Reich Office for Agricultural Policy

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The Reich Office for Agricultural Policy was located at Bavariaring  21 in Munich . The photo shows the facade of the building in 2009.

The Reich Office for Agricultural Policy in Munich was a political institution of the NSDAP under the leadership of Reich Food Minister Walther Darré and his State Secretary Herbert Backe . It had the task of looking after and managing the Reichsnährstand in cooperation with the Reich Ministry for Food and Agriculture .

The Reich Office emerged in 1936 from the Office for Agricultural Policy founded in 1933 . The organizational roots that led to the establishment of the office go back to 1930, when Darré began to set up an agricultural policy apparatus throughout the German Reich . Here, a large number of "agricultural expert advisers" was set up for propaganda purposes the agricultural policy objectives of the party pursued and after the seizure of power as a peasant leaders were active in the Reich.

After Backe was appointed acting head of the Reich Office in 1942, it was renamed the Reich Office for the Country People .

Agricultural apparatus

Planning

In May 1930, when the activities of the NSDAP in rural sections of the population were extremely limited with a few exceptions, Walter Darré was appointed to the Reich leadership of the NSDAP as an advisor on agricultural issues . The efforts of the NSDAP that began at this point in time to concretise its own agricultural policy concept and to include it in the propagandistic calculation were linked to the idea originally formulated by August Georg Kenstler that the party should also organize the agricultural sector. This project, which Darré was able to effectively implement within a year (not least due to the infiltration of the Reichslandbund ), was preceded in 1929 by the plan of Darré, Kenstler and Hans Severus Ziegler to set up an agricultural policy center in Weimar , “to go from there to organize a rural people's movement extending over the whole empire ”. With his political concept, which essentially consisted of conquering the entire agrarian milieu on the basis of massive influence on the will-making process in the countryside, Darré did not enter Weimar, but on August 1, 1930, in a " Agricultural Policy Department "(APA) at the NS-Reichsorganisationsleitung II in Munich . From a memorandum of August 15, 1930 he wrote with the title “Draft for the Plan: Expansion of an Agricultural Policy Network across the Reich Territory” it emerges that he wanted an organization that would follow the party's programmatic guidelines “into the most remote corners of the empire uniformly propagated ”. In order to ensure this synchronization , he also suggested that “every political leader of the NSDAP from Gau to town” should receive an “agricultural expert”. These consultants would have the task of 1. to support their superiors in the Political Organization (PO) in the political daily struggle and 2. to report their on-site experiences with the Munich Agriculture Department of Reich Organization Department II under Konstantin Hierl , which he directed, so that the incoming Material could be “viewed” and “made available to all agricultural advisors in the Reich as a factual agricultural policy experience of the domestic political struggle”. Darré was able to convince Hierl and the Reich leadership: on August 21, 1930, work began on implementing the plan.

implementation

The implementation of Darré's ideas took place with his request to all Gauleiter to appoint an agricultural adviser by October 1, 1930, whereby the same should apply "if possible" to the districts . Presumably for cost reasons Darré was rejected in the memorandum worded proposal to create a "full-time in each Gau salaried employ agricultural technical advisor". Instead, the selection to be made by the Gauleiter was to be made with farmers who “appeared to be reliable” and who were willing to volunteer their work as specialist advisors . The selection was, however, bound by precise guidelines given by Darré and Hierl. Only those who enjoyed the trust of their professional colleagues and the local political leadership of the NSDAP could become a specialist advisor. Other conditions were that the expert adviser was close to agriculture and was mentally active and agile, the latter in particular because he had to be able to “represent both peers in relation to party issues and party comrades in relation to agricultural issues”. Depending on the ability, the areas of activity “location”, “district”, “district” and “district” are to be staggered. In order to be able to react quickly to attacks by the press, the agricultural adviser should also have “a certain level of literacy”.

