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The ''Reichserbhofgesetz'', the Hereditary Farm Law, of 1933 was a Nazi law to implement principles of blood and soil, stating that its aim was to: "preserve the farming community as the blood-source of the German people". As farmers appeared in Nazi ideology as a source of economics and racial stability, the law was implemented to protect them from the forces of modernization.
Any farm of at least one ''Ackernahrung'', an area of land large enough to support a family and evaluated from 7.5 to 125 hectares (19–309 acres), was declared an Hereditary farm (''Erbhof''), to pass from father to son, without the possibility to be mortgaged or alienated. Only those peasants were entitled to call themselves "farmers" (''Bauern''), a term the Nazis attempted to refurbish from a neutral or even pejorative to a positive term. Richard Grunberger, ''The 12-Year Reich'', pp 156-7,
A Greater
Law No. 45 of Feb. 20, 1947 on "Repeal of Legislation on Hereditary Farms andEnactment of Other Provisions Regulating Agricultural Forest Lands," OG/CC, No.14 at 256 (May 31, 1947)
/ref>
Conditions
Any farm of at least one ''Ackernahrung'', an area of land large enough to support a family and evaluated from 7.5 to 125 hectares (19–309 acres), was declared an Hereditary farm (''Erbhof''), to pass from father to son, without the possibility to be mortgaged or alienated. Only those peasants were entitled to call themselves "farmers" (''Bauern''), a term the Nazis attempted to refurbish from a neutral or even pejorative to a positive term. Richard Grunberger, ''The 12-Year Reich'', pp 156-7,
A Greater Aryan certificate
In Nazi Germany, the Aryan certificate/passport (german: Ariernachweis) was a document which certified that a person was a member of the presumed Aryan race. Beginning in April 1933, it was required from all employees and officials in the publ ...
was required to receive its benefits, similar to the requirements for becoming a member of the Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
.
Farms too small could become an Hereditary farm by combination, and larger farms would have to be subdivided.
Transmission
Regional custom was allowed to decide only whether the eldest or the youngest son was to be the heir. In regions in which no particular custom prevailed, the youngest son was to be the heir. Still, the eldest son inherited the farm in most cases during the Third Reich. Priority was given to the patriline and so if there were no sons, brothers and their sons of the deceased peasant had precedence over the peasant's own daughters. Only about 35% of all farming units were covered by the law, and landed estates inEast Elbia
East Elbia (german: Ostelbien) was an informal denotation for those parts of the German Reich until World War II that lay east of the river Elbe.
The region comprised the Prussian provinces of Brandenburg, the eastern parts of Saxony ( Jerichower ...
were not affected by it.David Schoenbaum
David Schoenbaum (born 1935) is an American historian writing on a wide range of subjects, including German political history (in the periods of World War I, Nazism, the 1960s, and contemporary politics), European and global cultural history, and ...
, ''Hitler's Social Revolution: Class and Status in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939'', p 164 Garden City, NY Doubleday, 1966.
Richard Walther Darré
Richard Walther Darré (born Ricardo Walther Óscar Darré; 14 July 1895 – 5 September 1953) was one of the leading Nazi " blood and soil" () ideologists and served as Reich Minister of Food and Agriculture. As the National leader () fo ...
, in accordance with his strong " blood and soil" beliefs, did much to promote the law as the Reich Minister of Food and Agriculture and ''Reichsbauernführer''.
Suppression
InAllied-occupied Germany
Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Franc ...
, after much debate about whether this law should be repealed for its Nazi roots or if it should be kept for the moment, after excising its most odious clauses, to protect the German food supply, in 1947 the Allied Control Council
The Allied Control Council or Allied Control Authority (german: Alliierter Kontrollrat) and also referred to as the Four Powers (), was the governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany and Allied-occupied Austria after the end of ...
decided to repeal it and to regulate the transfer of forests and farms. On the occasion, other entailments were also repealed./ref>
See also
*Fee tail
In English common law, fee tail or entail is a form of trust established by deed or settlement which restricts the sale or inheritance of an estate in real property and prevents the property from being sold, devised by will, or otherwise alien ...
* Blood and Soil
* Ultimogeniture
Ultimogeniture, also known as postremogeniture or junior right, is the tradition of inheritance by the last-born of a privileged position in a parent's wealth or office. The tradition has been far rarer historically than primogeniture (sole inh ...
* Primogeniture
Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...
*Serfdom
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develop ...
References
{{reflist Agrarian politics Law in Nazi Germany 1933 in law 1933 in Germany