Contesting Agriculture

Judith-Maria Buechler, Hans C. Buechler

Description

This analysis of the privatization of agriculture in eastern Germany captures the turbulent times after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent reunification of the two Germanies. Based in large part on oral histories provided by cooperative managers, newly independent family farmers, and westerners who established farms in the east, the authors examine the competitive struggle involved in the transformation from communism to capitalism. Linking the personal to the local, regional, national, and global, they develop a theory of the construction of identities out of past experiences and new challenges, in order to account for the ambiguities and contradictions inherent in the core relations and ideas that constitute the new Germany.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Chronology

1. Introduction

The Setting
Methodology

2. Identities

PART I: THE COMMUNIST PERIOD

3. The History of Collectivization in Agriculture

4. The LPG

Introduction
The Mass Production Model in Agriculture
The Dynamics of Planning: Rationales and Irrationalities
Production Quotas and Export
The Organization of Agricultural Tasks
Local Responses
Inconsistencies in the Distribution of Farm Equipment
Showcase Projects
Communal Tasks
Capital Investments and Debt
Compensation
Supplementing Wages: Individual Production by LPG Members
The Family as Source of Identification
Leisure
The LPG Administration
Farm Manager Identities

PART II. THE POST-COMMUNIST PERIOD

Introduction: The Aftermath of Reunification

The Crash in the Markets: Panic Purchases
New Markets and Pricing Structures
Government Supports and Useless Feasibility Plans
The Maze of Legal Forms of Ownership
Rights to Compensation and to Decide on the Future of the Cooperatives

5. The Cooperative Solution

Legal Options
The Cooperative Managers' Opinion of West German-Style Cooperativism
The Transition to West German-Style Cooperatives: Process and Timing
The New Leadership
Carrying Out Compensation
Impediments: Access to Land
Leasing from Individuals
The Issue of Buildings
Set-Aside Programs
The Carryover of Debt Incurred During the GDR
A Case of Failure
Prospects

6. The New Cooperatives: Continuity and Change

Restructuring Activities
Investment in Buildings and Machinery
Crop Production
Livestock Production
Markets
Reducing the Workforce
Wage Levels and Working Conditions
The Cooperatives' Relationship to Communities
Prospects

7. The Eastern Independent Farmers

Obtaining Land
Machinery
Investment
Division of Labor and the Employment of Outside Labor
Crop Production and Its Link to Market Demand
Livestock Production
Prospects
Conclusion

8. The Western Farmers

Adapting to Life in the East
Access to Land
Investment
Personnel and Division of Labor
Crop Production and Marketing
Livestock Production and Marketing
Suppliers and Markets
Community Relations

9. The Service/Industrial Context of Agriculture: Linkages and Permutations

Suppliers
A Serviceman
Clients
The Nature of Economic Networks
Convergences and Divergences between Farmers and Their Associates

10. Conclusion

Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• History of Europe
• Anthropology
• Germany

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791489093
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