In 1931 Darré's “agrapolitical apparatus” (aA), whose central office was headed by Darré's student friend Richard Arauner , was expanded to such an extent that the Agricultural Gaufachberater (LGF) were arranged in a fixed hierarchical system of the respective responsibilities in the agricultural policy area. At its head was the Agricultural Reichsleitungsfachberater (LRF), who was directly subordinate to the LGF. The Gaufach advisors, in turn, who were all given authority, were subordinate to the agricultural district advisors (LBF), agricultural local group advisors (LOF), section advisors (AFB) and numerous agricultural shop stewards (LVL). From September 1931, regional technical advisors (LFB) were also employed to get structural differences in the population under control in terms of mentality, religious affiliation, etc. in the larger districts. In the network of responsibilities of the GA, the LFB had the task of coordinating the cooperation between the departmental consultants. Depending on which position a specialist advisor assumed in this system, he was always subordinate to the respective political leader - analogous to the political organization of the NSDAP. For the LGF, this specifically meant that it was subordinate to the Gauleiter and ideally should be in close consultation with him. In addition, the LGF received its instructions from the LRF (Darré) and was allowed - independently of the Gauleiter - to correspond directly with the APA in Munich. In order to ensure a clear flow of orders, the LBF, LKF, LOF and LVL did not have to take any instructions from the local party offices, but only from the LGF.

After the Chamber of Agriculture elections on December 18, 1931, Werner Willikens , Darré's deputy in the aA, was elected to the Presidium of the Reichland Federation, so that from now on the NSDAP could exert direct influence on the Federation. The party's strategy was primarily aimed at winning over people for their interests who were held in high regard by the peasant population. These in turn should make the NSDAP socially acceptable and thus selectable, as it were, serve as an "opener" of the rural milieu. From a special circular by Darré on “Guidelines for the Election Campaign in the Country” of August 24, 1932, it emerges that he deliberately did not rely on monotonous phrases and repugnant abuse of the political opponent, but on unofficial, unobtrusive conversations from neighbor to neighbor and farmer to the farmer, because the farmer wants to "discuss and express himself calmly about the problem that concerns him". That is why he focused on “the detailed work, the advertising from mouth to mouth”. By the middle of 1932, the network of agricultural advisors was so large that the historian Wolfram Pyta estimated that they numbered around 10,000 employees. No other political party rivaled this cadre , either quantitatively or qualitatively. Even remote hamlets were not spared as objects of political agitation .

Both the extent of the aA and the importance of the position that a Gauffachberater could take within the aA is clear from the example of the LGF in the Gau Saxony, Helmut Körner . In 1932, 34 district advisors, around 1100 LVL and 40 agricultural speakers worked under Körner. In the Gauleitung Sachsen there was also an agriculture department in which nine assistant officers and seven clerks were employed. One of the assistants was responsible for the daily journalistic fight, supplying the provincial press with agitational articles and, if necessary, with journalistic counter-attacks. The clerks were responsible, among other things, for the agricultural cooperative system , chamber questions and the federal government. Koerner wrote in a report: “The entire apparatus is strongly centralized and I can say that in terms of agricultural policy nothing is happening in Saxony that I would not learn about immediately. The opponent is therefore completely monitored . On the other hand, it is of course also possible for me to provide the entire agriculture of Saxony with a specific message within 24 hours and to shoot appropriate arrows. The good connections that I have made give me a glimpse of all the agricultural organizations in Saxony and even up to the Ministry of Economics, Agriculture Dept. ... "

From office to Reich office

Agricultural Policy Office

The work on building the aA, which can essentially be traced back to Darré, led to the establishment of the "Office for Agricultural Policy", which was put under the direction of Darré , even before the " seizure of power " on December 14, 1932. The work of the office concentrated in particular on the management and supervision of the Reichsnährstand and the peasant legislation. The agricultural policy apparatus was integrated into the “Personnel and Organization” department. Furthermore, the Office for Agricultural Policy consisted of the departments “Agriculture”, “Press and Advertising”, “Peasant Training”, “Peasant Culture”, “Settlement”, “Peasant Law”, “Agricultural Worker Issues” and “Blood Issues of German Peasantry”. After Darré was appointed Reichsbauernführer in April 1933, he moved to Berlin towards the end of the month together with Erwin Metzner (Farmer Culture Department), economic advisor Hermann Reischle and other employees . From Berlin, the Office for Agricultural Policy was closed for the time being until Darré - after Alfred Hugenberg's political elimination - was appointed Reich Minister of Food in August 1933. Since 1931 Herbert Backe , who was Darré's side as State Secretary , was of particular importance . Backe's ideas shaped the ideas developed for the aA, especially with regard to a basic concept for the rehabilitation of agriculture, and were methodically implemented step by step over the course of time. Backe pursued a pragmatic course with regard to the ideal of autarky sought within the framework of the Nazi agricultural policy .

