Carroll Quigley - Tragedy and Hope - A History of the World in Our Time

The following table shows the approximate relationships of the ruling groups in the three periods of German history in the twentieth century:

The Empire

The Weimar Republic

The Third Reich

Emperor

Nazi Party

(leaders only)

Army

Army

Industry

Landlords

Bureaucracy

Army

Bureaucracy

Industry

Bureaucracy

Industry

Landlords

Landlords

The ruled groups below these rulers have remained roughly the same. In the Third Reich they included: (1) peasants; (2) laborers; (3) the petty bourgeoisie of clerks, retailers, artisans, small industry, and so on; (4) professional groups, such as doctors, druggists, teachers, engineers, dentists, and so on. Below these was the submerged group of “non-Aryans” and the inhabitants of occupied areas.

A revealing light is cast on Nazi society by examining the positions of the ruling groups. We shall examine each of these in reverse order.

The influence of the landlord group in the earlier period rested on tradition rather than on power. It was supported by a number of factors: (1) the close personal connections of the landlords with the emperor, the army, and the bureaucracy; (2) the peculiar voting rules in Germany which gave the landlords undue influence in Prussia and gave the state of Prussia undue influence in Germany; (3) the economic and social power of the landlords, especially east of the Elbe, a power based on their ability to bring pressure to bear on tenants and agricultural laborers in that area.

All these sources of power were weakening, even under the empire. The republic and the Third Reich merely extended a process already well advanced. The economic power of the landlords was threatened by the agricultural crisis after 1880 and was clearly evident in their demand for tariff protection after 1895. The bankruptcy of the Junker estates was bound to undermine their political influence even if the state was willing to support them with subsidies and Osthilfe indefinitely. The departure of the emperor and the change in the position of the army and bureaucracy under the republic weakened these avenues of indirect influence by the landlords. The change in the voting regulations after 1918 and the ending of voting after 1933, combined with the increasing absorption of Prussia and the other Lander into a unified German state, reduced the political power of the landlord group. Finally, their social influence was weakened by the migration of German farm laborers from eastern to central and western Germany and their replacement by Slav farm labor.

This decrease in the power of the landlord group continued under the Third Reich and was intensified by the fact that this group was the one segment of the Quartet which was successfully coordinated. The landlords lost most of their economic power because the control of their economic life was not left in the hands of the landlords as was done with industry. In both cases economic life was controlled, chiefly by cartels and associations, but in industry these were controlled by industrialists, while in agriculture they were controlled by the state in close cooperation with the party.

Prices, production, conditions of sale, and, in fact, every detail about agriculture was in control of a government corporation called the Reichsnahrstand which consisted of a complex of groups, associations, and boards. The leader of this complex was the minister of food and agriculture, named by Hitler. This leader appointed the subordinate leaders of all the member organizations of the Reichsnahrstand, and these, in turn, named their subordinates. This process was continued down to the lowest individual, each leader naming his direct subordinates according to the “leadership principle.” Every person engaged in any activity concerned with agriculture, food, or raw-material production, including lumber, fishing, dairying, and grazing belonged to one or several associations in the Reichsndhrstand. The associations were organized both on a territorial and on a functional basis. On a functional basis they were organized in both vertical and horizontal associations. On a territorial basis were twenty regional “peasantships” (Landes-bauernschaften) subdivided into 515 local “peasantships” (Kreisbauern-schaften). On a horizontal basis were associations of persons in the same activity, such as grinding flour, churning butter, growing grain, and so on. On a vertical basis were associations of all persons concerned with the production and processing of any single commodity, such as grain or milk. These organizations, all formed on the “leadership principle,” were chiefly concerned with prices and production quotas. These were controlled by the state, but prices were set at a level sufficient to give a profit to most participants, and quotas were based on assessments estimated by the farmers themselves.

While the landlords lost power in this way, they received economic advantages. As befitted a counterrevolutionary movement, the Nazis increased the wealth and privileges of the landlords. The report on the Osthilfe scandal, which had been made for Schleicher in 1932, was permanently suppressed. The autarky program gave them a stable market for their products, shielding them from the vicissitudes which they had suffered under liberalism with its unstable markets and fluctuating prices. The prices fixed under Nazism were not high but were adequate, especially in combination with other advantages. By 1937, prices paid to farmers were 23 percent more than in 1933 although still 28 percent below those of 1925. Larger farms which used hired labor were aided by the prevention of unions, strikes, and rising wages. Labor forces were increased by using the labor services of boys and girls in the Nazi Youth Movement and Labor Service. Payments for interest and taxes were both reduced, the former from 950 million marks in 1929-1930 to 630 million marks in 1935-1936, and the latter from 740 million to 460 million marks in the same six years. Farmers were exempt completely from unemployment-insurance contributions which amounted to 19 million marks in 1932-1933. The constant threat of breaking up the bankrupt great estates was removed whether it arose from the state or from private creditors. All farms of over family size were made secure in possession of their owner’s family, with no possibility of alienation, by increasing the use of entail on great estates and by the Hereditary Farms Act for lesser units.

These benefits were greater for larger units than for smaller ones, and greatest for the large estates. While small farms (5 to 50 hectares), according to Max Sering, made a net return of 9 marks a hectare in 1925, large ones (over 100 hectares) lost 18 marks a hectare. In 1934 the corresponding figures were 28 and 53, a gain of 19 marks per hectare for small units and of 71 marks per hectare for large units. As a result of this growth in profitability of large units, the concentration of ownership of land in Germany was increased, thus reversing a trend. Both the number and the average size of large units increased.

Thus the landlords won great privileges and rewards in the Third Reich, but at the cost of a drastic reduction in their power. They were coordinated, like the rest of society outside the ruling groups, with the result that they became the least important of these groups.

The bureaucracy was not completely coordinated, but it found its power greatly reduced. The civil service was not, as we have indicated, purged of non-Nazis, although Jews and obvious anti-Nazis were generally retired. Only in the Ministry of Economics, perhaps because of the complete reorganization of the ministry, was there any extensive change at first. But this change did not bring in party members; it brought in men from private business. Outside the Ministry of Economics the chief changes were the ministers themselves and their secretaries of state. The newly created ministries, of course, had new men, but, except on the lowest levels, these were not chosen because they were party members. The old division of the bureaucracy into two classes (academic and nonacademic), with the upper open only to those who passed an academic examination, continued. Only in the lowest, non-skilled ranks did party members overwhelm the service.