Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Nazi Agrarian Ideals

I recently read about an interesting aspect to the Nazi regime that I had never heard or read about prior. Part of the idea behind socialism for Germany was to build a self-sustaining state. Since Germany's food supply was severely tampered with during World War I by the ally forces, they were aiming to become self-sufficient in their food production. As a result, a man named Darre created a new section of government dedicated to created a new "peasant" class in which the term was glorified to ensure the importance of their job. There were a slew of processes a person had to endure to gain this new title, and having a pure bloodline was, needless to say, one of the standards. The rural people who did not recieve this title were maintained their title of farmer. Those people who did gain the title were subject to approximately one new farming standard, or law, every three days in the year of 1934. Agriculture was centralized to the point of inconvenience for farmers who had to sell their crops to government run centers as opposed to selling them to their local markets. The prices of food who controlled instead of allowed the free fluctuations of supply and demand and as a result the urban industrial workers suffered low wages and overpopulation becuase the government couldn't raise their wages, or the price of food would have to change. This problem became more apparent after the amazing agricultural production year or 1935. The country was faced with drought in the following years and productions dropped and the new peasants began to lose faith in this new system as they realized they were getting the short end of the stick.

1 comment:

  1. The Nazi fascination with blood and soil sometimes led them in green directions--a legacy that has sometimes troubled those in the latter-day environmental movement.

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