The bilateral dependency of the functionaries of the agricultural political apparatus, as laid down by Darré , led to tension, especially on the Gau level. On the one hand, the political leaders of the party at the Gau and district level retained the right "but also the duty to propose agricultural advisers," whom Adolf Hitler reserved to appoint . On the other hand, Darré had attached importance to the development of a corps spirit within the framework of a strictly hierarchically understood follower system, which made it difficult to integrate his cadre of officials into the party structure. The overlapping competencies, inconsistencies and internal party conflicts resulting from this area of ​​tension led so far that the aA was suspected as a special organization in the party structure and as a " subsidiary government ". The conflicts had come to a head as a result of the Strasser crisis , which at the beginning of 1933 led to the Office for Agricultural Policy being freed from its dependency on the Reich Organization Department and directly subordinate to Hitler. The inner-party conflict was exacerbated in the subsequent period by the fact that the agricultural district and district advisors exercised the office of regional or district farmer leader belonging to the Reichsnährstand (RNST) in personal union. With this policy of personal union of party office and semi-state function, the decree issued by Hitler on January 2, 1933, according to which the PO was granted the right to participate in personnel policy in the RNST, was deliberately bypassed. In this way, the conflicts between the members of the agricultural political apparatus, the Gauleiter and the PO were transferred to the RNST and intensified due to its status as a public corporation .

Reich Office for Agricultural Policy

The history of the Office for Agricultural Policy was accompanied by a rise of the RNST, which ended in 1936 with an attempt to overthrow Darré politically. In that year, 1936, the Office for Agricultural Policy was renamed "Reich Office for Agricultural Policy". From the organization book of the NSDAP it emerges that the Gauleitungen each had their own "Office for Agricultural Policy" attached ("Office for Agricultural Policy of the Gauleitung"), which were directly subordinate to the Reich Office, whereby the "Agricultural Gaufach advisor" was the "Head of the Gauleitung" functioned and the main offices of the offices were set up analogous to the offices in the Reich Office. Further, technically subordinate departments were not allowed. The respective Gauleiter responsible for these offices, who was always considered to be a “ sovereign ”, was “superordinate in terms of discipline” (as were the district leaders vis-à-vis the LKF and the local group or base leaders vis-à-vis the LOF). An office for agricultural policy was specifically divided into the branch manager, the section advisers and the main offices set up for processing. The main offices were subject to the "agricultural district advisors and these local groups or base advisors (LKF. And LOF.)". The latter were used “only when necessary”. The LKF were, as it were, the official heads of the district leadership, assisting the district leader as advisers on agricultural policy. The same applied to the LOF or base advisers who were assigned to the respective local group or base leaders. The " Forestry Office ", which was set up in 1934 as an independent department of the Reich leadership and was under the leadership of Hermann Göring , took a special position in this administrative apparatus . The departments of this office in the districts and districts, which were responsible for forestry and hunting, also worked in the field of agricultural advisors.

The NSDAP's organization book from 1937 shows the close relationship between the new Reich Office and the “party” (as opposed to the “state”). It says there: “The head of the Reich Office for Agricultural Policy works independently and responsibly for the agricultural policy of the NSDAP. within the framework of the guidelines assigned to him by the Führer. ”The duties of the office were specified in the organization book as follows:“ a) Agricultural policy advice to the Führer or his deputy . b) Administrative processing of what is necessary for advising the Führer on agricultural policy and for managing the Reich Office. c) Technical leadership training. d) Driver selection (regarding the requirements for the agricultural policy departments). For this purpose, a leader's file is kept of party members who are active in the agricultural policy departments of all sovereign territories. In addition, all specialist advisors from all sovereign territories who are no longer active or who are directly active are also kept continuously . e) Management of the agricultural policy apparatus. In the Agricultural Political Apparatus (AA.), Those employees who were already active there before the takeover (January 30, 1933), and party members who were once classified as agricultural Gau, section, district, local group advisors have been confirmed, but are no longer directly active, after proven probation. On a business basis, the AA is managed by the head of the Office for Personnel and Organization. f) Completion and provision of the agricultural policy tools for all offices and branches of the NSDAP. g) Management of the party official agricultural policy news paper of the NSDAP., the " NS.-Landpost ", to educate the public. h) Cooperation with the offices of the Reich and Prussian Ministry for Food and Agriculture and the Reich Nutrition State (indirect support) . i) Constant care for full understanding - not only of the entire peasantry, but also of all other national comrades - for the agricultural policy measures of the government and the Reichsnährstand (the representative body for agriculture). "

