| Reichsministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft | |
 | |
 | |
 The building of the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture onWilhelmstrasse, during the Nazi era. After the interior was destroyed in World War II, the former palace, which had been earmarked for reconstruction in 1956, was demolished by theEast Berlin municipal administration in 1960/62. | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | March 1919 (1919-03) |
| Dissolved | 23 May 1945 (1945-05-23) |
| Jurisdiction | Government ofWeimar Republic Government of Nazi Germany |
| Minister responsible |
|
TheReich Ministry of Food and Agriculture (German:Reichsministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft, abbreviated RMEL) was responsible for theagricultural policy of Germany during theWeimar Republic from 1919 to 1933 and during the Nazi dictatorship of theThird Reich from 1933 to 1945. It was headed by aReichsminister under whom astate secretary served. On 1 January 1935,[1] the ministry merged with thePrussian Ministry of Agriculture, Domains and Forests, founded in 1879. Until 1938 and theAnschluss with Austria, it was called the "Reich and Prussian Ministry of Food and Agriculture".[2] After theend of National Socialism in 1945 and of theAllied occupation of Germany, theFederal Ministry of Food and Agriculture was established in 1949 as a successor in theFederal Republic of Germany (West Germany).
In March 1919, theReich Office of Food (Reichsernährungsamt) established the Reich Ministry of Food. It was combined with the Reich Ministry of Economics in September 1919 and re-founded during theKapp Putsch in March 1920 under the name Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture. In the same year, the ministry moved into the Palace of Prince Alexander and Prince George at 72 Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin.[3] From 1924, four large-format paintings byAugust Weber were on loan in the building. Since 1945 they have been considered lost.
After theNazis seized power on 30 January 1933, the ministry was initially led byAlfred Hugenberg. Coerced into resignation in June 1933, Hugenburg was succeeded byKurt Schmitt (minister of economics) andWalther Darré (minister of food and agriculture).[4][page needed] The latter took over the management of the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture as Reich Farmers' Leader (Reichsbauernführer) on 30 June 1933.[5] In this function he was also responsible for theReichsnährstand (loosely, Reich Bureau of Food and Nutrition), which had been created for the "co-ordination" (Gleichschaltung) of German agriculture. Darré simultaneously headed the Office for Agricultural Policy (from 1936, Reich Office for Agricultural Policy; from 1942, Reich Office for Rural Inhabitants), which belonged to the party's official apparatus and was responsible for the management and supervision of the Reich Bureau of Food and Nutrition.[6]
The RMEL essentially took over the state's oversight of theReichsnährstand organization.[7] As a result, individual areas of responsibility were gradually transferred to otherNational Socialist authorities. In 1934, for example, the Reich Forestry Office (Reichsforstamt), under the leadership ofHermann Göring, was created as the supreme Reich authority for forestry and hunting, the timber industry, nature conservation and the preservation of natural monuments.[8] The Reich Forestry Office was in turn united on 1 January 1935 with the Prussian State Forestry Office.[9] Goring's deputy and the de facto head of German Forestry wasWalter von Keudell, and then from 1937Friedrich Alpers. Furthermore, in 1934 and 1935, the agricultural vocational and technical school system was transferred to theReich Ministry of Science, Education and Culture, and veterinary medicine was transferred to theReich Ministry of the Interior.[10] On 22 September 1938, by decree of the Reich minister, all research institutes in the fisheries sector were consolidated in the Reich Institute for Fisheries.[8]
| No. | Portrait | Name (born–died) | Term of office | Political party | Government | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Time in office | |||||||
| 1 | .jpg) | Schmidt, RobertRobert Schmidt (1864–1943) | 13 February 1919 | 26 March 1920 | 1 year, 42 days | SPD | Scheidemann Bauer | ||
| 2 |  | Hermes, AndreasAndreas Hermes (1878–1964) | 27 March 1920 | 10 March 1922 | 1 year, 348 days | Centre | Müller I Fehrenbach Wirth I–II | ||
| 3 |  | Fehr, AntonAnton Fehr (1881–1954) | 31 March 1922 | 21 November 1922 | 256 days | BB | Wirth II | ||
| 4 | | Müller, KarlKarl Müller (1884–1964) | 22 November 1922 | 25 November 1922 | 4 days | Centre | Cuno | ||
| 5 |  | Luther, HansHans Luther (1879–1962) | 1 December 1922 | 4 October 1923 | 317 days | Independent | Cuno Stresemann I | ||
| 6 |  | Kanitz, GerhardGerhard Graf von Kanitz (1885–1949) | 6 October 1923 | 5 December 1925 | 2 years, 62 days | Independent | Stresemann I Marx I Stresemann II Marx II Luther I | ||
| 7 | | Haslinde, HeinrichHeinrich Haslinde [de] (1881–1958) | 20 January 1926 | 17 December 1926 | 331 days | Centre | Luther II Marx III | ||
| 8 | .jpg) | Schiele, MartinMartin Schiele (1870–1939) | 28 January 1927 | 12 June 1928 | 1 year, 136 days | DNVP | Luther II Marx IV | ||
| 9 |  | Dietrich, HermannHermann Dietrich (1879–1954) | 28 June 1928 | 27 March 1930 | 1 year, 272 days | DDP | Luther II Müller II | ||
| (8) | | Martin Schiele (1870–1939) | 30 March 1930 | 30 May 1932 | 2 years, 61 days | DNVP | Brüning I–II | ||
| CNBL | |||||||||
| 10 | .jpg) | Braun, MagnusMagnus Freiherr von Braun (1878–1972) | 1 June 1932 | 28 January 1933 | 241 days | DNVP | Papen Schleicher | ||
| 11 |  | Hugenberg, AlfredAlfred Hugenberg (1865–1951) | 30 January 1933 | 29 June 1933 | 150 days | DNVP | Hitler | ||
| 12 |  | Darré, RichardRichard Walther Darré (1895–1953) | 30 June 1933 | 23 May 1942 (On leave until 6 April 1944) | 8 years, 327 days | NSDAP | Hitler | ||
| – |  | Herbert Backe (1896–1947) | 23 May 1942 | 6 April 1944 | 1 year, 319 days | NSDAP | Hitler | ||
| 13 | 6 April 1944 | 23 May 1945 | 1 year, 47 days | Hitler Goebbels Schwerin von Krosigk | |||||
| Name | Appointed | End of Term | Political Party |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ludwig Huber | 1920 | 1922 | Independent |
| Carl Heinrici [de] | 1922 | 1923 | Independent |
| Fred Hagedorn [de] | 1923 | 1926 | Independent |
| Erich Hoffmann | 1926 | 1929 | Independent |
| Hermann Heukamp [de] | 1929 | 1932 | Independent |
| Fritz Mussehl [de] | 1932 | 1933 | Independent |
| Hans Joachim von Rohr | 1933 | 1933 | DNVP |
| Herbert Backe | 1933 | 1944 | NSDAP |
| Werner Willikens | 1934 | 1945 | NSDAP |
| Hans-Joachim Riecke | 1944 | 1945 | NSDAP |
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)"Reichsministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft".Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (in German). 2008. Retrieved27 June 2023.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
