The big landlords of eastern Germany have loomed large in the country's history, but the absence of official statistics on land ownership has left their position and identity confined to folklore, without satisfactory quantification. This study, making extensive use of primary sources from the seven "core provinces" of eastern Germany-the so-called "East Elbian" region-establishes answers to questions pivotal to our understanding of pre-war Germany: who were the biggest land owners, both by area and by the tax assessment of their land? Which social groups held land? How much land did they own and where? How did this change, especially during the last decades before the Great War? Professor Eddie demonstrates that most of the inroads into land ownership by the bourgeoisie had already been made by the mid-1850s, perhaps even before the mid-1830s. However, one of the most interesting findings in this study is that, despite rapid industrialization after 1880, there was a net exodus of the nouveaux riches from the ranks of large land owners. On the eve of war, the largest landowners were the Prussian state, the royalty, and the higher nobility. Meticulously researched and thoroughly documented, this book will be the benchmark for all future work in this area.
Author(s): Scott M. Eddie
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 303
Contents......Page 14
List of Tables......Page 18
List of Figures......Page 24
Map: Central Europe in 1910, with seven East Elbian provinces outlined in white......Page 25
1.1. The Setting......Page 26
1.2. Who Owned the Land? How do we Know?......Page 29
1.3.1. The Pioneer: Johannes Conrad......Page 31
1.3.2. Conrad’s Students and Followers......Page 34
1.3.3. Recent Work in the Conradian Tradition: Hess, Nabert, Buchsteiner, Schiller......Page 35
1.4. Farm Statistics are not Property Statistics......Page 45
1.4.1. Incomparabilities in the Data of the Agricultural Censuses......Page 48
1.4.2. Owning, Renting, and Ownership Statistics......Page 52
1.4.4. Adjustment of the 1882 Census Data......Page 55
2.2. Principal Sources and Uses of Ownership Data......Page 62
2.3.1. Internal Consistency of the Data......Page 66
2.3.2. Problems with Individual Properties......Page 68
2.3.3. Incomplete Coverage of the Data......Page 71
2.3.4. Adjusting for the Anomalies in Reporting State-Owned Properties......Page 73
3.1. Preview......Page 79
3.3. The Land Endowment of the Eastern Provinces......Page 80
3.4. The Regional Distribution of Large Properties......Page 84
3.5.1. Traditional View 1: Distribution by Total Area of Properties......Page 92
3.5.2. Traditional View 2: Distribution by Total Area Owned......Page 94
3.5.3. A Non-Traditional View 1: Distribution by Tax Value......Page 98
3.5.4. A Non-Traditional View 2: Logarithmic Distributions......Page 101
3.5.5. Summary......Page 103
3.5.6. Distribution in the Provinces......Page 108
4.1. Preview......Page 111
4.2. Introduction......Page 112
4.3. Ownership by Rank and Type of Owner......Page 116
4.3.1. Royalty......Page 118
4.3.2. The Nobility......Page 123
4.3.3. Non-Noble Persons (‘Bourgeoisie’)......Page 134
4.3.4. Another Look at Rank: Military Officers......Page 136
4.3.5. The Prussian State......Page 141
4.3.6. Non-Physical Juridical Persons (Other than the Prussian State)......Page 142
4.4. Summary......Page 144
5.1. Preview......Page 148
5.2. Introduction: Conrad’s Twenty Largest Landowners......Page 149
5.3. The Top Fifty Landowners by Total Area and Total Tax Value......Page 154
5.4. The Super Elite: The Top Ten Landowners......Page 171
6.1. Preview......Page 177
6.2. Introduction......Page 178
6.3.1. General Considerations......Page 180
6.3.2. Coverage and Inclusion......Page 182
6.4. East and West Prussia, 1834–1884/5......Page 183
6.5. Ownership Changes in All Seven Provinces after c.1882......Page 188
6.6. Who Owned How Much?......Page 190
6.6.1. Was there Specialization in Ownership?......Page 192
6.6.2. Grouping Properties by their Land-Use Profile......Page 193
6.6.3. Did Different Classes of Owners Specialize in What Types of Properties They Owned and Where?......Page 195
6.7. Summary of Examination of Knight’s Estates......Page 198
7.1. Preview......Page 200
7.2. Introduction......Page 201
7.2.1. The Data......Page 202
7.2.2. Summary of Distribution of Industrial Establishments......Page 203
7.2.3. Numbers of Certain Industrial Establishments from Tax Data......Page 205
7.2.4. Industrial Establishments according to the Industrial Censuses......Page 207
7.3. Industrial Establishments on the Larger Estates......Page 210
7.3.1. Share of Census-Listed Industrial Establishments on Large Estates......Page 212
7.3.2. Distribution by Province and Size Category over Time......Page 213
7.3.3. Who Owned the Properties with Industrial Establishments on Them?......Page 215
7.3.4. Owners with Twelve or more Industrial Establishments on their Land......Page 218
7.4. Factors Influencing the Location of Rural-Based Industrial Enterprises......Page 225
7.5. Summary and Conclusions......Page 232
8.1. Preview......Page 235
8.2. Introduction: The Distribution of Land Quality and Value......Page 236
8.3. Classifying Properties by Land-Use Profiles......Page 247
8.3.1. Calculating Land-Use Profiles......Page 249
8.3.2. Cluster Analysis and the Number of Properties......Page 250
8.3.3. Cluster Analysis and the Area and Tax Value of Properties......Page 254
8.3.4. Regional Concentration of Properties by Land-Use Profiles......Page 255
8.3.5. Was there Specialization in Ownership of Large Properties?......Page 257
9.2. What has this Study Shown?......Page 261
9.3. Was the Land Tax Biased to Favour Big Holdings?......Page 267
9.4. Auf Wiedersehen......Page 274
A.2. Owner Codes......Page 275
A.2.1. Physical Persons......Page 276
A.2.2. Non-Physical Legal Persons......Page 277
A.3.1. Additional Characteristics of Owner or Property......Page 279
A.3.2. Reference Variables and Fields......Page 281
2. Official Government Publications......Page 283
3. Directories of Landowners and Landed Properties......Page 284
4. Articles, Book Chapters, Lectures, Monographs, Reference Works......Page 285
B......Page 290
C......Page 291
F......Page 292
H......Page 293
I......Page 294
L......Page 295
N......Page 297
P......Page 298
S......Page 300
W......Page 302
Z......Page 303
