BERLIN/MARNE, Mich. – Are you familiar with Berlin, Michigan? I don’t think you are. Not many people know about it.
No, not Berlin Township, the small community in St. Clair County where it meets Lapeer and Macomb counties, the other one.
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No, not Berlin Township, the small community between Lansing and Grand Rapids on I-96 in Ionia County, the other one.
No, not Berlin Township, the community of 10,000 people in Monroe County, just south of Flat Rock (no, not the Flat Rock outside of Escanaba in the U.P., the one in Wayne County), the other Berlin.
No, not Berlin Center, the unincorporated community that exists inside Ionia County’s Berlin Township, or East Berlin, an area of St. Clair County’s Berlin Township.
This may have gotten away from me.
Related: Why does Michigan have so many townships?
The reason why you never heard of Berlin, Michigan (outside of the others) is because they changed their name.
Marne, Michigan is an unincorporated community just outside of Grand Rapids in Ottawa County. It’s also located on I-96 and is about 45 minutes west of Ionia County’s Berlin Township.
It wasn’t always Marne. In the early 1800s, the community was named Berlin due to the many German settlers and refugees in the area.
During the 19th century, roughly 7 million Germans came to the United States, and most ended up settling in the American Midwest.
Generally speaking, Europe was a turbulent place following the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. The continent saw multiple revolutions and attempted coups, including failed uprisings across German states in 1848 and 1849. Many of those who fought or supported the revolutions went into exile to escape persecution. They became known as 48ers.
Despite the fact that this wave of immigrants and refugees objectively improved the United States -- from food to education to how Christmas is celebrated -- sentiment toward the growing demographic was not ideal. This reached a breaking point during the First World War when Berlin’s name was changed to Marne.
The name was chosen to commemorate the Second Battle of the Marne, where Allied powers stopped Germany’s last offensive attack on the Western Front. The German defeat was a turning point in the war, raising morale among the Allied Powers and marking an end to a series of German victories and the beginning of the Hundred Days Offensive. The war ended shortly after.
Marne isn’t the only Berlin that changed its name. Kitchener, Ontario was known as Berlin until 1916 when they changed their name due to the war, and Brunswick, Maryland changed its name from Berlin in the late 1700s because Maryland already had a Berlin (Michigan apparently did not get the one-Berlin-per-state memo).
Despite the name change, Marne’s original name still lives on in the community through the Berlin Raceway, the Berlin Fairgrounds, the Berlin Fair and more.
Weirdly enough, the Marne in Iowa was also founded by German immigrants and refugees, but they named the city after Marne, Germany and not after the battle at the Marne River outside Paris.
No, not the Paris in Michigan on the Muskegon River, the other one. You know what Paris I meant.
Related: The Michigan town that (accidentally) sacrificed itself for Chicago
