Die Diskussion um die „Zwangswirtschaft“ während des Ersten Weltkrieges und in der Nachkriegszeit

The issue of governed food economy in Germany during World War I has insufficiently been dealt with so far. During the first part of the article the numbers of the agricultural production from 1900 to 1918 will be analyzed and Germany’s dependence on agricultural imports will be pointed out. The second part deals with the highest prices’ policy and the accumulation of food that happened during 1914 and 1916 with no communication between the central and the peripheral authorities. In the third part the dynamics from 1916 to 1918 will be examined, which were a reaction to the incoherent politics between 1914 and 1916 and led to the introduction of a closed and centralized system of economy focused on the supply and distribution of food. At the same time the boundaries of the controlled economy will be looked at. One of them is the inability to fight back the prospering black market, just like the administration’s loss of authority during the enforcement of their enactments. However also the system’s advantages will be taken a look at, especially the renewed attention to the agriculture’s promotion. The last part deals with the debate about the controlled food economy which marked the time of truce up until June in 1920 when it was decided to give up the controlled economy bit by bit.