East German land management company

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The Ostdeutsche Landbewirtschaftungsgesellschaft mbH (Ostland) , established on February 28, 1940, was responsible for the forced administration of agricultural and forestry operations and properties in German-occupied Poland that the German occupiers had taken from their Polish owners during the Second World War .

The public cultivation amounted to an expropriation of the Polish farmers without compensation. The owner was deprived of the power of disposal over his farm, his cattle and his fields including the harvest. Nevertheless, he still had to cultivate it. The owner was prohibited from selling or leasing the farm or its inventory. A general administrator of the Ostland controlled this.

The Ostdeutsche Landbewirtschaftungsgesellschaft mbH should not be confused with the Landbewirtschaftungsgesellschaft Ostland GmbH (LBGO). While the Ostland GmbH dealt with here had its headquarters in Berlin , was responsible for Poland and was subordinate to the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture (RMEL), the LBGO GmbH, not dealt with here, with its headquarters in Riga, was subordinate to the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMfdbO) responsible for the Reichskommissariat Ostland ( Lithuania , Latvia , Estonia , Belarus ).

prehistory

After Poland was occupied by German troops in September 1939, a decree from Hermann Göring , who was responsible for the four-year plan , on October 19, 1939 established the Central Trust Office East (HTO), which is responsible for the administration of all confiscated Polish property (including agricultural property) ) took over.

With the “Ordinance on the Public Management of Agricultural and Forestry Operations and Land in the Integrated Eastern Regions” (Ostlandverordnung, Reichsgesetzblatt I 1940, p. 355) of February 12, 1940, public management was decreed for all agricultural and forestry operations and land , "Which are located in the incorporated eastern regions and were not owned by persons of German ethnicity on September 1, 1939".

By decree of February 28, 1940, the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture (RMEL), Richard Walther Darré , appointed the "Ostdeutsche Landbewirtschaftungsgesellschaft mbH" as general administrator within the meaning of this Ostland regulation. The "Ostland" began operations on April 1, 1940 under the management of Ministerial Director Johann Dietrich Lauenstein .

structure

The sole shareholder of the limited liability company established on February 28, 1940 with headquarters in Berlin and a share capital of three million Reichsmarks was the German Reich .

The "East German land management company with limited liability" was entered on April 27, 1940 in the commercial register of the district court Berlin-Mitte , Section B, under No. 58763.

The Berlin headquarters of Ostland was initially located at Jägerstrasse 8/9, later at Unter den Linden 34, and was divided into the following five departments:

  1. Agricultural Department
  2. Commercial department
  3. Administrative department
  4. HR department
  5. Legal Department

For the area of ​​the Reichsgau Wartheland a main office was set up in Posen . She was authorized to issue instructions to the branches and branches in the Reichsgau Wartheland. From 1942 to 1943 there was also a main office in Danzig , which was responsible for the branches and branches in the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia .

As of October 27, 1941, Ostland had branches in Bromberg , Danzig-Oliva, Graudenz , Hohensalza , Kattowitz , Litzmannstadt , Posen and Schröttersburg . The management of the business in the branches was based on the instructions of the headquarters. Her duties included overseeing the financial affairs of her districts and subordinate agencies in relation to the proper management of the confiscated holdings.

In France the main office of the Reichsland was in Paris ; There were economic directors in Laon , Charleville-Mézières , Nancy and Dijon .

In addition, the Reichsland operated a branch in The Hague , which was a recruiting point for Dutch farmers for eastern use. The head of this branch was Thilo von Stechow. In the course of the financial year 1941/42 the recruiting office in The Hague was transferred to a new Dutch company; possibly to the Nederlandsche Oost Compagnie (NOC), a public limited company.

The Reichsland also operated a branch in Vienna . In the course of the financial year 1941/42, it handed over its machine warehouse in Vienna-Lobau to Zentral-Handelsgesellschaft Ost (ZHO).

Subsidiaries were subordinate offices of the branches in the districts, at the head of which was a district farmer. As of October 27, 1941, there were 80 branches. District farmers worked under the district farmer for large farms, district farmers for small and medium-sized farms (responsible for 100–1000 farms), farm managers and local farmers. Farm managers and local farmers support the district farmers in managing small and medium-sized businesses.

tasks

Ostland GmbH was in the formerly Polish eastern areas incorporated into the German Reich (East Upper Silesia, Reichsgau Wartheland, Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, Zichenau administrative district with Suwalki ) for the public management of farms from "non-ethnic German" private property as well as for administration of land in the country.

Ostland GmbH was the fiduciary administrator of the agricultural and forestry operations. Public management was also subject to “the accessories and the fruits as well as all rights, claims, interests and interests of all kinds serving or associated with the business or property”. The Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Volkstum (RKFDV), Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, owned the factories . The large farms handed over to the company for management were managed by a manager, the small and medium-sized businesses mostly by Polish farmers.

Already in the early days of management by the Ostdeutsche Landbewirtschaftungsgesellschaft mbH / Reichsgesellschaft für Landbewirtschaftung mbH, businesses were handed over to the Wehrmacht . Furthermore, operations were left to the German settlement companies, which were entrusted with setting up and equipping the resettlement operations, as so-called support operations. Company taxes were also continuously paid to war invalids and “ ethnic Germans ”. Only "ethnic German" farmers who brought the necessary capital and inventory with them were considered as managers.

