Reichslandbund

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The Reichs-Landbund (RLB) was the most important interest group in German agriculture during the Weimar Republic .

history

The Reichs-Landbund was created in 1921 through the merger of the two large Protestant right-wing agricultural associations Bund der Landwirte (BdL) and Deutscher Landbund , in order to be able to enforce agricultural interests more effectively - for example in questions of forced economy - against the growing forces of the workers and large-scale industry. The leadership pursued an anti-democratic, nationalist course with a rejection of the Weimar Republic, while at the same time under the existing system as much influence as possible should be preserved, especially for the large agrarians and East Elbe Junkers. East Elbe large agrarians were strongly represented in management bodies. The Reichs-Landbund was the most influential German farmers' association during the Weimar Republic. The association's particular focus was on Pomerania , Brandenburg , Silesia , Thuringia , East Hanover and Hesse . Only in the Catholic regions of the empire could the Reichs-Landbund not gain a foothold. The association of German farmers' associations dominated here .

The Reichs-Landbund created a distinctive organization with a powerful headquarters with numerous newspapers. In 1928, 190 press organs were close to the Reichs-Landbund and even belonged to it or the member associations. In 1924 there were already around 500 district offices. As a result, large parts of the agricultural population in the strongholds who were not members of the Reichs-Landbund could be strongly influenced.

Politically, after it was founded, the Reichs-Landbund was primarily close to the anti-republican German National People's Party (DNVP). In the Reichstag elections in 1924 in particular, the association supported this party particularly strongly, but also promoted candidacies from high-ranking members in other right-wing parties, primarily the German People's Party  (DVP). In the 1925 presidential election, the Reichs-Landbund supported the election of Paul von Hindenburg . In the mid-1920s, leading Reichs-Landbund members were represented in the government through the DNVP. But this phase of cooperation was short-lived. Customs disputes and the agricultural crisis increased the distance to the state and the republic. Government support had led to massive membership losses, particularly in Hesse and Silesia. Landbund officials were significantly involved in the rural people's movement in 1927/28. However, several Landbund leaders separated from the DNVP, such as Karl Hepp , one of the presidents, or Ernst Höfer , chairman of the Thuringian Landbund, and founded the Christian-National Peasant and Rural People's Party (CNBLP), which was renamed Deutsches Landvolk in 1930 . The new party took 10 seats from the DNVP in the 1928 Reichstag election . There was then considerable turbulence within the Reichslandbund. The fight against other farmers' organizations was largely stopped. In order to gain greater influence in the agricultural and global economic crisis, the Reichs-Landbund became the driving force behind the establishment of an umbrella organization for all farmers' associations. The Green Front came into being in 1929 .

In 1929, the Reichs-Landbund supported the referendum initiated by DNVP, NSDAP and other legal associations against the Young Plan . Through its leading member Martin Schiele , the Reichs-Landbund participated in the Heinrich Brüning government , which led to Schiele's exclusion from the DNVP and helped the German Rural People (CNBLP) to make big profits in the 1930 Reichstag election . However, since the NSDAP was now making great progress with the establishment of the " agricultural political apparatus ", especially in the country, the National Socialists gained more and more influence in the Reichs-Landbund. As early as October 1930, Martin Schiele had to resign as President of the Reichs-Landbund, the new board moved further to the right. The Schiele supporters were pushed back, the National Socialists gained ground. Other groups in the Reichs-Landbund believed that through an alliance with the NSDAP they could regain the influence they had lost on agriculture. The association's agitation against the Brüning government , democracy and the Weimar Republic intensified, so that the Reichs-Landbund joined the Harzburg Front in 1931 . In the 1932 presidential election , the leadership of the Reichs-Landbund recommended voting for the German national steel helmet leader Theodor Duesterberg or Adolf Hitler , because Hindenburg did not distance himself from his support by the SPD .

On January 11, 1933, the RLB leadership was received at Hindenburg and violently agitated against Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher . The Reich President “ordered” Schleicher to give more support to the large agrarians, but he refused. This made a decisive contribution to Hitler's path to power. The transfer of power to Hitler on 30 January 1933 was welcomed by the leadership, so that it in the DC circuit of Agriculture and its acquisition in Reichsnährstand the part of the largest agricultural organization was no resistance.

President

Members

1923: about 1 million

The exact number cannot be determined because the number of affiliated associations fluctuated and a distinction was made between full and additional members. According to their own information, there were allegedly 5.6 million members at the peak. According to its own publication with details of the members of the affiliated associations, there were around 1 million members in 1923. Other figures vary between 0.8 and 1.7 million members.

Affiliated associations (1928)

Source: Cerny / Fahlbusch

literature

  • Heide Barmeyer : Andreas Hermes and the organization of German agriculture. Christian farmers' associations, Reichslandbund, Green Front, Reichsnährstand 1928 to 1933 . (= Sources and research on agricultural history, vol. 24), Stuttgart 1971.
  • Jochen Cerny , Lutz Fahlbusch: Reichs-Landbund (RLB) 1921–1933 . In: Dieter Fricke u. a. (Ed.): Lexicon on the history of parties. The bourgeois and petty bourgeois parties and associations in Germany 1789–1945 , Vol. 3. Leipzig / Cologne 1985, pp. 689–712.
  • Horst Gies: NSDAP and agricultural organizations in the final phase of the Weimar Republic . In: VfZG 15/1967, pp. 341–376 ( PDF ).
  • Horst Gies: R. Walter Darré and the National Socialist peasant policy in the years 1930–1933 . Dissertation Frankfurt am Main 1966.
  • Organization book of the Reichs-Landbund . Edited and compiled by the organization of the Reichs-Landbund 1930, Berlin 1930.
  • Martin Schumacher: Land and Politics. A study of political parties and agrarian interests 1914–1923 . Edited by the Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties , Düsseldorf 1978.
  • Max Robert Gerstenhauer : Land law, settlement and taxation. Verlag Reichs-Landbund, Berlin 1925.

supporting documents

  1. ^ HU Thamer: Seduction and violence. Germany 1933–1945. 1994, pp. 220f.
  2. ↑ Robert Kriechbaumer : The great stories of politics. Political culture and parties in Austria from the turn of the century to 1945 (=  series of publications by the Research Institute for Political-Historical Studies of the Dr. Wilfried Haslauer Library, Salzburg . Volume 12 ). Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-205-99400-0 , p. 501, 524 .
  3. ↑ Jochen Cerny, Lutz Fahlbusch: Reichs-Landbund (RLB) 1921-1933 . In: Dieter Fricke u. a. (Ed.): Lexicon on the history of parties. The bourgeois and petty bourgeois parties and associations in Germany 1789–1945 , Vol. 3. Leipzig / Cologne 1985, pp. 688–689.