East German Collective Farms Endure

["Jay Moore" <research@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Friday, April 21 11:33 AM SGT
East German farm collectives still thrive
NEUZELLE, Germany, April 21 (AFP) -

Nearly half of the farmers of former East Germany are still working on
collective farms instituted by the former Communist regime.

The office of Hans-Dieter Wellkisch in this town close to the Polish border
has hardly changed since 10 years ago, with its Russian dolls, an engraving
in relief of the Kremlin, souvenirs of journeys to Moscow.

Only the portrait of Werner Lamberze, the founder of the collective and a
high dignitary of the East German Communist Party, has been removed from the
walls since the reunification of Germany in 1990.

At the time, Wellkisch held a meeting of the some 400 members of the
collective to decide if they wanted to stay. They all said 'yes' and voted
to retain Wellkisch as their manager.

At the time of collectivisation in 1960, "I had no desire to pool my land
with the others. I did, we were forced into it," said Wellkisch.

But after reunification, he and other farmers saw the advantages of
collectivisation.

"You can organise your time better. If you fall sick or want to go on
holiday, you can always find a stand-in.
Everyone is allocated to the sector he prefers. If you prefer livestock to
crops, we try to meet your preference," Wellkisch said.

Nearly half of former East German farmers opted to remain in the
cooperatives, the rest selling off their share, changing jobs or setting up
as independents on their land.

In some cases, former farmers who were dispossessed by the Nazis or the
Communists demanded that their land be returned, fragmenting the
cooperatives.

This did not ocur at Neuzelle, where the former land-owner was an abbey and
most of the monks have left.
In eastern Germany, farms are much larger than in the west of the country,
on average extending over 201 hectares (about 500 acres), compared with 29
in the west, according to an annual report by the ministry of agriculture.
The Neuzelle cooperative rules over 5,700 hectares.

But these large farms are not necessarily rich. Former East German farms did
not usually try to exceed the quotas imposed by the state and productivity
was not high.

In Neuzelle, only 160 members of the old collective out of 400 have
remained. "We fired nobody, but many people took early retirement", said
Wellkisch.

The work schedule has changed somewhat. In the past, a special team was
charged with bringing meals to the fields, prepared in the canteen. "We
can't afford that any more. Some administrative buildings dating from the
1970s were too large. Parts have been let out to an insurance company and to
the police," he said.

Wellkisch said he was not worried by the prospect of competition from
Poland, when it enters the European Union.

"It is true the Poles work for less than us, but I believe they will
progressively reach higher levels, as occurred when East Germany was
reunited with the west."