Agricultural History Review, Volume 51 Part 2 (2003), p. 246

In view of the now decades of prominence of feminism, the subject of women in German agriculture, and their importance in a country of predominantly ‘peasant’ farming, has attracted remarkably little attention from historians. On that ground alone Helene Albers’ contribution is to be welcomed. A particular focus in the available literature hitherto has been upon the strain of labour on the wives of peasants. Among nationalist and Nazi investigators the spotlight fell upon the impact of that labour upon female reproduction. In the Federal Republic, before the widespread adoption from the later 1950s of consumer durables, such as vacuum cleaners and washing machines, and the contemporaneous mechanization of farming, with its transfer of a number of former female tasks (such as milking and hoeing) to male hands, the same area of concern was expressed in terms of the impact on ‘the family’, ‘family life’ and the key role of the wife in the ‘peasant household’. Dr Albers’ pioneering work investigates the entire gamut of the ‘peasant wife’ in the rural economy of the Westphalia region of north-western Germany, around a micro study of two specific villages, with an extensive use of oral evidence. One village being Roman Catholic and the other Protestant permits confessional comparisons to be made.

A criticism that might be made of the work is the choice of time period for the investigation. A remarkable overall impression conveyed by the volume is that in respect of fundamentals relatively little changed in Westphalian peasant culture and even technology between the 1920s and the 1950s. It is remarkable in that the period covers radical regime changes, along with the disastrous aftermath of one world war and the impact and catastrophic (for Germany) outcome of another. A ‘feminization’ of farming occurred during the period, as wives increasingly replaced hired labour. Maids to care for children became scarcer. However, in terms of the basics the ‘norm’ continued to hold sway into the 1950s. The maintenance of the farm, including over generations, remained the central concern, especially in matters of marriage and inheritance. In the late 1950s the peasant wife had as little say in the operation of the holding as she had in the 1920s.

Peasant marriages continued overwhelmingly to occur relatively late in life and to involve locals, in spite of population displacement in the 1940s through conscription and deaths, as well as the influx of refugees from the Allied bombing campaign followed by those from the eastern territories. The arrangement might well hinge on the more or less precise acreage and soil quality of the farms involved. One marriage was thought inappropriate because the farm of the bride’s father was on sandy soil rather than the higher-yielding clay the groom was to inherit. The nature of the bride’s ‘trousseau’ was a matter of both private and public interest. The furniture a wife brought into a marriage was displayed at the wedding reception with the doors open for guests to inspect the contents. One wife’s ‘trousseau’ in the 1950s included a reaping machine.

Peasant marriages continued to be more fecund on average. In matters of inheritance the passing of real property into the hands of sons remained the norm. The endeavour of the Nazi regime to develop this further, through the Farm Inheritance Law of 1933, had a limited impact in practice. Under the law brothers of a deceased peasant and their sons were given a superior claim to a farm over the widow and where a son was not of age for the duration of his minority. This law, which continued in operation for some time after 1945, was generally nullified by the courts’ upholding pre-nuptial agreements to the contrary, as well as by general opposition among the peasantry.

Religion continued to play an important role in peasant life, in spite of the considerable Nazi effort to eradicate church influence, especially in Catholic areas. The sway of the rectory was reflected throughout the period in such vital statistics as the noticeably higher average size of Catholic families as compared with Protestant. Even with the influx of refugees from the east from 1945 inter-confessional marriage remained relatively infrequent. Even priest and pastor, however, had to bend to or merely bemoan peasant practices deemed necessary for sustaining the existence of the peasant farm.

Topics the author doesn’t explore include the seasonality of marriage and of conception and birth. Substantial space is devoted to the peasants’ reaction to Nazi persecution of the Jews, which was mostly one of indifference, whereas that to the equally and consistently persecuted gypsies is ignored. Nevertheless, the volume represents a very substantial contribution to knowledge of peasant life in the twentieth century.