Overather potato war

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Violent clashes in 1923 between starving and plundering Cologne city ​​dwellers and Overath farmers who were defending their harvest supplies are referred to as the Overather Potato War.

The starting point was the economic hardship after the lost First World War with galloping inflation and food shortages, especially in urban areas. Wet weather had delayed the potato harvest . Many townspeople worried that they would no longer be able to store potatoes in the cellar . In mid-October 1923 the hundredweight cost three billion marks. With this rapid inflation, wages and salaries could not keep up.

The situation came to a head at the end of October. More and more people from Cologne flocked to the rural area by rail, first to the hamsters , in order to buy food in exchange from the farmers and - especially since there was often nothing left to trade - to plunder and steal food supplies by force. Townspeople dug lots of potatoes from the fields with picks and shovels. In Overath, farmers formed a village guard with support from the Mucher and Seelscheid area .

Under the heading Anarchy in the Aggertal a quote from the Mucher Tageblatt of October 31, 1923: ... Sunday the rush of looters in the area of ​​Overath and Marialinden was extremely strong. Many farms and many houses were completely looted, not just from potatoes, but also from grain and poultry. The latter was beaten to death with clubs and put in the sacks ... At the Overath train station, some traders opened stalls and bought their potatoes from the looters in order to sell them dearly in town.

The onslaught of the Cologne residents was so great that the Cologne railway administration set up a “special train to buy potatoes” to Overath on October 26th. The British and French occupation authorities responsible at the time rejected the request from the Overather community for police support . Overath farmers and citizens, armed with clubs, pitchforks, branch forks, flails and other defensive devices , among other things , tried in vain to stop the Cologne residents at the Overath train station . There were fights and shootings. In the neighboring parish of Much, church bells sometimes called for help for Overath. The passengers on the next train also broke the chain of angry Overather and were able to return to Cologne with several wagons of stolen potatoes.

Stop at Honrath 2007

The Overather did not allow the train from Cologne to enter the city on October 29th. Their meanwhile 1500 strong vigilante group, which, in addition to some mounted farmers, also miners and workers from the area had joined, stopped him one station earlier in Honrath with loaded rifles at the ready and forced the train driver to return. In the clashes between the warring parties, there were two to four dead, including the Gutseleven Emil van Drenke von Oberheide .

At the beginning of November 1923, the French occupying forces reacted and dispatched 1,500 colonial soldiers to Overath to stop the dispute. Part of the troop was quartered in the Lindenhof. At the beginning of November 1923, the train service between Cologne and Overath was stopped for a while.

literature

  • Looting trains in the Overath area (so-called potato war) after the First World War. Material collection from the former Porz city archive in the Cologne city archive, find number M73.
  • Andreas Heider: The so-called potato war of 1923. In: Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1981, Heimatjahrbuch für das Bergisches Land, 51st year. Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1981, p. 66ff
  • Hartwig Soicke: Overath, First World War and Crisis Years (1914–1923): “O quae mutatio rerum!” (“Oh, what a change in things!”) (= Achera, special edition). Bücken & Sulzer Verlag, Overath 2017, ISBN 978-3-947438-00-6

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hartwig Soicke: Overath, First World War and Crisis Years (1914–1923) , pp. 205f.
  2. ^ Franz Becher: 900 years of Overath . Verlag Bücken & Sulzer, Overath 2005, ISBN 3-936405-28-X , p. 50.
  3. ↑ Stefan Kunze: Potato War. Raids over Bergische fields . In: Kölner Stadtanzeiger, January 11, 2011, accessed on February 22, 2018.
  4. ↑ Mucher Tageblatt of October 31, 1923
  5. ↑ Mayor a. D. Simons: The potato war in Overath from October 26th to 29th, 1923. In: Bergische Wacht from March 19th, 1932
  6. ↑ Guido Wagner: Railway Overath - Cologne / From the potato war to summer vacation . In: Kölnische Rundschau, October 5, 2010, accessed on February 22, 2018.
    Franz Becher: 900 years Overath . Verlag Bücken & Sulzer, Overath 2005, ISBN 3-936405-28-X , p. 50
  7. ^ Theodor Rutt: Overath, history of the community , Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1980 p. 356.
  8. ↑ Hartwig Soicke: Overath, First World War and Crisis Years (1914–1923) , p. 206.