Friedrich May

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Friedrich Kann , (* 1903 ; † 1963 ), was a German farmer, agricultural planner and chief agricultural officer in the administrative office of the Reichsnährstand . During the time of National Socialism, Kann was an expert in agricultural NS settlement planning. From 1935 to 1943 he worked at the central interfaces between the Reichsnährstand, university spatial research , state planning in individual districts and finally the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Ethnicity (RKF). In the course of the agrarian structural reform planning, which referred to regions in western Germany as well as to occupied territories in Central and Eastern Europe, Friedrich Kann considered a "planned human control". Little is known about his life in the years after 1945.

Settlement expert in the late phase of the Weimar Republic

Friedrich Kann completed a degree in agricultural sciences in the 1920s and worked, among other things, in animal breeding. Friedrich Kann's involvement in settlement research and settlement practice can already be traced back to the early 1930s. He worked on the study “Who can settle? Professional groups and farmers' settlement ” (Berlin: Deutscher Siedlungsverlag 1932) with. The publisher of this study was the liberal-conservative political economist and agricultural scientist Max Sering . Artur von Machui was one of the people working on this study at the time. Years later, like Kann, he was to be in the vicinity of Konrad Meyer and thus in the vicinity of the RKF's planning department. From 1931 Friedrich Kann worked in the settlement agency of the “ Society for the Promotion of Inner Colonization ”, initially in the company's branches in Düsseldorf and Essen, but from 1932 to 1934 also in its headquarters in Berlin.

Settlement and agricultural structure planner during National Socialism

Friedrich Kann quickly made a career in National Socialism. He joined the SS in 1934 and the NSDAP in 1937 . The Race and Settlement Office of the SS was one used as a settlement expert in 1934 and 1935 (from 1938 honorary member). As a recognized specialist, Kann worked in several functions at the same time. In 1935, Kann took over (managing) the management of department F in department I (administrative office) of the Reichsnährstands (which had emerged from the Reichsstelle for the selection of settlers; previously headed by Horst Rechenbach ).

From 1934, Kann had already been a settlement officer for the Baden State Farmers' Association (Landesbauernführer Baden). From 1936 he was also a regional and state planner within the Reichsnährstandes for the area of ​​the Baden state farming community. In this function, Friedrich Kann prepared resettlement plans for selected farmers and agricultural workers. If the plans had been implemented, tens of thousands of farming families would have been affected by a forced resettlement in peacetime.

Can mediate between administrative relocation planning and sociographic research

Presumably from 1938 there was also a contact and an exchange between Friedrich Kann and the Frankfurt sociologist Ludwig Neundörfer , who in turn had been responsible as a district planner for North Baden from 1937 (from 1939 deputy regional planner at the Reichsstatthalter Baden). Neundörfer worked v. a. During the war he participated in the extensive agricultural and social structure planning in the course of the settlement planning of the Nazi state. The historian Uwe Mai judged that it was Friedrich Kann who suggested the use of Neundörfer's sociography for its resettlement plans to the Reichsnährstand . The power of the Reichsnährstand (mediated by Friedrich Kann) was helpful in Neundörfer's negotiations regarding the establishment of an institute (1940) with Frankfurt University. Conversely, Ludwig Neundörfer (and Wilhelm Polligkeit, who supported him ) wanted to tie the research of the Reichsnährstands and the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft für Raumforschung (RAG) more closely to the Frankfurt location: that is why the Sociographical Institute was to be established in Frankfurt am Main and was founded there.

Can further contacts for organized spatial planning and the RKF

Contacts and coordinating activities Kanns with spatial planners such as Gerhard Isenberg ( Reichsstelle für Raumordnung ) and Frank Glatzel (Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft für Raumforschung) arose in the course of the actual sociographic analyzes of agricultural areas of the " Old Reich ". The cooperation of various planning experts from spatial planning, agricultural, settlement and social planning as well as especially the Nazi agricultural policy intensified during the war.

