The Reich Settlement Law (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

: ''Reichssiedlungsgesetz'') is a German law passed by the

Weimar National Assembly The Weimar National Assembly (German: ), officially the German National Constitutional Assembly (), was the popularly elected constitutional convention and de facto parliament of Germany from 6 February 1919 to 21 May 1920. As part of its ...

in July 1919. The law was drafted by government adviser Max Sering. He declared that the purpose of the law was not to "smash up the large estates" but to foster a "healthy mixture" of small, medium and large farms. Under the law reclaimed land and public land were to be provided for farming. More controversially the law also included a clause that ordered that in districts where estates of at least 100 hectares made up more than 10% of farmland, a third of their land should be made available. This was dubbed the "Baltic Third" (''baltische Drittel'') and originated in the promise made by the Baltic aristocracy in 1915 to give a third of their land to the government for resettlement, with modest compensation. However, the power of the

Junker Junker ( da, Junker, german: Junker, nl, Jonkheer, en, Yunker, no, Junker, sv, Junker ka, იუნკერი (Iunkeri)) is a noble honorific, derived from Middle High German ''Juncherre'', meaning "young nobleman"Duden; Meaning of Junke ...

s meant that only approximately a quarter of this land was surrendered to the government. The law did not significantly alter the ownership structure of German agriculture. During the period 1919–1933 57,000 new farmers were settled on just over 600,000 hectares of land. According to

Alexander Gerschenkron Alexander Gerschenkron (russian: Александр Гершенкрон; 1 October 1904 – 26 October 1978) was a Russian-born American economic historian and professor at Harvard University, trained in the Austrian School of economics. Born i ...

, with the passing of the law "a momentous decision was taken. German democracy rejected the road of agrarian revolution, the road traveled by most of the countries in which the economic power of large estate owners was curbed after the World War. Germany chose the way of gradual reform. Translated into the realistic language of practical politics, this meant that the Junkers had been saved again".Gerschenkron (1966), p. 104.

Notes

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References

*Alexander Gerschenkron, ''Bread and Democracy in Germany'' (New York: Howard Fertig, 1966). *Dieter Gessner, 'Agrarian Protectionism in the Weimar Republic', ''Journal of Contemporary History'', Vol. 12, No. 4 (Oct., 1977), pp. 759-778. *Michael Tracy, ''Government and Agriculture in Western Europe, 1880–1988'' (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989). 1919 in Germany 1919 in law German Revolution of 1918–1919