SMAD command # 209

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The No. 209 command. Supreme Chief of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany , Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Sokolovsky , on 9 September 1947, the creation was Neubauer farms in the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ). For this purpose, the order ordered the extraction of the necessary building materials from the "buildings of former estate owners". In practice, the execution of the order meant the destruction and removal of numerous mansions and manors whose owners had been expropriated by the land reform in the Soviet Zone from 1945 onwards.

background

The order of the Soviet occupying power was preceded by extensive expropriations and the arrest or eviction of landowners as a result of the land reform. Landowners with more than 100 hectares as well as war criminals and active NSDAP members lost their property without compensation. All other property, from houses and financial assets to furniture and clothing, was deprived of the previous owners. The dispossessed were expelled from their home districts and often sent to forced camps (e.g. Coswig (Saxony) and Radeberg in Saxony, but also on Rügen ). The expropriated property was transferred to the respective local land fund. New residential and farm buildings were to be created from the demolition materials for the new farms.

Order 209 was issued by the Soviet military administration in Germany because after the expropriations through the land reform and the distribution of the expropriated land to poor and landless farmers and displaced persons, the construction of residential and farm buildings by the new farmers did not correspond to the ideas of the occupying power had performed. The reason was mostly the lack of building materials.

Content of command 209

Order No. 209 of the chief chief of the SMA, the commander in chief of the group of Soviet occupation forces in Germany from September 9, 1947

Subject: Measures for the economic development of the new farms

As a result of the land reform carried out in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, the large estates of the landowners - Junkers who have always been a pillar of reaction and militarism - have been liquidated.

In place of the confiscated Junk estate, around 500,000 new farms were built.

The experience of almost two years of existence of the new economies has shown that they are firmly on their feet. The agricultural work in 1946 and 1947 was done on time and well by the new farms. The overwhelming majority of the new farmers honestly fulfills their duty to the German people with regard to the complete fulfillment of the delivery norms set for them for agricultural products.

The Soviet military administration and the German organs of self-government have given the new economies considerable assistance in their economic development. In addition to the cattle they received as a result of the land reform, an additional 20,300 horses, 98,700 head of cattle and 98,200 pigs, sheep and goats were sold to the new farms. Substantial seed loans were made available to these farms, loans were granted for building purposes, the purchase of livestock and inventory, and perks for the delivery of agricultural products. This does not overcome the difficulties in building residential and farm buildings and in supplying the new farms with working cattle.

In order to eliminate these difficulties and to complete the economic establishment of the new farmers as quickly as possible, I order:

I. The Prime Ministers of the governments of the federal states and the President of the German Administration for Agriculture and Forestry:

1. In the course of 1947-48 to ensure the construction of no less than 37,000 houses in the farms of the new farmers, of which:
10,000 houses in the state of Brandenburg
7,000 houses in the state of Saxony-Anhalt
12,000 houses in the state of Mecklenburg
5,000 houses in the state of Saxony
3,000 houses in the state of Thuringia
2. By January 1, 1948, to assign the new farmers in Natura the yard and the land for the construction of residential and farm buildings. The size of the parcel for building and yard is to be determined by the governments of the countries, but not larger than 0.75 hectares.
3. The applications for the right to build, the allocation of the courtyard parcels, the granting of loans are to be processed and regulated within a month. People who are guilty of kidnapping are to be held responsible.
4. To take the necessary measures to expand the production of local building materials and to remove bricks, roof tiles, lime, plaster, lumber and other building materials from the new farms for the construction of houses.
5. New additional work shifts must be organized at the sawmills, but without affecting the main plan. The sawed goods produced by the additional work shifts are to be used in full for building needs in new farms. Transportable units for sawing wood for the new economies are to be organized in each district. If the farmers do not have any timber, the required amount of wood from the forests of the communities and local self-government is to be made available to them at preferential prices.
6. To allow the committees of mutual peasant aid and individual peasants to freely use the building materials of the destroyed armaments factories and structures, the buildings of former manors and the ruins of abandoned buildings.
7. To give the farmers complete independence in choosing the type of building they want. To abandon the wrong practice of the compulsory construction of farm houses according to costly standard types.
8. To organize help for the new farmers with the transport of building materials for their farms. To recommend to the Mutual Farmers Aid Committees to use the tractors at the machine loan points for this purpose when they are not engaged in field work.
9. The stocks of cultivated building materials (nails, roofing felt, glass, sawn timber and others), which are separated for agriculture, are to be used mainly for the building needs in the economies of the new farmers.