The "Germanization" in the occupied countries took place de facto violently, but Heinrich Himmler (in his function as RKF) also began to be more interested in the resettlement plans of the Reichsnährstand because there was an ever increasing need for settlers. The scenarios of the Reichsnährstand were based on a fictitious post-war situation for which a kind of (National Socialist) development planning was carried out (see below). Thus, Kann calculated a 40-year duration of proceedings for the entire settlement process.

The question arose as to how the traditionally down-to-earth farmers from the "Altreich" could even be persuaded to relocate. Friedrich Kann therefore formulated at a meeting of the Reich Working Group for Spatial Research in April 1940:

“The large relocation to the east must be voluntary if possible. On the other hand, the final reorganization has to work with a certain amount of force. Here it is the task of the Reichsnährstandes (...) in connection with the party and its branches to loosen up the population so that they find themselves ready for the task of the East. "

As early as 1941, Friedrich Kann was working on the collective of authors led by Konrad Meyer (RKF planning department) to plan the development of the "integrated eastern regions" (" Landvolk im Werden. Material for rural development in the new eastern regions and the organization of village life". Germans Landbuchhandlung, Berlin 1941). These investigations and plans were intended to further "Germanize" (Nazi vocabulary) those territories that Nazi Germany had forcibly appropriated in the western part of Poland. This “development” had previously been based on forced displacement and / or extermination.

Since 1933, the Nazi policy had actually led to an increased decline in the rural population (" rural exodus "), which was in contrast to the regime's ideological claims. Experts like Kann addressed these contradicting effects of Nazi politics. Friedrich Kann therefore spoke in this context of a desired “planned human control”, which should also affect the rural population in the “Altreich”.

The ongoing surveys of the Reichsnährstand and the RAG in the Altreich prompted the RKF's “Planning and Soil” department in December 1940 to come to a very special conclusion: Konrad Meyer believed that, based on the first research results, he could see that “there was a significantly higher demand for land in the Altreich “(!) Exist. That had a rational, calculatory side. Men like Konrad Meyer, however, did not distinguish between rational and calculatory considerations and power-political calculations. It was always about defining spheres of influence in the complex settlement policy of the “Third Reich”. The power struggle between Reichsnährstand and the RKF over settlement issues had not yet been finally decided. Against this power-political background, but also based on the scientifically 'interesting' perspective of how the country would be built and populated in forty years, scientists set to work.

Kann was not the only expert who devoted himself to the supposed "construction" in the East. The articles in the war years of the magazines “ Neues Bauerntum ” and “ Raumforschung und Raumordnung ”, in which many scientists published, bear witness to this. Friedrich Kann was in close contact with these university experts, as he took part in numerous RAG conferences from December 1939.

In 1943 Friedrich Kann was still head of the “Settlement and Regional Planning” department of the Reich Ministry for Food and Agriculture . Friedrich Kann also represented the Reichsbauernführer in the planning department of the RKF, where various variants of the “ General Plan East ” were worked out. However, Uwe Mai does not consider a direct connection between the resettlement plans of the Reichsnährstand and the plans of the “General Plan Ost” to be given, since the Reichsnährstand with its plans rather pursued its own goals and strategically used its own knowledge against Himmler. With the change of direction from Richard Walther Darré to Herbert Backe , Friedrich Kann also lost his influence in the Reichsnährstand. On November 30, 1943, he was transferred to the 9th SS training and replacement regiment in Prague as a gunner and left the settlement policy.