CONTESTING
AGRICULTURESUNY series in the Anthropology of Work
June C. Nash, editorCONTESTING
AGRICULTURE
Cooperativism and Privatization
in the New Eastern Germany
Hans C. Buechler
and
Judith-Maria Buechler
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESSPublished by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2002 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic,
electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise
without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, address State University of New York Press,
90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207
Production by Kelli Williams
Marketing by Anne M. Valentine
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Buechler, Hans C.
Contesting agriculture : cooperativism and privatization in the new Eastern Germany /
Hans Buechler and Judith-Maria Buechler.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in the anthropology of work)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-7914-5281-6 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-5282-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Agriculture, Cooperative—Germany (East) 2. Privatization—Germany (East) I.
Buechler, Judith-Maria. II. Title. III. Series
HD1491.G32 E273 2002
334′.683′09431—dc21
2001049286
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
List of Abbreviations xiii
Chronology xv
1. Introduction 1
The Setting 11
Methodology 17
2. Identities 23
PART I: THE COMMUNIST PERIOD
3. The History of Collectivization in Agriculture 41
4. The LPG 59
Introduction 59
The Mass Production Model in Agriculture 61
The Dynamics of Planning: Rationales
and Irrationalities 63
Production Quotas and Export 65
The Organization of Agricultural Tasks 67
Local Responses 69
Inconsistencies in the Distribution of Farm Equipment 71
Showcase Projects 74
vvi CONTESTING AGRICULTURE
Communal Tasks 76
Capital Investments and Debt 77
Compensation 79
Supplementing Wages:
Individual Production by LPG Members 84
The Family as Source of Identification 87
Leisure 88
The LPG Administration 90
Farm Manager Identities 96
PART II. THE POST-COMMUNIST PERIOD
Introduction: The Aftermath of Reunification 103
The Crash in the Markets: Panic Purchases 106
New Markets and Pricing Structures 107
Government Supports and Useless Feasibility Plans 111
The Maze of Legal Forms of Ownership 112
Rights to Compensation and to Decide on the
Future of the Cooperatives 114
5. The Cooperative Solution 119
Legal Options 121
The Cooperative Managers’ Opinion of
West German-Style Cooperativism 122
The Transition to West German-Style Cooperatives:
Process and Timing 123
The New Leadership 124
Carrying Out Compensation 126
Impediments: Access to Land 129
Leasing from Individuals 133
The Issue of Buildings 138
Set-Aside Programs 139
The Carryover of Debt Incurred During the GDR 139
A Case of Failure 142
Prospects 144
6. The New Cooperatives: Continuity and Change 147
Restructuring Activities 148
Investment in Buildings and Machinery 158
Crop Production 164
Livestock Production 168
Markets 175CONTENTS vii
Reducing the Workforce 178
Wage Levels and Working Conditions 184
The Cooperatives’ Relationship to Communities 186
Prospects 187
7. The Eastern Independent Farmers 189
Obtaining Land 196
Machinery 203
Investment 206
Division of Labor and the Employment of
Outside Labor 211
Crop Production and Its Link to Market Demand 215
Livestock Production 219
Prospects 223
Conclusion 227
8. The Western Farmers 229
Adapting to Life in the East 234
Access to Land 238
Investment 243
Personnel and Division of Labor 247
Crop Production and Marketing 249
Livestock Production and Marketing 255
Suppliers and Markets 256
Community Relations 263
9. The Service/Industrial Context of Agriculture:
Linkages and Permutations 275
Suppliers 275
A Serviceman 286
Clients 289
The Nature of Economic Networks 298
Convergences and Divergences between
Farmers and Their Associates 299
10. Conclusion 303
Notes 321
Glossary 331
Bibliography 335
Index 343ILLUSTRATIONS
Maps
1.1. The Federal State of Sachsen-Anhalt and the Kreis
of Bernburg 12
131.2. Kreis Bernburg
Figures
141.1. The Castle of Bernburg.
1.2. A village near Bernburg. 16
604.1. An LPG cattle barn close to a village near Bernburg.
1576.1. Modernized gas station of a cooperative.
6.2. GDR and modern western farm machinery and old and
159new barns of a cooperative.
6.3. While many of the farm buildings of the cooperatives are
170still old, the dairy herds are up to modern standards.
6.4. Some cooperatives still prefer to use straw as bedding for
171cattle in spite of higher labor requirements.
1947.1. House for the renter of an old demesne.
2007.2. New home of an eastern German independent farmer.
7.3. Old barn purchased by a Wiedereinrichter. 201
7.4. Some of the machinery owned by a Wiedereinrichter. 204
ixx CONTESTING AGRICULTURE
7.5. A tradition of making do with whatever is at hand is
manifested in the whimsical combination of a trailer with
an old garden bench pulled by a modern two-wheel tractor. 207
7.6. Wiedereinrichter often raise a few animals more for the
sake of nostalgia than as an economic venture. 222
8.1. The regional sugar factory near Bernburg. 259
8.2. Women’s choir in a small town near Bernburg. 265
Tables
3.1. Size of Farms in Sachsen-Anhalt and in the Reich in 1925 42
3.2. Allocation of Land in the Land Reform of 1945 44
II.1. Juridical Forms of Agriculture in the New Bundesländer
(1996) 117
6.1. Labor and Land Productivity in Western and Eastern
German Agriculture 148ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing this book would not have been possible without the assistance
of many individuals. The book had its inception during a short visit to
eastern Germany in 1991, Judith-Maria’s first to Dessau, her parents’
place of origin that they had left as refugees in 1932. We were intrigued
by her aunt’s (now deceased) description of life in the GDR and her
house whose furnishings and kitchen reminded Hans of houses he had
visited as a small child in Switzerland just after World War II. We were
fascinated by the small businesses that had sprung up like mushrooms in
the middle of the residential neighborhood, enterprises that included a
store specializing in selling surfboards at least six hours by train from
the closest ocean. Judith-Maria’s cousin, whom she had last seen as a
teenager in Berlin in 1961, now had sons who told us about the
excitement but also dislocation they had experienced right after the fall of the
Berlin Wall. After having undertaken research during the debt crisis in
the early 1980s in Bolivia as well as the transition from dictatorship to
democracy in Spain, research on the turmoil surrounding the transition
from communism to capitalism seemed like a logical next step in our
pursuit of understanding adaptations to rapid change. We thank
Hildegunde, Arno, Benjamin and Bernhard Sames for introducing us to this
new research topic and later for hosting us at their home in Halle. In
addition, we wish to thank Judith-Maria’s cousin Renate Rarichs and
her husband Karl for helping us launch our fieldwork by hosting us in
Frankfurt and assisting us in purchasing a secondhand car.
Field research in Germany was supported by a Fulbright grant, a
grant from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), and
sabbatical pay from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Syracuse
University. In Germany, Prof. Michael Tolksdorf of the Fachhochschule
für Wirtschaft Berlin and Prof. Rudi Schmidt at the Institut für Soziologie
xixii CONTESTING AGRICULTURE
Friederich-Schiller-Universität Jena graciously acted as local sponsors for
our research. Many thanks to both.
Most important, we wish to thank our consultants in
SachsenAnhalt for their patient explanation of their history and their present
lives. In particular, the farmers interviewed for this study granted us
interviews of such length and detail that we reoriented our research—
which was initially focused on urban occupations—to include farming
as well.
Finally, we wish to thank June Nash and the anonymous reviewers
of State University of New York Press for their invaluable comments.
Parts of this book were published in two articles, one in Identities
(Buechler & Buechler 2000), reprinted here with permission from
Gordon and Breach Publishers, and one in the Anthropology of Work
Review (Buechler & Buechler 1995). We wish to thank Nina Glick and
the anonymous reviewers of the former article for their input. However,
responsibility for any errors and omissions is ours alone. ABBREVIATIONS
ABM Arbeitsbeschaffungsmaßnahmen: workfare programs to
comb