II. The Prime Minister of the governments of the states of Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia to ensure the sale of cattle to the states of Mecklenburg and Brandenburg in a quantity according to the annex. The purchase of cattle for the states of Mecklenburg and Brandenburg is to end on December 1st. The minister-presidents of the governments of the states of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg to ensure the timely delivery of the cattle from the states of Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia and their sale exclusively to new farmers.

III. The Minister-President of the states of Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia, to organize the sale of working and livestock to the new farms within the states in such a way that a situation in which the new farmers have no cows is complete in the next 3 - 4 months will be eliminated.

IV. To set up a systematic control of the organization and the course of the construction for the new farmers for the heads of the administrations of the SMA of the federal states. Every quarter, the administration for agriculture and forestry of the SMAD has to submit an account of the progress of the construction.

Chief of the Soviet Military Administration, the Commander in Chief of the Troops of the Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany

Marshal of the Soviet Union W. Sokolowsky

Deputy Chief of Staff of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany

Lieutenant General D. Samarsky

The implementation of the 209 order in Saxony

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in the state government of Saxony reacted on October 4, 1947 with circular order No. 11/47. In it was stipulated for point 6 of the order 209: "The demolition of manor buildings to obtain material for the construction of courtyards is to be claimed to a greater extent." The manor buildings were the agricultural buildings of the manor such as stables and barns that were used for agriculture were urgently needed. It quickly became clear that the actually "useless" mansions and castles of the expropriated manor owners had to serve for this. Therefore, at its meeting on December 12, 1947, the Land Commission of Saxony passed the fatal decision for the Saxon cultural landscape: "The district soil commissions are instructed to demolish at least 25% of the mansions and castles immediately." That was the fatal blow for more than 240 castles and Mansions in Saxony.

Destroyed noble houses

Initially, the manors were listed as "evidences of feudal oppression to be removed" by the SMAD.

Despite the prevailing housing shortage and in the meantime being given to homeless people, numerous mansions were blown up or demolished in order to erase the memory of the previous owners. In the run-up to the demolition, these were mostly released for looting. One of the slogans for the demolition work was “The fortresses must fall”. Usually farm buildings or other additions were preserved.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the district administrators were asked on August 22, 1947, together with the Land Reform Commission and the VdgB, to divide up the manors and to demolish the unused buildings and mansions. In the winter of 1947/48 the first demolitions began in Saxony-Anhalt.

Objections from preservationists and local historians had little success. In order to save buildings threatened with demolition, however, possible uses were sought in many places. The manor houses served u. a. as emergency shelters, as apartments for resettlers, but also as schools, retirement and nursing homes, museums, archives or administrations.

Destruction due to SMAD command no.209 is known to occur in:

Model of the blown up Blankenberg Castle

Thuringia

(each: place name, destroyed aristocratic residence, year of destruction, last landlord)

Saxony

Saxony-Anhalt

Brandenburg

  • Briesen : Briesen Castle demolished in 1947
  • Brünkendorf, district of Groß Pankow : Castle demolished
  • Eldenburg, district of Lenzen : castle and palace demolished in 1946/49 (Quitzow tower preserved)
  • Ferchesar : Ferchesar Castle demolished in 1947
  • Kuzen : Castle demolished in 1947; - a special example of pointlessness, as the building material obtained could not be reused (the imposing building from 1787 was largely made of clay framework), only the Pessin mansion , a half-timbered building from the 15th century, escaped the planned 1948 demolition
  • Mückenberg (today Lauchhammer-West ), district of Lauchhammer : Mückenberg Castle , demolished after 1945
  • Zollchow : mansion demolished in 1948

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A. Andreae, U. Geiseler: The manor houses of the Havelland. Lukas-Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-931836-59-2 .
  2. ↑ Copy in the Saxon State Archives Leipzig, Kreisverwaltung Oschatz, Volume 692, p. 83.
  3. ^ Sächsischen Staatsarchiv Leipzig, Kreisverwaltungs Oschatz, Volume 692, p. 82.
  4. ↑ Circular decree No. 7 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in the state government of Saxony of December 29, 1947, copy in the Saxon State Archives Leipzig, district administration Oschatz, volume 684, p. 152.
  5. ^ Norbert Klaus Fuchs: Billmuthausen - The condemned village . Greifenverlag zu Rudolstadt & Berlin, 2009, ISBN 978-3-86939-004-8

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