From 1940 to 1945, the company ran agricultural holdings in the eastern regions incorporated into the German Reich, with lands totaling around six million hectares. The income from the management flowed into a special management fund, from which the Reich Minister of Finance continuously called the funds not needed for further management into the Reich treasury.

renaming

After the Reichskommissariat Ostland was formed in 1941 , the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture (RMEL), Richard Walther Darré , ordered the name of the company, which was abbreviated with the suitcase word "Ostland", to be "Reichsgesellschaft für Landbewirtschaftung mbH ( Reichsland) ”to change. The corresponding company resolution was passed on May 22, 1942, the entry in the commercial register on May 28, 1942.

The renaming of the "Ostland" to "Reichsland" was also motivated by the fact that from August 1940 the company also took over land management tasks in the German-occupied north-east of France, north of a line that followed the rivers Maas , Aisne (Oise) and Somme .

In occupied France, the "Ostland" took over the administration of all abandoned farms and agricultural goods belonging to prisoners of war or refugees (who were later prevented from returning) and did not shy away from confiscations. In this way it controlled 11,000 agricultural goods in France covering a total of 170,000 hectares; in the department of the Ardennes it controlled almost half of the agricultural land.

staff

From May 1, 1940 to August 31, 1944, Johann Dietrich Lauenstein, the ministerial director in the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture, was the first managing director of the “Reichsgesellschaft für Landbewirtschaftung in den incorporated Ostgebieten mbH” (“Reichsland”) in Berlin . His successor was the Saxon country farmer leader Hellmut Körner . The Ministerialrat in the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Hugo Berger (responsible for agriculture) and the commercial director Waldemar Erich Kraft (responsible for administration).

Clearance and settlement

In the course of the war, the branches of the Reichsland in the east and west had to be cleared in 1944/45. After the headquarters in Berlin had been destroyed, Reichsland was relocated to Schneidemühl in July 1944 . On April 20, 1945, an alternative point, later a settlement point, was set up in Ratzeburg .

After the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces on 8/9 May 1945 Dr. Otto Hofer took over the provisional management of the Reichsland according to the business distribution plan for the liquidation work of August 23, 1945. The Reichsgesellschaft für Landbewirtschaftung mbH then continued to work in Ratzeburg until September 23, 1948, more than three years after the end of the war . Their main task in the post-war period consisted in the recording and utilization of the returned inventory from companies. This activity was mainly carried out by representatives in the field who were responsible for one or more circles. In addition, the existing employment relationships were resolved by the processing office. Trustee of the Reichsgesellschaft für Landbewirtschaftung, which was under property control by virtue of the Control Council Act No. 52 on Blocking and Control of Assets, was Captain Kazimier Bobinski in the British Zone . The administrator of the Reichsgesellschaft für Landbewirtschaftung mbH in Berlin was Dr. Günter Klein. In addition to the processing center in Ratzeburg, there was another processing center in Berlin-Charlottenburg , the managing director of which was Emil Hosius.

On September 24, 1948, the fiduciary administration and liquidation of the company was transferred to the Chief Finance President in Kiel , who in turn commissioned the Ratzeburg tax office. Around 1953, the Lübeck Federal Property Office took over the remaining liquidation work, which was completed in 1959/60.

swell

  • Ingo Loose, "Loans for Nazi Crimes - The German Credit Institutions in Poland and the Robbery of the Polish and Jewish Population 1939–1945", Series: Studies on Contemporary History 75, De Gruyter, chap. III .: "The credit system in the incorporated eastern regions", https://www.degruyter.com/viewbooktoc/product/221141

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maximilian Becker: Mitstreiter im Volkstumskampf: German Justice in the Integrated Eastern Territories 1939–1945 , Walter de Gruyter, May 22, 2014 - 351 pages, p. 116/117, https://books.google.de/books?id= vqvoBQAAQBAJ & pg = PA116 & lpg = PA116
  2. ^ Ingo Loose: Loans for Nazi Crimes - The German Credit Institutions in Poland and the Robbery of the Polish and Jewish Population 1939–1945 , Series: Studies on Contemporary History 75, De Gruyter, chap. III. The credit system in the integrated eastern areas , p. 222, https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/books/9783486706444/9783486706444.83/9783486706444.83.pdf
  3. ^ Ingo Loose: Loans for Nazi Crimes - The German Credit Institutions in Poland and the Robbery of the Polish and Jewish Population 1939–1945 , Series: Studies on Contemporary History 75, De Gruyter, chap. III. “The credit system in the integrated eastern areas”, p. 222, https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/books/9783486706444/9783486706444.83/9783486706444.83.pdf
  4. ↑ German Federal Archives, inventory signature: R 82, "Reichsgesellschaft für Landbewirtschaftung mbH (inventory)", https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/BEQAISJNBSU75KLP65GAF2AMKLU2MS4N
  5. ^ Federal archive inventory signature: R 82, "Reichsgesellschaft für Landbewirtschaftung mbH", https://open-data.bundesarchiv.de/apex-ead/DE-1958_R_82.xml
  6. ↑ Federal Archives, inventory signature: R 82, https://invenio.bundesarchiv.de/basys2-invenio/main.xhtml;jsessionid=BhW53mNNSd6wKBdOMc6zOeqw
  7. ^ Andreas Nielen: The occupation of Belgium and France (1940-1944) and the archives of the German military administration , in: La France dans la Deuxième Guerre mondiale (ihtp), http://www.ihtp.cnrs.fr/prefets/de/ content / the-occupation-of-belgium-and-france-1940% E2% 80% 931 944-and-the-archives-of-the-germans
  8. ^ Federal Archives, inventory signature: R 82/39
  9. ^ Federal Archives, inventory signature: R 82/95
  10. ^ Federal Archives, inventory signature: R 82/39