Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric suspended monorail tramway system, the Schwebebahn floating tram.

History

Barmen was a pioneering centre for both the early Industrial Revolution 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, 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, co-author of The Communist Manifesto, was born in Barmen. Another of its claims is the fact that Bayer AG was founded there by Friedrich Bayer and master dyer Johann Friedrich Weskott with the express purpose to erect and operate a dyeworks.

Legacy

The asteroid 118173 Barmen is named in its honour, celebrating the 1934 Synod which issued the Barmen Declaration defining Protestant opposition to National-Socialist ideology.

Personalities

Population