Artur of Machui

Artur von Machui (born August 5, 1904 in Ocklitz, Neumarkt district , province of Silesia , † April 6, 1971 in Hamburg ) was a German agricultural expert and publicist .

Life

Coming from a conservative Silesian landowner family, Artur von Machui studied sociology, philosophy, agricultural studies as well as economics and business administration in Breslau, Freiburg im Breisgau, Naples and Kiel between 1922 and 1927 and graduated with a degree in economics. In Breslau he met Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy , in Freiburg he studied with Götz Briefs , in Naples with Benedetto Croce and in Kiel he was one of Adolf Löwe's students . As leader of the "Silesian Young Team", an association of hiking birds and scouts in Lower and Upper Silesia, he co-founded the adult education center " Boberhaus " in Löwenberg (Silesia) in 1925 and worked there with members of the later resistance group Kreisauer Kreis . Together with Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy he organized voluntary joint labor camps for students, young farmers and workers and in 1930 opposed a merger of the Silesian young team with the right-wing Greater German Youth Association under Admiral a. D. Adolf von Trotha .

His professional career began with activities at the "Reich Board of Trustees for Economic Efficiency in Building and Housing" (Berlin 1927/28), at the University of Heidelberg (Institute for Newspapers, 1928 to 1930) and the Bibliographical Institute in Leipzig (1930 to 1931). In 1929 he joined the SPD and belonged to the circle around the New Papers for Socialism , which strived for a comprehensive intellectual and political renewal of the SPD under reformist auspices. 1931 to 1933 v. Machui works in the settlement sector (clerk and personal assistant to the general director in the Schlesische Landgesellschaft mbH, Breslau; chief editor of the East German border messenger ). In 1933 he was dismissed without notice for “pursuing socialist goals” and founded the “teaching village Königshorst” near Nauen . In 1938 he married Marianne Pallat, the daughter of the Prussian ministerial official and education reformer Ludwig Pallat (1867–1946), and was in close contact with his brother-in-law Adolf Reichwein . Professionally, v. Machui works in the agricultural research service under the direction of Konrad Meyer . From 1942 he also worked for the publisher "Deutsche Landbuchhandlung" of the writer Heinrich Sohnrey . The focus of his publications at this time were questions of the cooperative system, labor constitution and village organization, which were related to the Germanization of the conquered territories in Eastern Europe and the expulsion or murder of the indigenous population, see General Plan East . During the war, von Machui worked as a planner for the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Volkstum , Heinrich Himmler , based in Berlin.

For the time of the war, contacts to members of the Kreisau Circle are only attested in the memories of Rosemarie Reichwein , who reports on her husband's contacts: He also contacted comrades from the voluntary labor service in Löwenberg / Silesia in the late twenties Years. These included: Count Helmuth James von Moltke, Carl Dietrich von Trotha, Horst von Einsiedel and Arthur von Machui - all sons of Silesian estates.

From 1946 to 1949 he was head of department for agricultural labor issues in the initially British, then bizonal, and finally nationwide “Administration for Food, Agriculture and Forests (VELF)” (Director: Hans Schlange-Schöningen ), the forerunner of what would later become the Federal Ministry of Food , Agriculture and forestry . He published the correspondence on agricultural policy information and published several times in the Frankfurter Hefte . Between 1947 and 1949 he initiated together with Werner von Trott u. a. a series of meetings of the Imshausen Society , attended by politicians, scientists and publicists from East and West. At the same time he took an active part in meetings of the Nauheimer Kreis , which aimed to neutralize Germany and was chaired by the Würzburg history professor Ulrich Noack . In 1947 he and Tassilo Tröscher and others founded the Agrarsoziale Gesellschaft e. V. In West Germany, in addition to a land reform, he campaigned for an agrarian reform that included private and public economic elements. In his obituary for Artur von Machui Tröscher writes that he can be considered one of the fathers of the terms "agrarian social" and "agrarian sociology".

Due to the participation in events of interzonal "Action Group of Youth for a united Germany" in Braunschweig and Hanover, he was from the SPD on 21 May 1949 excluded and had to his position in the administration to give up. He then took part in the development of the " Social Democratic Action " (SDA), a left-wing SPD spin-off, within the framework of which he published the German Agricultural Policy Information (GAPI) and the SDA organ Our Action from 1949 to 1951 . This attempt to work with politicians from the GDR ( Franz Dahlem , Karl Schirdewan , Erich Glückauf and others) failed at the end of 1950 when the SDA was instrumentalized by members of the SED and KPD. A. v. Machui resigned from the SDA on January 24, 1951. He worked as a freelancer until his death. In 1960, under the pseudonym Victor Silling, he took the side of the Federal Minister of Expellees Theodor Oberländer, who was attacked for his activities in World War II .

