Expellees, Refugees and Returnees: Impact on Farm Families 1945-1990

In the 50-years following World War II, what became East Germany had been radically changed. Land became the property of the state, beginning with land reform in September 1945, and then with collectivization between 1952 and 1960. In 1945, in the Soviet Occupation Zone about 10,000 Germans were expelled by the Soviet Military Administration and then about 100,000 ethnic German families of those expelled from Central and Eastern Europe arrived. By 1961 about 180,000 farmers fled the GDR to avoid collectivization. This disruption allowed Stalin’s plan to be fulfilled.

The 1989 breach in the wall prompted a new scramble for land. In 1990 with German unification farmers wanted their land back—those who had remained in the GDR, those who had fled during the collectivization period, and those whose families had been evicted in 1945. The German government had the task of disposing of this land and farmers needed land. Temporary land-trust offices were established in each of the 5 federal states formerly of the GDR for this purpose. The land-trust agency continues to exist revealing problems that have occurred because of ambiguous oversight and accountability policies. Land-trust agents, most of whom were reared in the GDR, continue to be barriers between farmers and land. Today the countryside remains very much in the Soviet model. Where does the influence of the Soviets end and Germans begin?