Emsland farmers' association

The Emsland Farmers 'Association was a Christian-oriented northwest German farmers' association that existed from 1920 to 1933.

Prehistory and foundation

Agriculture in the districts of Aschendorf , Grafschaft Bentheim , Hümmling , Meppen and Lingen in the Prussian province of Hanover along the Dutch border was hardly organized until the outbreak of the revolution of 1918 . Only a small number of farmers belonged to the influential " Westphalian Farmers Association " (WBV), which had its seat in Münster and had a large number of members in Westphalia .

Already in the last days of the war, actively encouraged by the district administrators, efforts to form farmers 'and agricultural workers' councils began in the region, which quickly spread after the end of the war. On the one hand, they were supposed to form a conservative counterweight to the workers 'and soldiers' councils , which were under the influence of the MSPD and USPD at the level of the Reich, and less in the region . In addition, they played an important role in the collection and delivery of food. The local farmers 'councils soon merged to form district farmers' councils and increasingly became the mouthpieces of economic policy for agriculture. Since 1919 a fierce battle raged in the Emsland / Bentheim region over the economic and political organization of the farmers.

The hiring workers and servants founded the "Association of Christian Heuerarbeiter" (VCH), which grew rapidly and, with its political demands, especially in the area of social policy and the expropriation of wasteland , quickly became confrontational with the farmers. The situation within the Emsland peasantry was confusing in 1919 / early 1920. One wing advocated the establishment of local and district associations in the Emsland , which should then be constituted as a subdivision of the WBV. A close alliance with Westphalia and the Center Party was connected with this. Another wing, on the other hand, advocated the newly founded Hanover State Association, which later renamed itself the "Hanoverian Land Association" and joined the anti-republican and strongly right-wing " Reich Land Association ". Most of the supporters of this organization were of the opinion that in view of the political situation ( separatists on the Rhine and Ruhr, French annexation plans ) it would not be opportune to join the association of a foreign province, as this would support the demand that was then circulating for a connection of the Emsland to one Rhenish-Westphalian Republic to be founded and a separation from Prussia meant. A small part of this group, however, advocated this solution for party-political reasons, as it was foreseeable that the Hanoverian association would fall into the waters of the right-wing and anti-republican German National People's Party ( DNVP ).

The Hannoversche Landesverband founded district associations, but the local groups were missing. With support from Westphalia, however, the WBV supporters created local and district associations and thus prevailed in this dispute. Finally, the "Emsland Farmers' Association" (EBV), founded with the help of the WBV, began its activity on June 1, 1920 in Meppen. Section 2 of the statutes defined the association's objective: “The association aims to unite its members to form a stable profession, so that it has the status it deserves in all areas of public and economic life and the interests it needs to effectively represent legitimate interests Influence gained ”. On a supraregional level, the EBV joined the organization of Christian farmers 'associations, the association of German farmers' associations . The long-standing Aschendorfer community leader and large farmer Heribert Schulte-Eissing was elected chairman of the EBV, who was also a member of the extended Reich Board of the Center Party and the board of the Emsland and Hanover Centers. At first only the agriculture of the four Catholic Emsland districts joined the EBV. Schulte-Eissing's deputy was the chairman of the Lingen agricultural district association, Carl Langenhorst from Suttrup, who had made a name for himself in the dispute about the political representation of interests in agriculture. In 1921, the Agricultural District Association of the Protestant County of Bentheim (October 1921: 2320 members) decided to join the EBV despite political concerns. Up until now the board of the district farmers' council had politically represented agriculture there. The chairman of the Grafschafter Landwirtschaftliche Kreisverein, Johann Schütte from Bentheim, was appointed to Carl Langenhorst as deputy EBV chairman.

The EBV took its seat in Meppen , where it built its own building. The full-time employees of the EBV were also employees of the "Agricultural Main Association for the Duchy of Arenberg-Meppen and the Counties of Bentheim and Lingen", the regional subdivision of the Chamber of Agriculture, which moved its headquarters from Osnabrück to Meppen in 1921. Although both organizations had legally separate functions, both the management and the employees of the main association consisted of the leading EBV members. The general secretary of the EBV was Jakob Siebers, Hubert Köhne acted as in-house counsel. In the course of time a branch was established in Neuenhaus in the county of Bentheim. The association's publication organ was the “Emsländische Bauer”, which appeared from January 1923 to the end of August 1933 and was edited by Secretary General Jacob Siebers.

