Land consolidation (Germany)

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Map of the ownership structure (each color represents a different owner) in a municipality before (above) and after (below) a land consolidation

Land consolidation (also land consolidation or rural / agricultural reorganization system ) is the name given in Germany to the land management procedure , which aims to reorganize agricultural and forestry property. The corresponding procedure for building areas is called reallocation .

The legal basis for the work of the land consolidation authorities is in principle the Land Consolidation Act (FlurbG) of July 1953. According to this, the responsibility for carrying out a land consolidation procedure lies with the locally responsible lower land consolidation authority. Which authority this is is regulated differently in the individual federal states. The respective legal regulations of the surveying and cadastral administration apply to the surveying and property law work.

During the restructuring, mostly smaller, scattered areas (fragmented property) are combined into larger and thus more effectively usable areas. The reason for the previous fragmentation is the real division . Land consolidation also includes the creation of paths, roads and waterways as well as similar public facilities.

Objectives of land consolidation (land consolidation)

Land consolidations are also used to achieve the following goals:

In the past, land consolidation not only had positive effects, but also monocultures, desertification of the landscape and erosion. Along with the increasing awareness of environmental issues, the land consolidation procedures were also further developed. In many federal states, due to the legal circumstances, land consolidation is the instrument to intervene in the landscape or to implement structural improvements in an environmentally and socially compatible manner. This is ensured through the participation of all landowners as well as the participation of all relevant specialist authorities (agriculture and forestry, road construction, bodies of water, mining law, nature conservation, BUND, NABU, farmers and winegrowing associations, cities and municipalities, etc.), taking into account state, federal and European law.

Favoring the arrangement are the wish of a majority of the landowners for structural improvement (splinter ownership) combined with ecological added value or ecological projects, processes with support of the energy transition or processes with the possibility of better implementation of cross-community development concepts.

The execution of the land consolidation is regulated in Germany by the land consolidation law, which is then implemented in the individual federal states with certain differences.

A distinction is essentially made between:

Classic land consolidation procedures
The entire process area is re-measured, the previous measurement, possibly centuries old, is recorded in new and more accurate measurement systems (updating of the measurement).
Accelerated mergers
Little or nothing is re-measured, only entire properties are swapped. Such procedures can be completed much faster.
Voluntary land swap
Another simplification for the exchange of entire properties on a purely voluntary basis, limited to smaller procedural areas.

In the case of fragmented property, for example, the goal is to reduce the scatter. For example, if a landowner has an average of 40 properties in different locations, he should only have one to five properties after the reorganization, all of which are developed and therefore easily accessible. The land redistribution in the course of the land consolidation is exempt from real estate transfer tax.

Participants (community of participants)

Are involved in the process or the land consolidation measures

  1. as participants, the owners and leaseholders of the properties in the reallocation area as well as
  2. as secondary participants, among others:
  • Holders of rights to the land concerned
  • affected communities
  • Demand and development carriers
  • Water and soil associations
  • agricultural professional representation

The participants together form the so-called community of participants , which is founded by the land consolidation resolution as a public corporation. It is under the supervision of the land consolidation authority .

Participant communities can acc. §26 a FlurbG to merge into an association of participant communities (e.g. Association of Participant Communities Baden-Württemberg , VLF Brandenburg ), several associations within a federal state can merge to form a state association (e.g. State Association for Rural Development Bavaria). All of these associations have come together nationwide to form the Federal Association of Participating Communities (BTG).

Appraisal procedure

In order to be able to settle each participant with land or money of the same value, the value of the old property, the so-called throw-in mass, must be determined. The value of a property is then determined in relation to the total value. The current value of the throw-in mass is determined with the help of the soil estimation results , which depend, for example, on the quality of the soil and its location. These soil appraisal results are expressed in numerical values ​​(ratios). Properties with a particular impact on value (developed properties, etc.) are determined separately according to their market value , but only in the event of a change of ownership.

The land reorganization in the forest represents a special case. There, the soil and the growing wood stock are assessed separately. The soil value is based on the one hand on the usual forest soil values ​​(see standard soil values), on the other hand on location, inclination and exposure, bedrock, soil, water and nutrient supply and manageability. The growing wood stock is assessed separately from this. Its value essentially depends on the existing tree species, the customary culture costs and wood prices of the various types of wood, assortments and wood qualities as well as their processing costs. The market values ​​of the crops (culture cost value), poles and trees (expected stand value) and old stands (foreground value) are determined.

The assessment in land consolidation procedures is carried out by recognized or sworn experts. These, in turn, are bound by the statutory assessment regulations (assessment laws).

The results of the valuation are explained to the parties involved at a hearing and determined after the contradictions have been resolved.

Redesign of the land consolidation area

The area should be designed in such a way that it offers the greatest possible benefit for those involved and the general public. For this purpose, paths and facilities that can be used jointly are created, soil improvement measures ( melioration ) are carried out and the landscape is designed according to the requirements of spatial planning and regional planning. The roads (communal facilities) are then mostly in community ownership and are financed by the increase in value or the road contribution. In between, the parcels are cut in such a way that the property is as uniform as possible in terms of location, shape and size.

