Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of
Bergisches Land
The Bergisches Land (, ) is a low mountain range in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, east of the Rhine and south of the Ruhr. The landscape is shaped by forests, meadows, rivers and creeks and contains over twenty artificial lakes ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of
Wuppertal
Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...
.
Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of
Elberfeld
Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the Germany, 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 ...
founded the first electric suspended
monorail
A monorail is a Rail transport, railway in which the track consists of a single rail or beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, the term refers to the style ...
tramway system, the
Schwebebahn Schwebebahn is German language, German for suspension railway and may refer to the following examples in Germany:
* ''Schwebebahn Dresden'', the Dresden Suspension Railway in Dresden, Saxony
* ''Schwebebahn Wuppertal'', the Wuppertal Suspension Rai ...
''floating tram''.
History
Barmen was a pioneering centre for both the early
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...
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, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
, 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" ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.The Communist Manifesto
''The Communist Manifesto'' (), originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (), is a political pamphlet written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, commissioned by the Communist League and originally published in London in 1848. The ...
'', was born in Barmen. Another of its claims is the fact that
Bayer AG
Bayer AG (English: , commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's ...
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'' ...
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
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 Ancient Greek () ; the term is analogous with the Latin word . Originally, ...
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 ...
National-Socialist
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequen ...
ideology.
Personalities
*
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels" ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Julius Kemna (1837–1898), entrepreneur and company founder
*
Adolph Coors
Adolph Herman Joseph Coors Sr. (February 4, 1847 – June 5, 1929) was a German-American brewer who founded the Adolph Coors Company in Golden, Colorado, in 1873.
Early life
Adolph Hermann Joseph Kuhrs was born in Barmen in Rhenish Prus ...
(1847–1929), brewer, Coors Brewing,
Golden, Colorado
Golden is a home rule city that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 20,399 at the 2020 United States census. Golden lies along Clear Creek at the base of the Front Range of the Rocky Moun ...
*
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Hermann Ebbinghaus (24 January 1850 – 26 February 1909) was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory. Ebbinghaus discovered the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was the first person to describe the learnin ...
(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.
L ...
(1852–1921), microbiologist
*
Wilhelm Dörpfeld
Wilhelm Dörpfeld (26 December 1853 – 25 April 1940) was a German architect and archaeologist, a pioneer of stratigraphy, stratigraphic excavation and precise graphical documentation of archaeological projects. He is famous for his work on B ...
(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 U ...
(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 st ...
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.
...
Hans Peter Luhn
Hans Peter Luhn (July 1, 1896 – August 19, 1964) was a German-American researcher in the field of computer science and Library & Information Science for IBM, and creator of the Luhn algorithm, KWIC (Key Words In Context) indexing, and s ...
(1896–1964), researcher in the field of computer science and creator of the
Luhn algorithm
The Luhn algorithm or Luhn formula (creator: IBM scientist Hans Peter Luhn), also known as the " modulus 10" or "mod 10" algorithm, is a simple check digit formula used to validate a variety of identification numbers.
The algorithm is in the pub ...
Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller
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 Divisio ...
(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 (, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire (1871–1918), and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The design, a black cross pattée with a white or silver outline, was derived from the in ...
*
Liselotte Schaak
Liselotte Schaak (27 October 1908 – 30 August 1996) 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 for the Worl ...
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 ...
Johannes Rau
Johannes Rau (; 16 January 193127 January 2006) was a German politician who served as President of Germany from 1999 to 2004. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he previously served as the Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia fro ...
(1931-2006), SPD politician and President of Germany 1999-2004