„Stille Revolution auf dem Lande“? Formen und Wahrnehmungen des agrartechnischen Strukturwandels in den 1950/60er Jahren: das Pilotprojekt Brilon (Westfalen)

The mechanisation of German agriculture took place during the whole twentieth century. But from the 1950s onwards, it became possible to introduce mechanisation comprehensively on small and medium-sized farms. Though controversially discussed, state support programs enabled both the financing and procurement of capital-intensive technology. This article raises the question of how that development evolved and was perceived on the micro level. With regard to the implementation of the so called ‘Lübke-Plan’, 37 farm archives and the memories of eye-witnesses of the pilot project in Brilon (Westphalia) provide the basis for reconstructing the ‘official’ course as well as informal social processes. The findings illustrate that mechanisation significantly accelerated in the 1950/60s and entirely replaced animal power. According to interviews with those involved, occasional resistance to technological change was largely a generational phenomenon. Members of the younger generation, who took over farm management at that time, tend to remember the structural transformation as a blessing without alternative.