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The Political Role of the Peasantry in the Weimar Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Werner T. Angress
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Extract

The English word “peasantry” today evokes visions of humble tillers of the soil who dwell in hovels which they share with their families, pigs, goats, and sheep. But translated into German, “peasantry” becomes Bauernschaft, a term which for at least a century and a half has carried an emotional connotation of professional pride. All agrarian producers, whether they cultivate a five-acre plot or a thousand acre estate, belong to the Bauernschaft which sets them off from the rest of the nation. Yet until the end of World War II very distinct class lines existed within the Bauernschaft and divided German farmers into roughly two groups, Gutsbesitzern—(proprietors of estates) and Bauern (peasants). To avoid confusion, “peasantry” will refer hereafter only to the latter, while “farmers” will apply to all German landowners.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , July 1959 , pp. 530 - 549
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1959

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References

1 For the sake of simplification this division leaves out the 200,000 Grossbauern who owned more land than most of the peasants, but less than the owners of estates. The omission may be justified by the relatively small number of German Grossbauern.

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37 Gerschenkron, , op. cit., pp. 113–24Google Scholar; Holt, , op. cit., pp. 107–10Google Scholar. Support of the peasants vis-a-vis the grain interests came from a parliamentary majority that ranged from the Social Democrats to the People's Party: see Holt, , op. cit., p. 108Google Scholar.

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41 Literature on this subject is as plentiful as it is polemical, because a number of young German nationalist writers embraced the cause of the Landvolk movement. Apart from Luetgebrune's book (he was a well-known nationalist lawyer), the following accounts are informative: Günther, Albrecht Erich, “Die Schwarze Fahne,” Deutsches Volkstum, XII (05, 1930), 335–42Google Scholar; Hielscher, Friedrich, “Der Bauer steht auf,” Deutscher Aufstand, die Revolution des Nachkriegs, ed. by Hotzel, Curt (Stuttgart, 1934), pp. 211–17Google Scholar; Oertzen, Friedrich Wilhelm von, “Bomben in Holstein, der Grosse Landvolk Prozess,” Im Namen der Geschichte! Politische Prozesse der Nachkriegszeit (Hamburg, 1934), pp. 79–101Google Scholar; Schapke, Richard, Aufstand der Bauern (Leipzig, 1933)Google Scholar; Schimmelreiter, Jürgen, Unter der schwarzen Landvolkfahne; die Landvolkbewegung im Kampf für Deutschlands Befreiung (Munich, 1929)Google Scholar; Volck, Herbert, Rebellen um Ehre. Mein Kampf für die nationale Erhebung 1918–1933 (Gütersloh, 1932), pp. 301–466Google Scholar. In addition, Salomon's, Ernst vonDie Stadt (Berlin, 1932)Google Scholar and Der Fragebogen (Hamburg, 1951), pp. 220–259, passimGoogle Scholar; Bauern, Hans Fallada's, Bonzen und Bomben (Berlin, 1931)Google Scholar; and Uhse's, BodoSoldner und Soldat (Paris, 1935)Google Scholar, passim, although all written as novels, capture the atmosphere of the Landvolk movement admirably.

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52 See for example Anon., “Landvolk in Not,” Das Tagebuch, X, Heft 5 (02 2, 1929), p. 192Google Scholar, which carries the motto “Wir mttssen schreien, schreien, schreien!” and which ends with this verse:

Das ist die ewige Not der Zeit,

Das ist die Zeit der ewigen Not,

Das ist die Not der ewigen Zeit

Das ist die ewige Zeit der Not!

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55 Friedrich, Carl Joachim, “The Agricultural Basis of Emotional Nationalism,” Public Opinion Quarterly, I (04, 1937). 50–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schulthess', 1929, p. 152. Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dietrich, stated in a broadcast on October 18, 1929, that the peasant organizations were opposed to the referendum (see ibid., p. 192). The outcome showed that even if Dietrich's information was correct, the rank and file of the peasantry seemed unaffected by the official attitude adopted by the farm organizations.

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59 For more extensive information on Osthilfe legislation see Horkenbach, 1931, pp. 59, 113, 345–6, 354–5, 375; ibid., 1932, pp. 47, 102. Also Schlange-Schöningen, , op. cit., pp. 45–61Google Scholar; Bauer-Mengelberg, , op. cit., pp. 237–9Google Scholar; Holt, , op. cit., pp. 157–8, 161–2Google Scholar; Gerschenkron, , op. cit., pp. 150–1Google Scholar. Cf.von Braun, Magnus Freiherr, Von Ostpreussen bis Texas (Stollhamm, Oldbg., 1955), pp. 213–6Google Scholar.

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61 Schapke, , op. cit., pp. 90–1Google Scholar.

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63 A very comprehensive and recent account of these developments is in Bracher, , op. cit., pp. 309–22, esp. 310–11, 320–22; 324 (incl. notes 154, 155); 327–9, 331, 336, 348–53Google Scholar.

64 Ibid., pp. 353, 365, n.4; Bargenhusen, , “Die Grüne Front,” op. cit., XXVII/I (01 13, 1931), 46–9Google Scholar; Gerschenkron, , op. cit., p. 145Google Scholar.

65 Heiden, Konrad, Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus (Berlin, 1933), pp. 252–5Google Scholar; Oehme, Walter and Caro, Kurt, Kommt “Das Dritte Reich”? (Berlin, 1930), pp. 77–82Google Scholar; Schneider, Hermann, “Unser täglich Brot; Lebensfragen der deutschen Landwirtschaft,” Nationalsozialistische Bibliothek, XIX (Munich, 1930), 26–32Google Scholar; Holt, , op. cit., pp. 181–3, 185–8Google Scholar.

66 Loomis, Charles P. and Beegle, J. Allen, “The Spread of German Nazism in Rural Areas,” American Sociological Review, XI (12, 1946), 724–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Holt, , op. cit., pp. 179–81Google Scholar; Heberle, , op. cit., pp. 21–2Google Scholar, and passim; Gerschenkron, , op. cit., p. 146Google Scholar.

67 Growing support of the NSDAP by German farm groups in general manifested itself also in the Reichstag where delegates representing agricultural interests joined the “National Opposition” during the Brüning era. The Landbund also participated in the Harzburg Front demonstration in October 1931, and in the 1932 presidential election openly endorsed Hitler's candidacy. See Bracher, , op. cit., pp. 384–5, 387, 390, 394, 409, 413, 421, 469, 477Google Scholar; Horkenbach, 1931, p. 301; ibid., 1932, pp. 44, 61, 86.

68 Political behavior of the East Elbian estate owners during the last two years of the republic varied widely and thus defies exact analysis. Some joined the Nazis, others remained in the Nationalist Party (Bracher, , op. cit., p. 514)Google Scholar. It can be assumed, however, that unlike the peasantry most Junkers who went over to National Socialism did so in the expectation that power would fall eventually to them rather than to Hitler.

69 For the most recent comprehensive account see Bracher, , op. cit., pp. 511–26Google Scholar. Cf.Conze, , op. cit., p. 660Google Scholar, and Braun, Magnus von, op. cit., pp. 217–19Google Scholar, for a dissenting viewpoint

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