Barmen

For other uses, see Barmen (disambiguation).

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.

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

Year	Population
1591	around 1,000
1640	around 1,900
1800	around 12,000
1810	16,289
1840	30,847
December 1, 1875	86,504
December 1, 1890	116,144
December 1, 1900	141,947
December 1, 1910	169,214
December 1, 1919	156,326
June 16, 1925	187,099