), author and recipient of the

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia est ...

Liselotte Schaak Liselotte Schaak (born 27 October 1908, date of death unknown) was a German actress, who appeared in more than thirty films during the Weimar and Nazi eras. She starred in the 1930 film ''Sabotage''.Hodges p.217 Selected filmography * '' Rivals f ...

(1908-undated), actress * Bernd Klug (1914-1975), admiral * Kurt Brand (1917-1991), science-fiction author *

Reimar Lüst Reimar Lüst (; 25 March 1923 – 31 March 2020) was a German astrophysicist. He worked in European space science from its beginning, as the scientific director of the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) from 1962 and as Director Genera ...

(1923–2020), astrophysicist *

Siegfried Palm Siegfried Palm (25 April 1927 – 6 June 2005) was a German cellist who is known worldwide for his interpretations of contemporary music. Many 20th-century composers like Kagel, Ligeti, Xenakis, Penderecki and Zimmermann wrote music for ...

(1927-2005), pianist

Population

References

{{Coord, 51, 16, N, 7, 12, E, type:city, display=title Wuppertal Former municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia Friedrich Engels

History

Legacy

Personalities

Population

See also

References