Resettlement Act

The law on the resettlement of laid farms and cottages (resettlement law) is a law that was passed on May 31, 1919 in the Republic of German Austria and aimed at a partial land reform . It was published in State Law Gazette 310/1919.

content

The law empowers the agricultural authorities to expropriate land if it was owned by (small) farmers before January 1, 1870 and if there has been a change in ownership since then. Smallholder structures were to be re-established on these “ laid ” farm estates. The law defined the farm as an economy that usually did not provide more than six times the income a family of seven needed to live.

The law related to land that was mainly used for hunting or speculation, land that had become part of a primarily forestry operation and those that were now part of large farms. The municipalities were obliged to draw up a list of the properties that could be considered for repopulation. Anyone wishing to obtain such a property had to be of German nationality (Section 4) , innocent and professionally suitable and then submit an application for expropriation, which was examined by the authorities. The compensation of the previous land owner should be measured in such a way that the purchaser can survive . As a general benchmark for the compensation, 25 times the net income was given.

history

After the First World War and the end of the monarchy, the then coalition government made up of Christian Socials and Social Democrats passed a series of laws that were intended to affect aristocratic landowners in particular, such as the Real Estate Act , which made the legally valid acquisition of land dependent on the approval of a commission , the Luftkeuschen-Ablösungsgesetz , with which the tenant's ownership of previously leased land could be established, and the “Castle Act” , which made it possible to confiscate castles and palaces for the establishment of “people's sanctuaries”.

Christian Socialists and large parts of the Social Democrats agreed that the potentially revolutionary situation in Austria had to be defused through socio-political and economic reform measures. The Christian Socials represented the majority of the small farmers who, although striving for the division of large estates in their favor, opposed the idea of nationalization because they saw this as a possible precedent for a later nationalization or collectivization of their own land. The law was introduced by the Christian Social Representative Rudolf Buchinger ; In the debate, the Zionist MP Robert Stricker criticized the provision according to which German nationality was decisive for applicants as anti-Semitic. The Social Democrats pointed out that in the 1870s, monasteries and monasteries were also very active in the “peasant laying” and that church property was therefore an option for expropriation.

Impact and Assessment

The section head in the Ministry of Agriculture Anton von Pantz noted in his diary on May 31, 1919:

“Today the law on the repopulation of the laid farms was passed in the National Assembly - a moment of great satisfaction for me. I fought for it for more than 20 years, but under the previous governments a healthy economic and land policy was impossible, the hunting madness spoiled everything [...] I became the father of the law on the repopulation of laid farming land, which I also do today represented in the house on behalf of the government. God grant that our agricultural authorities will prove themselves in carrying out this difficult task! "

The member of parliament and later Federal President Michael Hainisch - himself a landowner - said in his memoirs that the authors of the law had “enormous illusions”. Indeed, procedural difficulties, lengthy litigation and other problems have limited the application of the law; overall, less than 3 percent of Austria's agricultural land was repopulated in this way. In Lower Austria , the federal state with the agricultural structure most strongly characterized by large estates, only around 2500 hectares of land were legally resettled by 1928, 130 of which were affected. In the Alpine regions, repopulation often failed because the former farms were barely suitable for modern agriculture and economically unprofitable due to their altitude and slope.

Austria's dependence on foreign capital at the time and its political dependence on the League of Nations also played a role in the failure of the repopulation. The League of Nations Commissioner Alfred Zimmermann - an opponent of the Resettlement Act - stated that the lack of attractiveness of Austrian agriculture for foreign investments was essentially justified by the law.

Individual evidence

^ Peter Melichar : Large estate in Lower Austria in the first half of the century. In: Peter Melichar et al. (Ed.): Lower Austria in the 20th century. Volume 2: Economy. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-78246-9 , pp. 584f.
↑ Ernst Hanisch: Politics and Agriculture. In: Ernst Bruckmüller among other things: History of Austrian agriculture and forestry in the 20th century . Volume 1, Ueberreuter Verlag, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-8000-3859-5 , p. 96f.
↑ Dorothea Fraydenegg-Monzello: The diaries of the section head in the agriculture ministry Anton von Pantz. Memoir literature as a source for the historian. Univ. Diploma thesis. Graz 1990, p. 168f.
^ Peter Melichar: Large estate in Lower Austria in the first half of the century. In: Peter Melichar et al. (Ed.): Lower Austria in the 20th century. Volume 2: Economy. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-78246-9 , pp. 584f.
↑ Ernst Hanisch: Politics and Agriculture. In: Ernst Bruckmüller among other things: History of Austrian agriculture and forestry in the 20th century . Volume 1, Ueberreuter Verlag, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-8000-3859-5 , p. 97.

literature

Ingrid Linsberger: Was it a land reform? The resettlement law and its implementation in Lower Austria . Univ. Dissertation. Vienna 2010.
Leopold Stocker : The resettlement law [law on the resettlement of laid farms and cottages] with implementing regulations and explanations: With an introductory essay . Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz 1919.

Web links

Historical legal text

[1] Peter Melichar : Large estate in Lower Austria in the first half of the century. In: Peter Melichar et al. (Ed.): Lower Austria in the 20th century. Volume 2: Economy. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-78246-9 , pp. 584f.

[2] Ernst Hanisch: Politics and Agriculture. In: Ernst Bruckmüller among other things: History of Austrian agriculture and forestry in the 20th century . Volume 1, Ueberreuter Verlag, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-8000-3859-5 , p. 96f.

[3] Dorothea Fraydenegg-Monzello: The diaries of the section head in the agriculture ministry Anton von Pantz. Memoir literature as a source for the historian. Univ. Diploma thesis. Graz 1990, p. 168f.

[4] Peter Melichar: Large estate in Lower Austria in the first half of the century. In: Peter Melichar et al. (Ed.): Lower Austria in the 20th century. Volume 2: Economy. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-78246-9 , pp. 584f.

[5] Ernst Hanisch: Politics and Agriculture. In: Ernst Bruckmüller among other things: History of Austrian agriculture and forestry in the 20th century . Volume 1, Ueberreuter Verlag, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-8000-3859-5 , p. 97.