Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture

The Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture (German: Reichsministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft, abbreviated RMEL) was responsible for agricultural policy of Germany during the Weimar Republic from 1919 to 1933 and during the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945. It was under the office of the Secretary of State. On 1 January 1935, the ministry was merged with the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture, Domains and Forestry, founded in 1879. In 1938 it was renamed "Reich and Prussian Ministry of Food and Agriculture". After the end of National Socialism in 1945 and the occupation, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture was established in 1949 as a successor in the western Federal Republic of Germany.

Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture

Reichsministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft
The building of the Imperial Ministry of Food and Agriculture, at Wilhelmstrasse during the Nazi era. After the war was destroyed in the interior, the Palais was rebuilt in 1956 for reconstruction in 1960-62 by the East Berlin city council.
Agency overview
Formed	March 1919
Dissolved	8 May 1945
Jurisdiction	Nazi Germany
Minister responsible	See list

History

In March 1919, the Reichsernährungsamt was the first to establish the "Reich Ministry of Food". This was combined with the Reich Ministry of Economics in September 1919 and re-founded during the Kapp 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. From 1924, four large-format paintings by August Weber were on loan in the building, and since 1945 they have been lost.

After the Nazi's seized power on January 30, 1933, the ministry was initially led by Alfred Hugenberg. Coerced into resignation during June 1933, Hugenburg was succeeded by Kurt Schmitt and Walther Darré.[1] The latter took over on June 30, 1933 as "Reichsbauernführer" the management of the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture,[2] where he was in this function also created for the Gleichschaltung of agriculture Reichsnährstand. The Nazi Darré, took personal leadership of the official party apparatus belonging to the Agricultural Policy Office (from 1936 "Reich Office for Agrarian Policy", and then from 1942 "Reich Office for the country people"). The office was responsible for the management and supervision of the Reichsnährstandes.[3]

The RMEL, as it were, took over the state's supervision of the Reichsnährstand organization.[4] As a result, individual areas of responsibility were gradually transferred to other NS authorities. Thus, in 1934, by founding the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Reich Forestry Office under the leadership of Hermann Göring was established as the highest Reich authority for forestry and hunting, timber management, nature conservation and nature conservation.[5] The Reich Forestry was in turn united on January 1, 1935 with the Prussian State Forestry.[6] Goring's deputy and de facto head of German Forestry was Walter von Keudell, and then from 1937 Friedrich Alpers. Furthermore, in the years 1934 and 1935, the agricultural vocational and technical education were spun off into the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and Culture a directorate of the Reich Ministry of the Interior. On September 22, 1938, it also followed by decree of the Reich Minister, that all research institutes derived from the fishing industry would be collected in one Reich Institute for Fisheries.

Reich Minister

No.		Reichsminister	Took office	Left office	Time in office	Party	Cabinet
1		Robert Schmidt (1864–1943)	13 February 1919	26 March 1920	1 year, 42 days	SPD	Scheidemann Bauer
2		Andreas Hermes (1878–1964)	27 March 1920	10 March 1922	1 year, 348 days	Centre	Müller I Fehrenbach Wirth I Wirth II
3		Anton Fehr (1881–1954)	31 March 1922	21 November 1922	256 days	BB	Wirth II
4		Karl Müller (1884–1964)	22 November 1922	25 November 1922	4 days	Centre	Cuno
5		Hans Luther (1879–1962)	1 December 1922	4 October 1923	317 days	Independent	Cuno Stresemann I
6		Gerhard 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		Heinrich Haslinde (1881–1958)	20 January 1926	17 December 1926	331 days	Centre	Luther II Marx III
8		Martin Schiele (1870–1939)	28 January 1927	12 June 1928	1 year, 136 days	DNVP	Luther II Marx IV
9		Hermann 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 CNBL	Brüning I Brüning II
10		Magnus Freiherr von Braun (1878–1972)	1 June 1932	28 January 1933	241 days	DNVP	Papen Schleicher
11		Alfred Hugenberg (1865–1951)	30 January 1933	29 June 1933	150 days	DNVP	Hitler
12		Richard Walther Darré (1895–1953)	30 June 1933	23 May 1942	8 years, 327 days	NSDAP	Hitler
13		Herbert Backe (1896–1947)	23 May 1942	23 May 1945	3 years, 0 days	NSDAP	Hitler Goebbels Schwerin von Krosigk

State Secretary

Name	Appointed	End of Term	Political Party
Ludwig Huber[7]	1920	1922	Independent
Carl Heinrici	1922	1923	Independent
Fred Hagedorn	1923	1926	Independent
Erich Hoffmann	1926	1929	Independent
Hermann Heukamp	1929	1932	Independent
Fritz Mussehl	1932	1933	Independent
Hans Joachim von Rohr	1933	1933	DNVP
Herbert Backe	1933	1944	NSDAP
Werner Willikens	1934	1945	NSDAP
Hans-Joachim Riecke	1943	1945	NSDAP

References

1. Hans Kehrl: Krisenmanager im Dritten Reich.
2. Horst Gies: NSDAP und landwirtschaftliche Organisationen in der Endphase der Weimarer Republik.
3. Rudolf Kluge, Heinrich Krüger: Verfassung und Verwaltung im Großdeutschen Reich.
4. Horst Gies: Die Rolle des Reichsnährstandes im nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftssystem.
5. Joachim Tauber u. a.
6. Joachim Radkau u. a.
7. Laut Register der historischen Berliner Städtebau- und Baudenkmale im Stadtbezirk Mitte.