Abstract
Family farming became a major social force in the Federal Republic following World War II. Several political, economic and social factors facilitated the development of a unified political representation within the farm sector. The German Farmers Union (Deutscher Bauernverband) became the main representative of the farm sector. Its platform included the preservation of family farms and it attempted to realize this goal through the promotion of commodity price support policies. Political support for these programs was legitimized with the elaboration of a system of values espousing the positive qualities of family farms. Price support policies were opposed by free market advocates with an alternative system of values that fundamentally contradicted those of family farm advocates. Although commodity price supports promoted by partisans of family farming dominated agricultural policy formation in the 1950s and 1960s, fiscal crisis in the EEC and economic differentation within the farm sector began to undermine the position of family farming as a social force. But economic stagnation also prevented the free market position from gaining dominance. Economic differentiation within the farm sector has had an important regional dimension, and this has served as a basis for policy compromise. Economic changes over the post-WWII period have undermined the family farm as a social force. Nevertheless, values associated with family farming continue to have a place in agricultural policy. However, family farming is valued less as an end in itself, and more as a means to the realization of more practical ends such as the preservation of rural landscapes for recreational purposes.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agrarbericht,Agrar- und ernährungspolitischer Bericht der Bundesregierung. Bonn: Bundesministerium für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft, und Forsten, 1984.
Arnesberg, Conrad, “Ergebnissen der deutschen Gemeindestudie im internationalen Vergleich.” Pp. 291–300 in Gerhard Würzbacher (Hrsg.),Das Dorf im Spannungsfeld industrieller Entwicklung Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke Verlag, 1961.
Averyt, William,Agropolitics in the European Community: Interest Groups and the Common Agricultural Policy. New York: Praeger, 1977.
Bergmann, Theodor, “Betrieb oder Scholle?” Pp. 112–130 in Martin Greiffenhagen und Hermann Scher (Hrsg.),Die Gegenreform. Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH., 1975.
Bergmann, Theodor, “Agrarstrukturwandel und Agrarpolitik.” Pp. 157–189 in Jürgen Stark und Martin Doll (Hrsg.),Strukturwandel und Strukturpolitik im ländlichen Raum. Stuttgart: Verlag Eugen Ulmer, 1978.
BMELF (Bundesministerium für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft, und Forsten.),Arbeitsprogramm für die Agrarpolitik der Bundesregierung. Hiltrup bei Münster (Westfalen): Land-wirtschaftsverlag, 1968.
BMELF (Bundesministerium für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft, und Forsten),Der Mansholt Plan-Kritik und Alternativen. Hiltrup bei Münster (Westfalen): Landwirtschaftsverlag, 1969.
BMELF (Bundesministerium für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft, und Forsten), Statistisches Jahrbuch über Ernährung, Landwirtschaft, und Forsten. Hamburg: Verlag Paul Parey, 1981.
Brandkamp, Franz, “Entwicklung der landwirtschaftlichen Einkommen,”Berichte über Landwirtschaft 60 (1982): 494–510.
Brubaker, Rogers,The Limits of Rationality. London: George Allen and Unwin. 1984.
Buckwell, Allan, David Harvey, Kenneth Thomson, and Keven Parton,The Costs of the Common Agricultural Policy. London: Croom Helm, 1983.
Bulmer, Simon and William Paterson,The Federal Republic of Germany and the European Community. London: Allen and Unwin, 1987.
Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft, “Vorschläge zur Intensivierung und Koordinierung der Regionalen Strukturpolitik.” Bonn: Manuscript, 1968.
Fennell, Rosemary,The Common Agricultural Policy of the European Community. London: Allenheld, Osmun, 1979.
Franklin, S.,The European Peasantry. London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1969.
Hallett, Graham,The Social Economy of West Germany. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1973.
Harris, Simon, Alan Swinbank, and Guy Wilkinson,The Food and Farm Policies of the European Community. New York: Wiley, 1983.
Haushofer, Heinz, “Die Schlüsseljahre 1968/69 in der Agrarpolitik.” Bayerisches landwirtschaftliches Jahrbuch 60 (1983): 5–21.
Henning, Friedrich-Wilhelm,Landwirtschaft und ländliche Gesellschaft in Deutschland Band 2, 1750 bis 1976. Paderborn: Schöningh, 1978.
Henning, Friedrich-Wilhelm,Das industrialisierte Deutschland 1914 bis 1978. Paderborn: Schöningh, 1979.
Kommission (der Europäischen Gemeinschaften),Memorandum zur Reform der Landwirtschaft in der europäischen Wirschaftsgemeinschaft. Kom (68) 1000.
Kötter, Herbert, “Agrarstrukturpolitische Leitbilder in der EWG: Analyse und Zukunfsperspektiven.” Pp. 139–148 in Theodor Dams, Franz Gerl, Herbert Kötter, und Otto Strecker (Hrsg.),Agrarpolitik in der EWG. München: Bayerischer Landwirtschaftsverlag, 1968.
