Peasants in Nazi Germany 1933-1945

Peasants in Nazi Germany 1933-1945

1. Richard Darre

   • 28th May 1933: Appointed Reich Peasant minister
   • 29th June 1933: Appointed minister of agriculture and food
   • September 1933: Responsible for introducing the Reich Entitlement law and the Reich Food Estate
   • 1942: Made to resign from all of his posts
     • Fell out with the Nazis about war production
   • Had two elements of thinking
     • Restore the role and values of the countryside so to reverse urbanisation and promote the 'Blood and Soil' concept
     • Support the expansionist theory of Lebensraum and create a German racial aristocracy on selective breeding

2. Nazi ideology

   • German peasant were regarded as special because they were seen as racially pure group
     • Believed to retained their traditional attachment to the German soil
   • Portrayed as being being free of moral decline
     • Nazis believed that moral decline had taken root in the cities
       • Mainly during the Weimar years

3. Polices, changes and incentives

   • The Nazis had three main objectives for the peasant communities
     • Reverse the drift of population from the countryside to the cities
     • Relieve farmers of the burden of debt
     • Establish a harmonious volksgemeinschaft in the countryside
   • 1933: The Reich Food Estate
     • Supervised every aspect of the agricultural production and distribution
       • Especially food prices and working wages
     • Darre's way of coordinating the peasants
     • Based on the leadership principle
       • Darre was the leader
         • Below Darre there was a hierarchical structure of state, district and local peasant leaders
     • It was very bureaucratic
       • 20,000 full time officials
       • 113,000 unpaid officials
     • Its aim was to link together producers, wholesalers and retailers to make a single chain and this would in turn cut out the proffitiering middle man
       • Would ensure a fair deal for farmers
       • All paricipents would benefit equally and they would therefore feel they are part of a wider 'people's community'
     • '[The Reich Food Estate is seen as] the vehicle through which peasant farmers would strengthen their economic interests and claim their rightful place in the new Garmany' Richard Evans
   • 1933: Reich Entitled Farm Law
     • Gave security of tenure to the occupants of medium farms
       • Between 7.5 and 125 hectares
     • Forbade the division of farms
   • Many farm debts and mortgages were written off
     • Small farmers were given low interest rates and many tax allowances
   • Government maintained high tariffs on foreign goods

4. How successful were the Nazis? How much did life change for the German peasants?

   • The Nazis spent around 650,000,000 RM to clear farmers debts in the year 13933-36
     • Was at first for the medium and larger farms
       • Only benefited small farms after 1935
   • Farmers incomes increased by 41% during 1933-38
     • More than industrial workers
       • Industry profits increased more than farmers incomes
   • Price controls meant that farmers profits were smaller
     • Meant that farmers couldn't afford to pay their labourers high wages or even buy labour saving machinery
   • The strict regulation of the Reich Food Estate became particularly resented by the farmers
   • Farm labourers wages were lower than what industrial workrs were and they also suffered poor social conditions such as housing
     • This meant that many farm labourers drifted to the cities during the Nazi regime
       • In 1939, there were serve labour shortages in German agriculture
       • 3% of the German population drifted into the towns
   • After 1936, the regime had the power to merge smaller farms into bigger ones to make them more efficient
     • Angered many farmers and conflicted with the 'Blood and Soil' ideology
       • Was deemed economically justified as achieved higher agricultural production
   • The Reich Entailed Farm Law caused resentment and family discontent
     • By trying to solve the problem of passing on farms to just one child meant that many farmers couldn't provide for their other children