Bernhard Behrend was born 15th February 1805 in Neustettin. We know that he was the brother of Friedrich Jacob Baer (Behrend) (b. 12th June 1803 Neustettin, d. 30th May 1889), a well known German doctor and authority on syphilis. (Friedrich married, in 1832, Hannchen Fraenkel, daughter of the banker Hirsch Meyer Fraenkel. Their son was Jacob Friedrich Behrend, the German jurist.) Another brother was Abraham Baer (Behrend) (b.1800 Neustettin) who had five children.

(Their parents seems likely to have been Jacob Behrend and Rebecca Salomon of Bublitz. Jacob was the son of Baer Jacob b.1729, in turn the son of Schutzjude 'Protected Jew' Jacob Abraham.The facts surrounding this line are unclear at present.) 

In the 1835 Koslin directory Bernard is described as originally from Neustettin and an agent 'lebensversicherungs-ges. un Lubeck.' In 1856 he travelled on the 'Persia' to New York. He married Helene Moser (b. 1812 d. 1898), daughter of Jacob. It has been suggested that Jacob was the brother of Moses Moser, the Berlin banker and close friend of the poet Schiller. Bernard died 18th January 1875.

The Behrends were the leading operators of paper mills in Germany in the 19th century and founded their first mill in 1849. A well known Jewish family, they were put in control of Chancellor Bismarck's estate at Varzin for paper pulp production. In 1898 Moritz and his son Ernst Richard founded the Hammermill plant on the shores of Lake Erie in Pennsylvania. The emigrated and made their fortunes.

They had seven children:

1. Moritz: b 18 Nov 1836 Koslin, d 12 Jan 1915 and was buried in Leipzig. He married Rebecka Wolff in Koslin in 1869. In 1892 he travelled with his wife to New York on the Normania. His residence was Varzin. They had seven children: Johanna, hedwig Margarete, Anna Elisabeth, Ernst Richard, Henrietta, Otto Frederick and Bernhard Arthur. Of these Ernst Richard (Ryszard Ernst) b 1869 Koslin d. 1940 Erie PA should be noted. He travelled to the USA in 1896 and worked for a producer of paper machinery in Wilmington. After Ernst’s return from a visit to Germany in 1897, his father, Moritz, raised capital and in 1898 he emigrated with a million dollar investment for a new sulphite pulp and paper mill in America. This was the Hammermill Paper Company in Erie, Pennsylvania. Within two years, the company was placed in the hands of Ernst and his brother, Dr. Otto Behrend. Hammermill Paper was built it into a very successful company while Behrend served as president over its first 40 years.
   
2. Rosalie: born 1838 married Emmanuel Gottstein, a merchant from Breslau in 1856. They had seven children, Karl, Anna, Martin, Gustav, Elise, Adolf and Leo. Gustav married his cousin Johanna Behrend, and Leo married his cousin Hedwig Margarete Behrend.
   
3. Elias Gottlieb: b. 1839. He married Teodore Wolff in 1868.
   
4. Bina: b. 1840 d.1843.
   
5. Jakub Georg: b. 1842 he married Hedwig Lasker in 1866. They had five children: Marie Louise, Eliese Hedwig, Sophie, Carl Georg and Feliks Heinrich.
   
6. Henriette: b 1845 she married Emil Aron in 1863.
   
7. Johanna Elise: b. 16 Aug 1848 Koslin, she married Julius Arndt circa 1884 and died 28 Mar 27 in Wilmersdorf, Berlin. A number of letters from her survive. In 1904 she lived Uhlandstrasse 184 III, in 1905 Schlusterstrasse 29, in 1906 Grosmannstrasse 15, and from 1921 Holsteinstrasse 19 III Wilmersdorf. Of three children, only one, Ernst Julius is known to have survived to adulthood.