The EBV 1922–1932

The EBV became a powerful and active lobbyist for regional agriculture, whereby the association was particularly committed to the economic and transport-related development of this region, which is characterized by large moor and heather areas. Various EBV lists were running for the district council elections. Politically, the Emsland district associations were close to the Center Party, the Protestant Grafschafter of the “German National People's Party” (DNVP) and initially partly also to the German-Hanoverian Party (DHP). In 1920 the center had sent the EBV board member and chairman of the agricultural district association Aschendorf, Theodor Pennemann , to the Reichstag. However, this fueled the dissatisfaction of the salaried workers' organization with the party, which then largely separated from the center and supported the left-wing Catholic splinter party “Christian Social People's Community” (CSVG). The CSVG became the second strongest party in Emsland in May 1924 . The main point of contention between farmers and hirers was the lease protection for the hirelings, which the farmers viewed as a massive encroachment on their property rights, as well as the question of the expropriation of wasteland for settlement purposes in the region and the modalities of compensation and repurchase of parts of the state expropriated and cultivated land by farmers. In addition, the socio-political demands of the hired workers and servants caused bad blood. Since the Reich Labor Minister Heinrich Brauns from the center actively campaigned for the protection of leases and the improvement of the social situation of the hirers and servants as well as the settlement promotion, the EBV representatives went to the barricades at the beginning of 1924, when, of all people, Brauns from the regional center leadership to the top candidate of the party in Weser-Ems constituency was established. The deputy EBV chairman Carl Langenhorst resigned from the center and joined the DHP. Attempts by the EBV and neighboring Christian farmers' associations, through the influential Count and EBV board member Emanuel von Galen from Lingen-Beversundern, to force the Center Party to withdraw these personnel and to nominate a more suitable candidate failed, as did attempts by leading EBV representatives from the county and the district of Lingen to move the DNVP and DHP to nominate a top candidate from their ranks, especially since the Catholic farmers complained about the propaganda of the leadership of these agricultural district associations against the center.

The plight of the farmers in this region increased enormously due to several bad harvests in a row, high expenditures for the cultivation of wasteland and electrification as well as for the modernization of the farms, and the prices fell. Since the end of 1927, the rural people in need movement under the leadership of Lorup farmer Wilhelm Borgmann entered the region and radicalized the rural population. However, the EBV leadership took the lead in the movement and organized a mass rally with the VCH in Lingen at the end of January 1928. A delegation was sent to Berlin, which brought the demands of the Emsland agriculture and informed about the emergency situation. Since the center, as the politically dominant local representative of the Weimar Republic, was mainly blamed for the plight of agriculture and the party had been very accommodating to the hiring workers after 1924, the leaders of some agricultural district associations switched to agrarian protest parties. The chairmen of the Grafschaft Bentheim agricultural district association, Johann Schütte, and the Lingen district association, Carl Langenhorst, ran for the state and Reichstag elections in May 1928 as the top candidates of the " Christian National Peasant and Rural People's Party " (CNBL). In the northern Emsland, however, EBV sub-officials applied for the DHP, which had formed an electoral alliance with the CNBL. They succeeded in sending Landvolkführer Wilhelm Borgmann on the DHP list to the Prussian state parliament.

However, Heribert Schulte-Eissing and the center leadership were able to win back most of the EBV leaders who had migrated to the right and many members for the center party, for example through the use of loans for hiring workers and for wasteland cultivation in the Prussian state parliament or an Emsland speech by Brauns in the Reichstag. Attempts by the NSDAP , which was active quite early in the county of Bentheim , to gain dominance in local groups from 1930 and to infiltrate the Bentheim district association, failed because the German National Schütte, like its other board colleagues from the ranks of the DNVP, the " Christian Social People's Service." “(CSVD) and the center vigorously opposed the Nazis. Even the attempted overthrow of Schulte-Eissing by the right-wing Catholic Emanuel von Galen, who joined the NSDAP in 1931, failed in 1930. Therefore, in autumn 1932, the National Socialists founded the "National Farmers 'Union" as a purely Nazi farmers' organization. Although in 1932 the NSDAP consistently won between 60% and 80% of the votes in the Protestant villages of the county, most of the farmers remained loyal to the EBV, so that the "National Farmers' Union" did not flourish and the two local associations in the county in which the National Socialists had taken power, new local associations loyal to the EBV were immediately set aside.

