Reichsnährstand

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (May 2011) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Reichsnährstand]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Reichsnährstand}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The Reichsnährstand or 'State Food Society', was a government body set up in Nazi Germany to regulate food production.^[1]

The Reichsnährstand was founded by the Reichsnährstandsgesetz (decree) of 13 September 1933;^[2] it was led by R. Walther Darré.^[3]

The Reichsnährstand had legal authority over everyone involved in agricultural production and distribution. It attempted to interfere in the market for agricultural goods, using a complex system of orders, price controls, and prohibitions, through regional marketing associations.^[2] Under the “Hereditary Farm Law of 1933” (Reichsnährstandsgesetz), farmers were bound to their land since most agricultural land could not be sold.^[4] The law was enacted to protect and preserve Germany's smaller hereditary estates that were no larger than 308 acres. Below that acreage, farmlands could “not be sold, divided, mortgaged or foreclosed on for debt.”^[5] Cartel-like marketing boards fixed prices, regulated supplies and oversaw almost every facet in directing agricultural production on farmlands.^[6] Besides deciding what seeds and fertilizers were to be applied to farmlands, the Reichsnährstand secured protection from selling foreign food imports inside Germany, and placed a “moratorium on debt payments.”^[6]

As the scope and depth of the National Socialists command economy escalated, food production and rural standard of living declined. By autumn of 1936, Germany began to experience critical shortages of food and consumer goods,^[7][8] despite the spending of billions of Reichsmarks on price subsidies to farmers.^[9] Germans were even subjected to rationing of many major consumer goods, including “produce, butter and other consumables.”^[10] Besides food shortages, Germany began to encounter a loss of farm laborers, where up to 440,000 farmers had abandoned agriculture between 1933 and 1939.^[11]

The Reichsnährstand's argument that Germany "needed" an additional 7-8 million hectares of farmland, and that consolidation of existing farms would displace many existing farmers who would need to work new land, influenced Hitler's decision to invade the Soviet Union.^[12]

• Blood and Soil
• Reich Harvest Thanksgiving Festival

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Reichsnährstand.