Publications (incomplete)

  • The industrial workers: from the practice of industrial workers. In: Max Sering (Ed.): Who can settle? Professional groups and farmers' settlement. Deutscher Siedlungsverlag, Berlin 1932, pp. 39–44.
  • The reorganization of the real division areas in connection with the construction of the German eastern zone. In: New peasantry. Volume 31, 1939, pp. 275-276.
  • The recovery of the rural people and the influence on the structure of the other branches of the economy. In: spatial research and spatial planning. Volume 4 10, 1940, pp. 383-388.
  • The agricultural policy objective in the reorganization of the livelihoods of the rural people: Experiences of the local ideal picture discussions. In: spatial research and spatial planning. Volume 4, 1940, 7/8, pp. 291-295.
  • Land remodeling begins in the west. In: New peasantry. 32nd vol., 1940, pp. 267-269.
  • The determination of the possibilities of resettlement in the Altreich. In: New peasantry. 32nd Jg., 1940, H. 1, pp. 25-26.
  • The reorganization of the greater German area on the basis of healthy peasant ownership. In: spatial research and spatial planning. Volume 4, 3/4, 1940, pp. 171-174.
  • The reorganization of a village based on the ideal: depicted in a municipality in the Rhine Province. In: spatial research and spatial planning. Volume 5, H. 8, 1941, pp. 361-365.
  • The construction program in agriculture. In: spatial research and spatial planning. Volume 5, 2, 1941, pp. 58-62.
  • The rural people in the Old Reich. Suggestions for his recovery. In: Konrad Meyer (Ed.): Landvolk im Werden. Material for building up rural areas in the new eastern regions and for shaping village life. Deutsche Landbuchhandlung, Berlin 1941, pp. 119–138.
  • The adjustment of the rural social structure of the Rhine Province. In: New peasantry. 34th vol., H. 12, 1942, pp. 432-438.
  • Principles for cleaning up the German village. In: spatial research and spatial planning. Volume 6, 1942, pp. 386-394.
  • (Discussion by :) Ludwig Löhr: Problems of fate of the east market mountain farmers. In: Research Service. Volume 12, 1941, p. 36. In: Raumforschung und Raumordnung. Volume 6, 1942, pp. 417-419.
  • The adjustment of the rural social structure of the Rhine Province. In: New peasantry. 35th Jg., H. 1, 1943, pp. 25-30.
  • Departure of the rural people. Diesterweg, Frankfurt am Main 1943.
  • Preparatory reorganization and community aid as a means of making work easier in war. In: spatial research and spatial planning. 7th vol., H. 1/2, 1943, pp. 57-59.
  • Principles for cleaning up the German land management system. In: Agricultural policy-Betriebslehre. 1943, pp. 88-104.
  • The rural people: bearers of the rural reorganization measures. In: spatial research and spatial planning. Volume 7, H. 5/6, 1943, pp. 161-162.
  • The reorganization of the German village . In: Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Ethnicity / Staff Main Office (ed.): New village landscapes. Thoughts and plans for rural development in the new eastern areas and in the old Reich. Berlin: Sohnrey 1943
  • Preparatory reorganization and community aid as a means of making work easier in war. In: spatial research and spatial planning. Volume 7, H. 1/2, 1943, pp. 57-59.
  • Principles for cleaning up the German village. In: spatial research and spatial planning. Volume 6, H. 12, 1942, pp. 386-394.

