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 Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), Marxist philosopher Julius Kemna (1837-1898), entrepreneur and company founder Hermann Ebbinghaus (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 (1891–1970), member of the Vienna Circle of positivists Wilhelm Philipps (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 (1898–1945), author and recipient of the Iron Cross Liselotte Schaak (1908-undated), actress Bernd Klug (1914-1975), admiral Kurt Brand (1917-1991), science-fiction author Reimar Lüst (1923–2020), astrophysicist Siegfried Palm (1927-2005), pianist Population See also SSV Barmen References Wuppertal Former municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia Friedrich Engels