67 
BARMEN. 
Barmen is one of the principal industrial towns of the Rhineland, and with 
its sister town Elberfeld, from which it is geographically inseparable, is situated 
in the Wupper Valley, one of the larger depressions of what is known as the 
Berg country, stretching roughly from the river Ruhr on the north to the Sieg 
on the south. The town may be said to devote the whole of its energies to 
manufacturing, in which respect (as well as in others) it differs from Elberfeld, 
a part of whose attention is absorbed in the business of exporting not only its 
own manufactures but also those of Barmen. Of the two towns, the latter 
has grown the less rapidly in the last 25 years. Its population at the end of 
1905 was 156,000 as compared with 96,000 in 1880—an increase of 62^ per 
cent, while in Elberfeld the population has grown by 72^ per cent, during the 
same period. 
The population of Barmen at the last six censuses, and the increase in 
population during each intercensal period, is shown in the following Table :— 
Year of Census. 
Population. 
1880 
1885 
1890 
1895 
1900 
1905 
95,951 
103,068 
116,141 
126,992 
141,944 
156,080 
Increase. 
Increase 
per cent. 
7,117 
13,073 
10,851 
14,952 
14,136 
74 
12 7 
93 
11-8 
10-0 
The mean population, the birth-rate, death-rate, rate of natural increase, 
and rate of infant mortality of Barmen, for each of the last live years for which 
the figures are available, were as follows :— 
Death-rate 
Year. 
Mean Population. 
I Rate of Natural 
Increase 
Infant 
Mortality- 
rate 
per 1,000 
Births. 
1901 ... 
1902 ... 
1903 :.. 
1904 ... 
1905 ... 
Birth-rate 
per 1.000 of Mean Population. 
33-4 
142,650 
16-4 
17-0 
138 
316 
16-2 
146,421 
154 
129 
31-0 
14-2 
16-8 
149,671 
111 
153,800 
31-0 
144 
16-6 
137 
30-2 
14-9 
155,500 
15-3 
143 
The death-rate of Barmen is one of the lowest recorded in any German 
town ; and this is also true of the infant mortality-rate in spite of the fact that 
many married women are employed in the local factories. 
In outward appearance Barmen conveys an impression of greater prosperitv 
than its neighbour, Elberfeld. Narrow, tortuous streets are the exception. 
rather than the rule. Steep gradients are not wanting (one of these is 
ascended by an electric tramway on the cogged line principle) but, owing to 
the valley of the Wupper being wider here than at Elberfeld, the town is less 
hemmed in and the slopes are not disfigured by tier upon tier of tall tenement 
29038 T o