On May 16, 1942, Hitler decreed that Darré would be "on leave until further notice from his position as head of the Reich Office for Agricultural Policy in the Reich leadership of the NSDAP" and that management would be transferred to Herbert Backe. Only a few weeks later, on August 24, 1942, the Reichsamt was renamed again by order of Hitler. With immediate effect, it was henceforth called the "Reich Office for the Rural People". All “subordinate offices in districts and districts” have since been called “Office for the rural people”. However, the subsequent reorganization measures by Backe in the Reich Office did not bring the desired success overall. No new food resources could be developed in the last years of the war.

With the Control Council Act No. 2 of October 10, 1945, the Reich Office for the Rural People was banned by the Allied Control Council and its property was confiscated.

literature

  • Horst Gies : NSDAP and agricultural organizations in the final phase of the Weimar Republic. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Vol. 15 (1967), No. 4, p. 341 ( PDF ).
  • Horst Gies: The role of the Reichsnährstand in the National Socialist system of rule. In: Gerhard Hirschfeld, Lothar Kettenacker (eds.): The “Führer State”. Studies on the structure and politics of the Third Reich (= publication by the German Historical Institute, London. Volume 8). Stuttgart 1981, pp. 289 f., ISBN 3-12-915350-0 .
  • Wolfgang Benz : Reich Office for Agricultural Policy. In the S. u. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of National Socialism . 5th, updated and exp. Ed., Stuttgart 2007, p. 726, ISBN 978-3-423-34408-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Reichsbund der Deutschen Beamten (Ed.): Deutscher Beamten-Kalender. Verlag Beamtenpresse, Berlin 1938, p. 53. [1]
  2. ^ Horst Gies: NSDAP and agricultural organizations in the final phase of the Weimar Republic. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Vol. 15 (1967), No. 4, p. 341.
  3. ^ Horst Gies: NSDAP and agricultural organizations in the final phase of the Weimar Republic. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Vol. 15 (1967), No. 4, p. 344.
  4. ^ Wolfram Pyta : Village community and party politics 1918-1933. The entanglement of milieu and parties in the Protestant rural areas of Germany in the Weimar Republic (= contributions to the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Ed. By the Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties. Vol. 106). Düsseldorf 1996, p. 353, ISBN 3-7700-5191-2 .
  5. ↑ a b c Horst Gies: NSDAP and agricultural organizations in the final phase of the Weimar Republic. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Vol. 15 (1967), No. 4, p. 345.
  6. ↑ a b c Horst Gies: NSDAP and agricultural organizations in the final phase of the Weimar Republic. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Vol. 15 (1967), No. 4, p. 346.
  7. ^ Horst Gies: NSDAP and agricultural organizations in the final phase of the Weimar Republic. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . 15th year (1967), Heft 4, p. 346. (Source: circular, estate of Darré, BA Koblenz, AD 45; also: Collection Schumacher / 214 ibid.)
  8. ↑ a b Horst Gies: NSDAP and agricultural organizations in the final phase of the Weimar Republic. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Vol. 15 (1967), No. 4, p. 348.
  9. ^ Wolfram Pyta: Village community and party politics 1918-1933. The entanglement of milieu and parties in the Protestant rural areas of Germany in the Weimar Republic. Düsseldorf 1996, p. 356. (Sources: H. Gies, Darré, 1966, p. 45; Circular from Darré to the LGF, November 20, 1930, BA, NS 26/951; Darré to the Gauleiter, August 21, 1930 , BA, NL 74 II, No. 45.)
