The collectivization of East German agriculture

The last independent farms are incorporated into agricultural cooperatives

Proclaiming its intention to place “Junker land in the peasant’s hand”, the Soviet occupation authorities moved in 1945 to dissolve all farms in East Germany over 100 hectares in size and hand them to individual peasants to farm; 40% of agricultural land in the Soviet zone was therefore held by these “new farmers”. Tolerance for private enterprise decreased at the end of 1948, and farmers owning more than 20 hectares were declared to be “class enemies”. High levels of requisitioning and low state purchase prices were designed to put them out of business. The result: many farmers fled to West Germany, causing a food shortage in the newly formed DDR.

When Soviet dictator Stalin proposed the complete socialization of East German agriculture in 1952, the SED was only too pleased to set about establishing the first agricultural production cooperatives in the DDR. Stalin’s death and the need to ease tensions among the East German populace after the June uprising of 1953 meant that the pressure exerted on farmers to cede their land to collective farms was reduced, and the pace of collectivization slowed. Once SED rule had stabilized at the end of the 1950s, the Stasi, police and troops of agitators launched a campaign of rural intimidation, arson and terror to force farmers to pool their land and resources and go to work as state employees. Although a few farmers continued to hold out, the SED was able to announce the formation of some 20,000 collective farms on 14 April 1960. The price of the “Socialist Spring”: hundreds of farmers had taken their own lives and many thousands had fled to the West.