ABSTRACT
The story of land and home in eastern Germany after 1945 is nothing but the violent recreation of Soviet-style communism forcefully projected as far west as the Harz Mountains, as far south as the Czechoslovakian border, and as far north as the Baltic Sea. During the immediate aftermath of the war, Großbauern, those owning between 20 and 100 hectares, had managed to maintain viable agricultural enterprises. In a mere 15 years (1945–1960), the organizational structure of agriculture —and the rural landscape—in East Germany had been fundamentally transformed. A centuries-old culture of family farms and rural villages was completely destroyed and replaced by a new one along Marxist lines. The Stasi was the government agency used to intimidate farmers to sign over their farms to the emerging collectives. Under-provision of necessary agricultural supplies—seeds, fertilizers—combined with unrealistic production quotas forced these remaining private farmers from their land.