Looking back, he described his political development: “Politically, I developed from a radical (but never a Marxist!) Socialist to a temperate (by no means reactionary!) Conservative democrat. Until 1944, I went the political path together with my friend and brother-in-law Professor Dr. Adolf Reichwein, executed on July 20, 1944 . In every phase I deliberately rejected nationalism. Twice I lost my professional livelihood through the NSDAP. I parted with socialism, including democratic, in 1951/52 when personal attempts at west-east cooperation showed me that I apparently have no organ for Marxism as such and that, as a Catholic Christian, I ultimately reject it. ”(From the estate)

Works

• From our founding time. In: The ethnic group. Contributions to the Silesian national education center. Spring 1928, pp. 2-4.
• Our responsibility to the country. In: Neue Blätter für den Sozialismus, Vol. 2/1931, H. 8
• Settlement of promotion with East German settlers. Your human preparation and organizational implementation in Lower Silesia. Pamphlets of the Reich Office for Settler Advice, ed. by Dr. Johannes Schauff . Berlin 1932
• Economic balance of the German labor service. In: International Journal for Education, vol. 6/1937, pages 16 to 19
• The landscape of the farming villages. In: Neues Bauerntum 32, 1940, pages 183-186
• Homeland stability and down-to-earthness of ethnic German farmers in the new parts of the empire. In: Heimatleben, born 1940, pages 121-131
• Werner Lindner ; Machui, Artur von: Architectural home design in the east. In: Heimatleben. Issue 9th year 1940. Berlin 1940
• On the reorganization of farms and their labor constitution. In: Konrad Meyer u. a. (Ed.): Country people in the making. Berlin 1941, pages 212-240
• The role of the cooperatives in the future community order of the country. In: Konrad Meyer et al. (Hrsg.): Landvolk im Werden. Berlin 1941, pages 258-270
• Life and work in the New East. In: Will and Power. Leader Organ for National Socialist Youth , 9, 1941, pages 19-10
• Proposals for a new agricultural labor constitution. In: Neues Bauerntum 33, 1941, pages 151–156
• Urban planning and general settlement development in the new German east. In: Neues Bauerntum 33, 1941, pages 253-254
• Current tasks in political agronomy. In: Forschungsdienst 14, 1942, pp. 190–192
• Volksbiological and national community requirements for rural development in the new German east. DFG- funded project for the general settlement plan, 1942 and 1943
• Scientific documents on the war and settlement measures in the incorporated parts of the empire. DFG-funded project on the general settlement plan, 1944 and 1945
• For Heinrich Sohnrey's 85th birthday. His contribution to rural social teaching. In: Forschungsdienst 17, 1944, pages 291-96
• To the memory of Adolf Reichwein. In: Die Sammlung, vol. 1/1945 to 1946, no. 1
• Thoughts and results of the first agro-social conference in Northeim, Hanover from May 3rd to 5th, 1947 / arrangement for the agro-social working group by Artur v. Machui. Agricultural Social Working Group, Göttingen 1947
• Statements on the agricultural social situation / processing for the agricultural social working group by Artur v. Machui. Agricultural Social Working Group, Göttingen, autumn 1947
• Hopeless proletariat? Possibilities of a social activation of the agricultural workers. In: Frankfurter Hefte, vol. 3/1948, no.12
• The social principle in agricultural policy. In: Agrarsoziale Gesellschaft eV (ed.), Agrarsocial goals and questions. Results of a workshop. Göttingen, spring 1948
• And what is the farmer doing? Signpost through the jungle of agricultural policy. In: Volk und Zeit (4th year, 1st edition) January 1949, pp. 8-10
• von Lusian, Andreas (pseudonym): Perspectives of a German agricultural policy. In: Frankfurter Hefte, H. 12/1951, pp. 880-887
• West-East cooperation in Germany. The example of the Social Democratic Action SDA and the free group of employees of the Pan-German Agricultural Policy Information GAPI 1949/1951 , Frankfurt 1951 (manuscript)
• Picture book Italy. Image compilation: Ludwig Heiss. Text: Artur v. Machui, Frankfurt 1954
• J. Peter Nettl: The German Soviet Zone until today. Politics, economy, society. Translation Artur v. Machui. Frankfurt 1953
• Title - Salutation - Ranks . Heidelberg, Munich 1959
• Silling, Victor (pseudonym): The background to the Oberländer case. Wolfenbüttel 1960
• Giuseppe Garibaldi : The sword of Italy almost broke. Limburg an der Lahn and Kreuzweingarten 1961

literature

• J. Baumgart: The Imshausen Society. A forgotten attempt to reorganize Germany. In: Neue Gesellschaft, Frankfurter Hefte. 38 (1991), H. 5, pp. 443-447.
• Peter Dudek: Education through work. Labor Camp Movement and Voluntary Labor Service 1920-1935. Opladen 1988.
• Jürgen von der Trappen: The Silesian young team in the years from 1922 to 1932. A contribution to the history of the German youth movement. Essen 1996 (typewritten dissertation).
• Walter Greiff: The Boberhaus in Löwenberg / Silesia 1933-1937. Assertiveness of a nonconforming group. Sigmaringen 1985.
• Rosemarie Reichwein: The years with Adolf Reichwein shaped my life. A book of memory. Eds. Lothar Kunz, Sabine Reichwein. Munich 1999
• Wolfgang M. Schwiedrzik: Dreams from the very beginning. The Imshausen company. Siedler, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-88680-340-6 .

Web links

• Ocklitz
• Agricultural Social Society eV
• Adam von Trott Foundation
• Telegram Riddleberger to the US State Department v. May 22, 1949
• September 19, 1950: Decree against enemies of the constitution : so-called Adenauer decree

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 1937–45 Eichwall, from 1945 Polish Okulice.
2. ↑ Basic research for the General Plan East. DFG exhibition Science - Planning - Displacement. The National Socialists' General Plan East, 2006–2012.