Barmen

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Barmen in 1870. Painting by August von Wille.

Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which in 1929 with four other towns was merged with the city of Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia. Barmen was the birth-place of Friedrich Engels and together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric suspended monorail tramway system, the floating tram or Schwebebahn. Barmen nevertheless has an interesting history because it was a pioneering centre for both the early industrial revolution on the European mainland, and for the socialist movement and its theory. Barmen was also the location of one of the first concentration camps in Nazi Germany, KZ Wuppertal-Barmen, later better known as Kemna concentration camp.^[1]

Divers

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.

Historical population

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Barmen.

References

Coordinates: 51°16′N 7°12′E / 51.267°N 7.2°E / 51.267; 7.2