  10. ^ Daniela Münkel : National Socialist Agricultural Policy and Everyday Farmers' Life. Frankfurt a. M. / New York 1996, pp. 71 f., ISBN 3-593-35602-3 .
  11. ^ Wolfram Pyta: Village community and party politics 1918-1933. The entanglement of milieu and parties in the Protestant rural areas of Germany in the Weimar Republic. Düsseldorf 1996, p. 354.
  12. ^ Wolfram Pyta: Rural Protestant milieu and National Socialism until 1933. In: Horst Möller u. a. (Ed.): National Socialism in the Region. Munich 1996, p. 210 f., ISBN 3-486-64500-5 .
  13. ^ Horst Gies: NSDAP and agricultural organizations in the final phase of the Weimar Republic. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Vol. 15 (1967), No. 4, p. 351 f. (Source: Report on the activities of the agricultural department of the NSDAP in the Gau Sachsen for the period from January 1, 1932 to January 1, 1933, Goslar City Archives , ND No. 140.)
  14. ^ Hans Kehrl : Crisis Manager in the Third Reich. With critical comments and an afterword by Erwin Viefhaus. Düsseldorf 1973, p. 49 ff.
  15. ^ A b Rudolf Kluge, Heinrich Krüger: Constitution and administration in the Greater German Empire . Reich Citizenship. 2., rework. Aufl., Berlin 1939, p. 196. (The same departments were given for the “Reichsamt für Agrarpolitik” in the organization book of the NSDAP from 1937, cf. Robert Ley [Hrsg.]: Organization book of the NSDAP. 5th ed., Munich 1938, p. 313.)
  16. ↑ Michael H. Kater: The "Ahnenerbe" of the SS 1935-1945. A contribution to the cultural policy of the Third Reich. 4th edition, Munich / Oldenbourg 2005, p. 25, ISBN 3-486-57950-9 .
  17. ^ Hans Kehrl: Crisis Manager in the Third Reich. With critical comments and an afterword by Erwin Viefhaus. Düsseldorf 1973, p. 49 ff.
  18. ↑ Florian Cebulla: Radio and rural society 1924-1945. Göttingen 2004, p. 235, ISBN 3-525-35145-3 .
  19. ↑ a b Horst Gies: The role of the Reichsnährstandes in the National Socialist system of rule. In: Gerhard Hirschfeld, Lothar Kettenacker (eds.): The “Führer State”. Studies on the structure and politics of the Third Reich (= publication by the German Historical Institute, London. Volume 8). Stuttgart 1981, p. 289 f.
  20. ↑ Jörg Melzer: Whole food nutrition. Dietetics, naturopathy, National Socialism, social demands. Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-515-08278-6 . (Source: Frank 1988, p. III.)
  21. ^ Gerhard Granier (Ed.): The Federal Archives and its holdings. 3rd, supplementary u. edit again Ed., Boppard am Rhein 1977, p. 361, ISBN 3-7646-1688-1 .
  22. ↑ a b Robert Ley (ed.): Organization book of the NSDAP. 5th edition, Munich 1938, p. 314 f.
  23. ↑ a b Robert Ley (ed.): Organization book of the NSDAP. 5th edition, Munich 1938, p. 316.
  24. ↑ Joachim Tauber u. a. (Ed.): Archive guide to the history of the Memel region and German-Lithuanian relations. Munich / Oldenbourg 2006, p. 286.
  25. ^ A b Robert Ley [Hrsg.]: Organization book of the NSDAP. 5th edition, Munich 1938, p. 313 f. (The original is emphasized in bold.)
  26. ↑ Martin Moll: "Leader Decrees" 1939-1945 . Edition of all surviving directives in the fields of state, party, economy, occupation policy and military administration issued by Hitler in writing during the Second World War, not printed in the Reichsgesetzblatt. Stuttgart 1997, p. 251, ISBN 3-515-06873-2 . [2]
  27. ↑ Martin Moll: "Leader Decrees" 1939-1945 . Stuttgart 1997, p. 278. [3]
  28. ^ Ulrich Kluge: Agriculture and rural society in the 20th century. Munich / Oldenbourg, p. 95, ISBN 3-486-56606-7 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 7 '58.8 "  N , 11 ° 33' 13.9"  E