Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land,

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 betwee ...

, 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 tow ...

. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld 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 accurat ...

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

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 '' synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin word mean ...

which issued the Barmen Declaration 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 th ...

ideology.

Personalities

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Julius 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 descri ...

(1850–1909), psychologist * Julius Richard Petri (1852-1921), microbiologist * Wilhelm Dörpfeld (1853–1940), architect and archaeologist * Carl Duisberg (1861-1935), chemist and industrialist * Ferdinand Sauerbruch (1875-1951), surgeon * Adeline Rittershaus (1876–1924), philologist and champion for the equality of women * Johann Viktor Bredt (1879-1940), jurist and politician * Else Brökelschen (1879-1976), politician (CDU) * Max Bockmühl (1882–1949), chemist *

Rudolf Carnap Rudolf Carnap (; ; 18 May 1891 – 14 September 1970) was a German-language philosopher who was active in Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a major member of the Vienna Circle and an advocate of logical positivism. ...

(1891–1970),Ruhr-Uni-Bochum.de: Rudolf Carnap
/ref> member of the Vienna Circle of positivists *

Wilhelm Philipps __NOTOC__ Wilhelm Philipps (29 July 1894 – 13 February 1971) was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Awards * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross ...

(1894-1971), generalleutnant * Robert Tillmanns (1896-1955), politician (CDU) * Martin Blank (1897-1972), politician (FDP) * Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller (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 es ...

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 (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