HITLER FARMERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 220, 17 September 1934, Page 10

HITLER FARMERS.

ARYAN OWNERS. HEREDITARY HOLDINGS. NONE CAN PREDICT OUTCOME (By VICTOR H. SCHOFFELMAYER.) n. BERLIN, August 12. Ono of the most drastic departures from previous farm legislation in Germany is that which provides for establishing hereditary farms or erbhof. Less than a year ago the existing German agricultural structure was ehfWßgcd almost overnight into a new German Agricultural Estate (Reich - snaelirstand). Under this latter heading the : whole farming economy ol a nation of some 07,000,000 people is operated in a form of dictatorship which not only plana the general agriculture from year to year, but establishes mini- ' mum prices for basic commodities such as grains, and regulates their movement into market. Under the new provisions the German Government seeks to prevent the splitting up of farms unnecessarily and to keep intact as hereditary holdings the farms from 20 to 25 acres up to around 320 acres. These must be o"wned by Gorman - citizens of Aryan dcscent. Under certain conditions an estate larger than the maximum cited may be included. The owner of any such erbhof is called a "bauer," implying that ho or his family will hold the same farm through generations. This type of owner is not to consider farming as a business, but as a distinct service to the family and to the nation as a whole. Farming is not to be a means to acquire wealth, but a form of living. Under the new law the erbhof will be inherited by one heir, usually the youngest son. It may go to a daughter or to a brother's son. Such details are settled by the local "Ortsbauernfuehrer," an official responsible to the district chief of the new agricultural estate, who in turn is under linal instructions from Berlin headquarters. In case of further dispute the District Court would make ultimate settlement. Small Farms in South. A recent estimate gives only about 700 Erbhof in Germany larger than 320 acres filed for inheritance. In South 'Germany, where intensive agriculture is mostly practised, Erbhof of seven to 18 acres are quite common, but through a wide variety of crops and inter-planting are to provide a good living. Not one acre of an Erbhof can be sold, /nor has the estate a market price. It simply cannot enter into any financial or exchange transaction. The rights of co-heirs or minor heirs are taken care of out of the owner's property other than his land, buildings and equipment. Neither is the estate to be mortgaged, except for such cause a.s may be adjudged valid by officials' of the Naelirstand. The testator may not in any way modify the inheritance principle now in effect under the Hitler regime. Under the old German law the testator could select his heir. The new law also permits this but restricts the choice to direct sons and grandsons. However, this privilege of cliosing an heir is limited to districts where the principle of sole inheritance was not customary prior to the new law. Other than principal heirs must bo taken care of and educated on tho Erbhof until they become of age. Should they leave the farm, they are to be completely outfitted, if the financial condition of the Bauer permits. Such heirs must be supported on the farm in later years if, through no fault of their own, they lack means of support. The Erbhof cannot be foreclosed, nor can the products of the estate be attached, except by public credit institutions, in which case the "Reiclienaehrstand" takes over the farm debts. Ban on Farm Division. The National Socialist Government has decided that the practice of rapid division of farms, which has been going on for 70 years, especially in western Germany, must stop. The reason is that very small farms cannot support those living thereon, except as such holders may also bo industrial workers, as in Wuerttemberg, the Rhineland and other industrialised sections. In the latter sections farmers living on small estates had a large population to supply with food and other products, which is not the case ill purely agricultural sections in North and East .Germany.

There lies a conflict, however, between the new farm economy and the aims of the National Socialist Government to increase Germany's population.

Either farm families are to bo limited, because of lack of land to bo divided among heirs, or there must be a drift of farmers to the industrial centres, which is out of the question in the present depressed state of German industry. Under the new law two previous sources of farm credit are' dried up— that of money fr.om a mortgage on the farm and an operating credit from a lien on farm crops. In Germany's uncertain financial condition, of course, it is not likely that the State itself will be in a position to extend farm credit. It is most likely that an agricultural credit bank will be created to deal with this situation.

The whole German agricultural set-up under the Hitler regime is so new, and has had so little precedence for much of what it does or proposes to do, that no one can predict what the outcome will be. It is quite certain that the new law will tend to establish in a measure a new privilsged class of land owners, large and small, making for class distinction. This would mean a return to medieval customs, seemingly at variance with the announced principles of the new German regime.— (N.A.N.A.)