Association of the German Farmers Associations


The Association of the German Farmers Associations existed from 1900 to 1934 and was an amalgamation of Christian farmers’ organizations. From 1900-1916 it was called "Association of Christian German Farmers Associations" and from 1931-1934 it used the name "Association of German Christian Farmers Associations".

History

The Association of the German Farmers Associations was an umbrella organization of Christian farmers’ organizations which belongs to mostly the Catholic milieu. It united mainly small and medium farmers. The VdB was politically associated with the right-wing of the Centre Party. It was established as the "Association of Christian German Farmer Associations" on November 24 1900 at a Conference in Frankfurt am Main, by representatives of the Baden, Bavaria, Alsace, Hesse, Nassau, Eastern and West Prussian, Rhenish, Silesian, Trier and Westphalian farmer associations. The member organizations, especially in the Catholic regions of Western and southern Germany, had been established in the 1880s and 1890s. In North and Eastern areas farmers were more frequently associated with the Agrarian League and the National Agricultural League. The emergence of these farmer associations can be seen in the broader context of the history of political Catholicism and the Catholic associations of the 19th century.
VdB was a sister organization of the Bavarian People's Party which had been established as a splinter of the Center Party in 1919. The Bavarian People's Party was a more politically oriented than the VdB.
The VdB was closely intertwined with the cooperative movement.
The revolution of 1918 allowed the Christian Farmers Associations to recruit many new members and to attract new member organizations because farmers were enthusiastic about demands by the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and the majority Social Democratic Party of Germany for economic socialization as well as for the separation of Church and State in cultural and educational policy. At this time the VdB was able to recruit Protestant farmers’ association members.
With the agricultural crisis in the second half of the 1920s came fierce controversies within the Association as conservative and Protestant member associations demand a stronger Weimar Republic government and more cooperation with other, usually far more right-oriented, farmers’ associations. This led to splits and exclusions. The new President Andreas Hermes, long time Minister of Agriculture and food for the Centre Party attempted to stop this development, but only partially succeeded. The Westphalian and Rhenish nobility demanded right oriented policy. In February 1929 the "Green Front" was formed by the Association of Christian German Farmers Associations, many of its member organizations, the National Agricultural League, the German Agriculture Council and the German Farmers' Party. This agricultural alliance supported state protectionist agriculture.
Hermes, who resisted the Nazi claim to power in 1933, was arrested. His successor was ready to participate in the NS State. The National Socialist agricultural leader Richard Walther Darré disbanded the Association of German Farmers Associations on January 18, 1934. The member associations had been disbanded the previous year.

President