Peasant trade cooperative

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The Bäuerliche Handelsgenossenschaft (BHG) was the agricultural universal cooperative in the GDR and at the same time credit and goods cooperative with various other branches of the economy.

task

The task and funding purpose of the BHG consisted of primarily supplying the rural population and agricultural businesses (individual farmers, goods, LPG and GPG) with means of production and goods for rural and horticultural needs using cashless money transactions, collecting cash deposits and granting loans, later founding and setting up of community facilities (transport facilities, agrochemical centers , potato sorting stations, etc.), collection of cash deposits and granting of loans. The BHG were integrated into the central planned economy of the GDR via the district boards and the central board of the Association of Mutual Farmers Aid (VdgB) .

history

The BHG emerged from the 6,300 rural cooperatives of all types in the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ). Its roots lay in the first mutual support associations founded in the mid-19th century by Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen and Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch. The umbrella organization (Reich Association of German Agricultural Cooperatives - Raiffeisen e.V.), with all its members and the auditing associations of agricultural cooperatives, was forcibly incorporated into the Reichsnährstand in 1933 .

Order No. 146 of the Soviet Military Administration of Germany (SMAD) of November 20, 1945 enabled the agricultural cooperatives to re-establish themselves in the Soviet Zone and resume their independent activities. The Raiffeisen cooperatives were initially responsible for the majority of the land trade and developed into rural trading operations. However, their influence as a “declining hand” diminished because, from 1950 onwards, state “Nationally owned collection and purchase companies (VEAB)” and the double price system in the GDR (separation into delivery target and “free tips”) increasingly determined this sector.

The rural savings and loan funds, which in the 1930s had to call themselves Raiffeisenkassen eGmbH, developed into - already universal - agricultural village cooperatives in 1949/50. To this end, they also merged with purchasing and sales cooperatives (Raiffeisen) to form territorially delimited associations and were organized in five regional associations. However, the formation of the zone-wide umbrella organization “Central Association of Agricultural Cooperatives in Germany” was only allowed in March 1949 after the harmonization of the previous associations in the upper levels had been completed.

At the same time, the "Commissions for Land Reform" and the "Committees of Mutual Farmers Aid" formed in the SBZ from the fall of 1945 formed local organizations of the Association of Mutual Farmers Aid (VdgB), which merged into district and state associations and finally on the 1st German Farmers' Day in November 1947 founded the “Central Association of Mutual Farmers Aid (ZVdgB)” as a public corporation .

The local groups belonging to this initially sought cooperation and division of labor with the agricultural cooperatives, which were re-approved as of 1945, to support new, small and medium-sized farmers. But soon the VdgB, which had already secured a large political and professional say in agricultural advice and from 1949 on the animal breeding associations, should also exercise more influence on the agricultural trade. After the decision of the governing bodies of the “Central Association of Agricultural Cooperatives in Germany” and the “Central Association of Mutual Farmers' Aid” on November 20, 1950, new state associations and regional VdgB - rural trade cooperatives (1950: 3500 VdgB-BHG) were created. The latter were institutions of the members of one or more local organizations of the VdgB, legally registered cooperatives without obligation to make additional contributions (eGoN). They were responsible for the trading business, especially with cashless payment transactions through the management of current and savings accounts, primarily for the rural population. The credit system - especially for investments - was soon transferred to the Deutsche Bauernbank, founded in February 1950 (from 1965 Deutsche Landwirtschaftsbank , from 1968 Bank for Agriculture and Food Industry of the GDR).

Until the end of the GDR, utility, service and banking services rose steadily (most recently by an average of 5–10% annually), as did labor productivity and effectiveness. At the turn of the century, there were 272 legally independent BHGs (according to profitability-related concentrations) that supplied the rural areas of the GDR with 6,800 sales outlets, 2,800 bank branches, 3,500 lending outlets, etc. - within the framework of the limited state-provided goods fund. At the end of 1989 BHG had total assets of 19 billion and its customers' bank deposits of 13 billion GDR marks .

After the GDR acceded to the Federal Republic of Germany , the BHG were transformed into purchase cooperatives in accordance with civil law, with the credit and goods business generally being separated and divided between separate Raiffeisen banks and goods cooperatives. While the goods and services business lost importance due to numerous competition in the respective catchment area, the lending business in the Raiffeisen and Volksbanks in the eastern German states was continued.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ First ordinance of December 8, 1933 and second ordinance of January 15, 1934 on the provisional establishment of the Reichsnährstand (RGBl. I 1933 p. 1060, 1934 p. 32)
  2. ↑ Order No. 146 of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany of November 20, 1945 on the re-authorization of agricultural cooperatives in the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany
  3. ↑ Horst Lambrecht: The system of the market split (double price level, different market routes). In: Agriculture in the GDR before and after its transformation in 1960, German Institute for Economic Research (West) Berlin, 1976, p. 133 ff.
  4. ^ Archive portal Thuringia / Thuringian District Court Sondershausen / Cooperative register (1920 - 1951)
  5. ^ Martin Broszat, Gerhard Braas, Hermann Weber: SBZ-Handbuch, 1993, ISBN 3486552627 , page 761
  6. ^ Association of Mutual Farmers Aid (accessed on July 20, 2013)
  7. ↑ Decision of November 20, 1950 to form the Association of Mutual Farmers Aid (Bäuerliche Handelsgenossenschaften) - Abbreviation: VdgB (BHG) - from the Central Association of Mutual Farmers Aid (ZVdgB) and the Central Association of German Agricultural Cooperatives
  8. ^ VR-Bank Altenburger Land - section The Raiffeisenkassen are disappearing