Kötter, Herbert, “Die Landwirtschaft.” Pp. 15–42 in Werner Conze und M. Rainer Lepsius (Hrsg.),Sozialgeschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Stuttgart: Verlag Gemeinschaft Ernst Klett, 1983.
Kreile, Michael, “West Germany: The Dynamics of Expansion.” Pp. 191–224 in Peter J. Katzenstein (ed.),Between Power and Plenty: Foreign Economic Policies of Advanced Industrial States. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978.
Lipinsky, Ernst, “Agrarstrukturverbesserung.”Handwörterbuch des Agrarrechts 1 (1981): 134–162.
Mansholt, Sico, “Die Möglichkeit einer gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik in der EWG.”Agrarwirtschaft 50 (1970): 31–35.
Marsh, John and Christopher Ritson,Agrilcultural Policy and the Common Market. London: Catham House, 1971.
Müller, Alfred,Die Wirtschafts- und agraropolitische Bedeutung landwirtschaftlich-gewerblicher Berufs- und Einkommenskombinationen. Hiltrup bei Münster: Landwirtschaftsverlag, 1970.
Muth, Heinrich, “Der Weg zum landwirtschaftlichen Familienbetrieb.”Berichte über Landwirschft 45 (1967): 345–348.
Neville-Rolfe, Edmund,The Politics of Agriculture in the European Community. London: Policy Studies Institute, 1984.
Peters, Wilhelm, “Untersuchung zur Ausgleichszulage,”Berichte über Landwirtschaft 58 (1980): 212–247.
Peterson, Martin,International Interest Organizations and the Transmutation of Postwar Society. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell International, 1979.
Pfeffer, Max J.,Rationalization and the Family Organization of Production: Part-Time Farming in the Federal Republic of Germany. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1986.
Pfeffer, Max J., “Structural Dimensions of Farm Crisis in the Federal Republic of Germany.” Pp. in David Goodman and Michael Redclift (eds.),The International Farm Crisis. London: MacMillan, 1989.
Planck, Ulrich, “The Family Farm in the Federal Republic of Germany,” Pp. 155–191 in Boguslaw Galeski and Eugene Wilkening (eds.),Family Farming in Europe and America. Boulder: Westview, 1987.
Poppinga, Onno,Bauern und Politik. Frankfurt (a.M.): Europäischen Verlagsanstalt, 1975.
Potthoff, Hilda, “Die Nebenerwerbslandwirtschaft und ihr Einfluss auf die Agrarstruktur in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.” Pp. 9–15 inFormen der Landbewirtschaftung im Nebenerwerbsbetrieb, Berichte über die AID-Arbeitstagung vom 25. bis 27. November 1975 in Deidesheim/Weinstrasse. Bonn: Auswertungs-und Informationsdienst für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und Forsten, 1979.
Ring, Wolfgang, “Agrarstrukturpolitik von Lübke bis Ertl.”Innere Kolonisation 24 (1975): 4–8.
Ritson, Christopher and Stefan Tangermann, “The Economics of Monetary Compensatory Amounts.”European Review of Agricultural Economics 6 (1979): 119–164.
Röhm, Helmut,Die westdeutsche Landwirtschaft. München: Bayerischer Landwirtschaftsverlag, 1964.
Schäffers, Bernard,Sozialstruktur und Wandel der Bundersrepublik Deutschland. Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke Verlag, 1981.
Schreiner, Günther,Ziele und Mittel der Agrarstrukturpolitik seit 1871 im Deutschen Reich und in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität zu Bonn, 1974.
Strauf, Hans-Georg, Jan Uhlmann, Gerald Westphalen, “Der Beitrag des Agrarsektors zur Bevölkerungsdichte im länd-lichen Raum,”Berichte über Landwirtschaft 60 (1982): 41–54.
Tangermann, Stefan, “Germany's Role Within the CAP: Domestic Problems in International Perspective.”Journal of Agricultural Economics 30 (1979): 241–259.
Thieme, Günther, “Agricultural Change in Its Impact in Rural Areas.” Pp. 220–247 in Trevor Wild (ed.),Urban and Rural Change in West Germany. London: Croom Helm, 1983.
Waltermann, Franz, “Industrie und EWG-Agrarpolitik.” Pp. 199–208 in Theodor Dams, Franz Gerl, Herbert Kötter, und Otto Strecker (Hrsg.),Agrarpolitik in der DWG. Müchen: Bayerischer Landwritschaftsverlag, 1968.
Ziche, Joachim, “Kritik der deutschen Bauerntumsideologie.”Sociologia Ruralis 8 (1968): 105–141.
Additional information
Max J. Pfeffer is a Sociologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Ecology at Rutgers University. Much of his recent research has dealt with agricultural policy and household survival strategies in Europe and the United States.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pfeffer, M.J. Values and policy conflict in West German agriculture. Agric Hum Values 6, 59–69 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02219422
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02219422