Association of German farmers' associations

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The Association of German Farmers 'Associations (VdB) existed from 1900 to 1934 and was an amalgamation of Christian farmers' associations. 1900–1916 it was called the “Association of Christian German Farmers 'Associations”, and from 1931–1934 the name “Association of German Christian Farmers' Associations”.

history

The Association of German Farmers 'Associations was an umbrella organization of the Christian farmers' associations and a mass organization that can largely be assigned to the Catholic milieu. Mainly small and medium-sized farmers were united in it. The VdB was politically close to the right wing of the center , in Bavaria the Bavarian People's Party ( BVP ). It was not until 1916 that a more streamlined organization emerged. By then, the associations with particularly large members, the Rhenish Farmers 'Association and the Westphalian Farmers' Association , had taken over the management of the association. The VdB was closely interwoven with the cooperative system.

During the revolution of 1918 succeeded Christian Bauer clubs to gain many new members and attract new member organizations, as the socialization demands of USPD and MSPD and aimed at the separation of church and state cultural and educational policies of the USPD in Prussia the Farmers electrified. Now a majority of Protestant farmers' associations joined the VdB. However, with the agricultural crisis in the second half of the 1920s, violent controversies arose within the association, as very conservative and Protestant sub-associations in particular wanted greater separation from the Weimar Republic and more cooperation with others, usually far more right-wing Farmers' associations penetrated. This led to splits and expulsions. The new President Andreas Hermes , who had long been Minister for Agriculture and Food for the Center Party , was supposed to stop this development, which he only partially succeeded in doing. Especially the Westphalian and Rhineland aristocrats demanded a stronger course to the right. Hermes, who opposed the National Socialist claim to power in 1933, was arrested; his successor was willing to work in the Nazi state. The Nazi Reichsbauernführer Richard Walther Darré dissolved the association of German farmers' associations on January 18, 1934.

President

Members

  • 1900 210,000
  • 1901 220,000
  • 1917 390,000
  • 1920 450,000

Affiliated clubs

As of 1932

literature

  • Lutz Fahlbusch u. Edgar Hartwig : Association of German Farmers' Associations 1900–1934 (VdB), 1900–1916 Association of Christian German Farmers' Associations, 1931–1934 Association of German Christian Farmers' Associations . in: Dieter Fricke u. a. (Ed.): L exikon on the history of parties. The bourgeois and petty bourgeois parties and associations in Germany 1789–1945 , Vol. 4. Leipzig / Cologne 1986, pp. 344–357.
  • 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.