literature

  • Uwe Mai: "Restructuring of the German people". Science and social reorganization in National Socialist Germany 1933–1945. In: Isabel Heinemann, Patrick Wagner (Ed.): Science - Planning - Displacement. Reorganization Concepts and Resettlement Policy in the 20th Century. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-515-08733-8 , pp. 73-92.
  • Isabel Heinemann: "Race, settlement, German blood". The Race and Settlement Main Office of the SS and the racial reorganization of Europe. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89244-623-7 .
  • Uwe Mai: "Race and Space". Agricultural policy, social and spatial planning in the Nazi state. Schönigh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 3-506-77514-6 .
  • Michael A. Hartenstein: New Village Landscapes. National Socialist settlement planning in the "integrated eastern areas" 1939 to 1944 . Berlin 1998 (= Wissenschaftliche Schriftenreihe Geschichte; Vol. 6; zugl. Bonn, Univ., Diss., 1998). ISBN 3-89574-295-3
  • Jörg Gutberger: People, space and social structure. Social structure and social space research in the “Third Reich”. Lit-Verlag, Münster et al. 1996 (= contributions to the history of sociology; vol. 8), ISBN 3-8258-2852-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedrich Kann: The adjustment of the rural social structure in the Rhine province . In: New peasantry . tape 35 , no. 1 , 1943, p. 29 .
  2. ↑ Isabel Heinemann: "Race, settlement, German blood". The Race and Settlement Main Office of the SS and the racial reorganization of Europe. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89244-623-7 , p. 622 f. (PA Friedrich Kann, BDC) .
  3. ↑ Uwe Mai: "Race and Space". Agricultural policy, social and spatial planning in the Nazi state. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2002, ISBN 3-506-77514-6 , p. 77 .
  4. ↑ Isabel Heinemann: "Race, settlement, German blood". The Race and Settlement Main Office of the SS and the racial reorganization of Europe . Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2003, p. 622 f .
  5. ↑ Isabel Heinemann: "Race, settlement, German blood". The Race and Settlement Main Office of the SS and the racial reorganization of Europe . Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2003, p. 623 .
  6. ↑ Uwe Mai: "Race and Space". Agricultural policy, social and spatial planning in the Nazi state . Schöningh, Paderborn 2002.
  7. ^ Carsten Klingemann: Sociology in the Third Reich . Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1996, ISBN 3-7890-4298-6 , p. 87-102 .
  8. ↑ Jörg Gutberger: people, space and social structure. Social structure and social space research in the "Third Reich" . 2nd Edition. Lit-Verlag, Münster et al. 1999, ISBN 3-8258-2852-2 , p. 368-378 .
  9. ↑ Uwe Mai: "Race and Space". Agricultural policy, social and spatial planning in the Nazi state . Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, p. 106 f., 134 f .
  10. ^ Carsten Klingemann: Sociology in the Third Reich . Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1996, p. 87-102 .
  11. ↑ Uwe Mai: "Restructuring of the German People". Science and Social Reorganization in National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 . In: Isabel Heinemann, Patrick Wagner (Ed.): Science - Planning - Displacement. Reorganization Concepts and Resettlement Policy in the 20th Century. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-515-08733-8 , pp. 73-92 .
  12. ↑ Uwe Mai: "Race and Space". Agricultural policy, social and spatial planning in the Nazi state . Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, p. 138 ff .
  13. ↑ lecture Kann zit on 12/04/1940. according to Uwe Mai: "Race and Space". Agricultural policy, social and spatial planning in the Nazi state . Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, p. 152 .
  14. ↑ Michael Hartenstein describes Friedrich Kann even as an employee of the RKF planning office: Michael Hartenstein: New village landscapes. National Socialist settlement planning in the "integrated eastern areas" 1939 to 1944 . Publishing house Dr. Köster, Berlin 1998, p. 47.
  15. ↑ Source: HA. Planning and soil, Berlin-Dahlem (Konrad Meyer), December 3, 1940: "Note: process of land requirement for the necessary evacuation from the old Reich". In: Population Structure and Mass Murder. New documents on German politics in the years 1938–1945. (= Contributions to National Socialist health and social policy. 9). Rotbuch Verlag, Berlin 1991, p. 29.
  16. ↑ Uwe Mai: "Race and Space". Agricultural policy, social and spatial planning in the Nazi state . Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, p. 142 ff .
  17. ↑ Isabel Heinemann: "Race, settlement, German blood". The Race and Settlement Main Office of the SS and the racial reorganization of Europe . Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2003, p. 622 f. (PA Friedrich Kann, in BDC) .
  18. ↑ Uwe Mai: "Race and Space". Agricultural policy, social and spatial planning in the Nazi state . Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, p. 154 .
  19. ↑ Uwe Mai: "Race and Space". Agricultural policy, social and spatial planning in the Nazi state . Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, p. 335 .
personal data
SURNAME Can, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German farmer, agricultural planner and senior agricultural councilor in the administrative office of the Reichsnährstand
DATE OF BIRTH 1903
DATE OF DEATH 1963