KEYWORDS
Agriculture
Land reform
Agrarian reform
Redistribution
Farmers
new farmers
small-scale farmers
large-scale land ownership
Soviet Occupation Zone
GDR
THE LAND TO THOSE WHO WORK IT!
How the GDR prepared the ground for socialism with a land reform
Immediately after the Second World War, a land reform was carried out in East Germany, first in the Soviet Occupation Zone, then in the German Democratic Republic, which dissolved and permanently prevented the concentration of land and power in the hands of a few large landowners, so-called Junker. Under the slogan “Junkerlands in famers’ hands!” large landowners as well as Nazi and war criminals were expropriated and the land was redistributed to resettled and new farmers as well as small and medium farmers.
This text aims to give a compact introduction to the history and circumstances of this redistribution process in the GDR by reconstructing its historical conditions, objectives and course. It becomes clear that the land reform was twofold in character. It was a measure ordered “from above”, promoted and led by the occupying forces and organised and implemented by the leadership of the Communist Party. At the same time, it was a democratically organised and executed action carried out by the villages, an action that accommodated the vital needs and demands of the rural population. It fundamentally changed class relations in the countryside by giving farmers land of their own and paved the way for collectivisation towards a socialist agriculture. The history of this specific land reform also reveals elements that apply to necessary agricultural reforms sought after today.Contemporary movements may therefore find valuable lessons in the agrarian history of the early years of the GDR.
This text aims to give a compact introduction to the history and circumstances of this redistribution process in the GDR by reconstructing its historical conditions, objectives and course. It becomes clear that the land reform was twofold in character. It was a measure ordered “from above”, promoted and led by the occupying forces and organised and implemented by the leadership of the Communist Party. At the same time, it was a democratically organised and executed action carried out by the villages, an action that accommodated the vital needs and demands of the rural population. It fundamentally changed class relations in the countryside by giving farmers land of their own and paved the way for collectivisation towards a socialist agriculture. The history of this specific land reform also reveals elements that apply to necessary agricultural reforms sought after today.Contemporary movements may therefore find valuable lessons in the agrarian history of the early years of the GDR.