In recent years, more attention has been paid to environmental protection measures, in some cases these are even in the foreground.

Flow chart of a regular field consolidation

1. Preparatory work

  • Coordination with public bodies (e.g. road construction, agricultural authorities, land surveying and land registry offices, city / district administration),
  • Inventory and route and waterway planning,
  • Determination of the procedural limit,
  • Cost estimate

2. Clarification appointment

3. Order of land consolidation (administrative act)

  • Order of land consolidation by land consolidation resolution, stating the parcels concerned. Owners of these parcels are thus participants in the procedure,
  • Public notice

4. Community of participants

  • The participants elect the board of the community of participants, the board elects the chairman,
  • The chairman executes the resolutions and represents the community of participants in and out of court.

5. Plan of the communal and public facilities (plan according to § 41) - administrative act

  • Elaboration and preparation of the road and water plan,
  • Coordination with the bodies responsible for public affairs,
  • Hearing,
  • Planning approval / planning approval by the upper land consolidation authority

6. Valuation procedure (administrative act)

7. Survey

8. Execution of the plan according to § 41 FlurbG

  • Implementation of the expansion measures (road construction, compensatory measures, etc.)

9. Plan request negotiations

  • All participants in the procedure are asked about their severance pay requests

10. Calculation of the land compensation

  • Determination of the compensation claim from the valuation,
  • Allocation calculation,
  • Creation of the allocation card

11. Land consolidation plan (administrative act)

  • All regulations that have been made during the procedure are summarized in a land consolidation plan. It consists of a textual part, certificates and maps,
  • Review and approval of the land consolidation plan by the upper land consolidation authority,
  • Announcement of the land consolidation plan

12. Preliminary briefing of possession (administrative act)

  • The property owners will be instructed in their new areas on a specific date

13. Execution order (administrative act)

  • The new legal status will be announced with the execution order. From this point in time, the land consolidation plan is the official register of the properties in the sense of the land register regulations and no longer the real estate cadastre ,
  • Land consolidation authority is responsible for any information, extracts and updates

14. Correction of the real estate cadastre

  • Preparation of the documents for the correction of the real estate cadastre,
  • Request for correction, submission of the documents to the land registry office

15. Correction of the land register

16. Final assessment (administrative act)

  • Establishing that the tasks of the community of participants have been completed,
  • Establishing that all obligations between the parties involved, participants and the land consolidation authority have been settled and cannot be challenged.

Fundamental decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court on land consolidation

  • Entitlement to compensation of equal value
  • no entitlement to severance pay in a certain situation
  • no claim to benefits
  • no equal distribution of any benefits

Criticism of the land consolidation

According to critics, land consolidation also has negative effects: Loss of biodiversity through clearing of hedges , destruction of strips of field margins or channeling of brooks ( alluvial forest ) and the subsequent conventional land use .

With the Treaty of Rome in 1957, which led to the establishment of the European Economic Community , the forerunner of the European Union , the six member states also decided on a common agricultural market. This included free market access, product standardization and "modernization of agricultural structures". Subsequently, parts of the landscape in France and Germany were cleared to a large extent in order to enable large-scale, industrial land use, which has resulted in considerable habitat destruction to this day. An example of this is the habitat of the European hamster , which is one of the endangered species today.

The documentary filmmaker Dieter Wieland was a clear critic of the land consolidation and its consequences for the landscape:

“ Clear-cutting is going through the country: straightening, clearing, developing, accelerating, channeling, reorganization, regulation, desertification. The land is being prepared, trained, executed. In the end all that remains is the corset of the dreary grid, the triumph of the right angle: series landscape. “Reorganization in rural areas”, was that the order we wanted? A cleared, bare machine step, constructed on the drawing board, with dead straight asphalt paths, a landscape without traces, without history, without names, without animals, without trees and without any bush - international. Eastern collective farms don't look much different. "

- Dieter Wieland : Green broken , 1983.

More recently, attempts have been made to implement environmental and nature conservation measures in the affected areas as part of land consolidation measures ( intervention regulation , Switzerland: eco-quality regulation ). This can be the creation of compensation areas, wetlands or the like.

literature

  • Friedrich Schwantang, Klaus Wingerter: Land consolidation law standard commentary . 8th edition. Agricola-Verlag, Butjadingen-Stollhamm 2008, ISBN 978-3-920009-04-9 .
  • Volker Henties, Claus Harmsen: Resistance according to plan, land consolidation and risks for farmers. In: DLG-Mitteilungen. 3/2008.
  • Volker Henties, Claus Harmsen: Bypass road: No thanks! Corporate land consolidation. In: Land & Forst. No. 35, August 30, 2007.

Web links

Commons : Land consolidation in Germany  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Associations of the participating communities:

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Henkel : The structural change of rural settlements in the Federal Republic of Germany. 3. Edition. Schöningh, Paderborn 1982, ISBN 3-506-23507-9 , p. 6.