East Germany’s nominally revolutionary resettler policy proved more restorative than West’s

Evidence

Regarding its socio-political aims and results, GDR resettler policy between 1945 and 1953 in certain respects has been even more restorative and anti-modernistic than the rhetorically anti-modernist West German refugee or expellee policy. This is especially true for the agricultural policy dimension that triggered in 1945 a veritable structural revolution by means of wide-range ‘land reform’ expropriation, only to operate since then a costly and economically harmful subsidy policy with a focus on the primary sector and an unprofitable small business framework. In the case of small farms, 91,000 of 210,000 were redistributed into the hands of ‘resettler farmers’ (Umsiedler-Neubauern), but despite this integrational success, that agricultural policy was a devastating anachronism. Soon this uneconomical small business structure had to be cancelled between 1952 and 1960, returning to large-scale management policy of forced collectivization and simultaneous redirection of state subsidies into the industrial sector. — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 395

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: A striking demonstration that professed revolutionary ideology diverges from actual economic outcome — useful alongside the reader’s conviction-versus-behavior theme.
• XREF: connects to: West German expellee policy was effectively modernizing despite restorative rhetoric — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 394; West German expellee institutions outlived East German ones by decades — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 402; Communist East Germany declared integration complete and halted resettler support by the mid-1950s. — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 40 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• West German expellee policy was effectively modernizing despite restorative rhetoric #corroborates (0.80) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 394
• Communist East Germany declared integration complete and halted resettler support by the mid-1950s. #expands (0.78) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 40
• West German expellee institutions outlived East German ones by decades #qualifies (0.72) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 402
• Guénon posited an inverse reform differential between East and West #complicates (0.70)