The end of 1933

After the seizure of power of the Nazis in late January 1933, there was the rise of the Nazis in agriculture . The "National Farmers Association" had the dairy industry expert Dr. Hermann Korte from the Agricultural Main Association Arenberg-Meppen, a former EBV employee, hired as managing director, who intensified the fight against the EBV with official and journalistic support, especially in the county. However, there were still no convertions of leading EBV representatives to the NSDAP, but after the March elections the number of Grafschafter farmers who turned their backs on the EBV swelled. From April 1933 onwards, a number of EBV local associations from Grafschaft decided to separate from the EBV as soon as possible and to join the "National Farmers' Union". The journalistic and political pressure on the EBV leaders, especially if they came from the center ranks, grew enormously, especially since they usually also functioned as regional or local party leaders. In this function they were the target of massive Nazi attacks, in which they accused the EBV leader and Aschendorfer community leader Schulte-Eissing for corruption and mismanagement. In the county of Bentheim, the deputy district chairman and EBV board member Derk Brink, who had headed the EBV local association with the largest number of members and was an influential district politician, was particularly hard hit.

The National Socialists achieved the breakthrough in their efforts to bring the EBV into line at the end of March 1933. After a massive campaign against chairman Heribert Schulte-Eissing, which ousted him from his office as community leader of the district of Aschendorf and from the boards of cooperative associations, he said At the end of March 1933, he resigned as EBV chairman. He was succeeded on April 20 by the German national Otto von Landsberg-Velen from Gut Dankern near Haren. The baron and Stahlhelmleiter belonged not only to the right wing of the EBV, but was also a well-known and vehement opponent of the VCH as chairman of the Emsland organization of landlords, the "Association of Tenants and Landowners of Lower Saxony", like his comrade Count von Galen. As a German national willing to cooperate, he offered little resistance to the National Socialists' efforts to achieve conformity, especially since the higher-ranking association had already given in to pressure from the NSDAP to cooperate. After massive intimidation, Johann Schütte also resigned his district chairmanship, his deputy Brink, after brief arrest, renounced any further political involvement, so that on April 28, 1933 the National Socialists formed a district leadership of the Emsland agriculture. All agricultural political associations were brought together in it, but under the leadership of National Socialists and under the dominance of farmers who, with the NSDAP , were able to politically eliminate the hirelings loyal to the center . Baron von Landsberg-Velen represented the EBV in this five-person committee. Although the Hümmling Agricultural District Association, always a stronghold of the center, was still a bit cumbersome, the EBV had disappeared as an independent organization. The organ of the association had to cease publication on August 31, 1933. The EBV itself still existed formally until December 31, 1933, but since the formation of the district leadership of the Emsland agriculture it was completely subject to the organizational decisions of the National Socialists and had no more options of its own.

statistics

Chairperson

1920–1933: Heribert Schulte-Eissing
1933: Otto Freiherr von Landberg-Velen (Dankern Castle)

Members

May 1920: approximately 10,000
End of 1921: over 12,000 in 98 local associations
1922: around 12,000
1933: around 5,500 for years

(Information according to press releases)

Association body

1923–1933: Emsland farmer (available in the Göttingen University Library)

Distribution area

literature

Hanoverian agriculture and its chamber of agriculture. Published by the Chamber of Agriculture for the Province of Hanover, Hanover 1931.
Helmut Lensing, Art. Borgmann, Wilhelm, in: Study Society for Emsländische Regionalgeschichte, Emsländische Geschichte Vol. 6, pp. 155–158.
Helmut Lensing, The National Socialist Coordination of Agriculture in Emsland and the Grafschaft Bentheim, in: Study Society for Emsland Regional History, Emsländische Geschichte Vol. 4, Bremen 1994, pp. 43–123.
Helmut Lensing, The Nazi campaign against the agricultural functionary Derk Brink from Getelo as a piece of the mosaic for National Socialist conformity in the county of Bentheim, in: Study Society for Emsländische Regionalgeschichte (ed.), Emsländische Geschichte Vol. 11, Haselünne 2004, pp. 178-201 .

Helmut Lensing, The work of Count Emanuel von Galen in the Emsland during the Weimar Republic and the Nazi period, in: Study Society for Emsländische Regionalgeschichte (ed.), Emsländische Geschichte Vol. 14, Haselünne 2007, pp. 94-169.

Martin Löning, The implementation of National Socialist rule in the Emsland (1933–1935), in: Emsland / Bentheim. Contributions to the history of Vol. 12. Ed. Of the Emsland landscape for the districts of Emsland and Grafschaft Bentheim, Sögel 1996, pp. 7–353.