University of Northern Iowa UNI ScholarWorks Dissertations and Theses @ UNI Student Work 5-2020 Richard Walther Darré, National Socialism, and Bauernpolitik Andrew P. Harnois University of Northern Iowa Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy Copyright ©2020 Andrew P. Harnois Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd Part of the Agriculture Commons, and the European History Commons Recommended Citation Harnois, Andrew P., "Richard Walther Darré, National Socialism, and Bauernpolitik" (2020). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 1017. https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/1017 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses @ UNI by an authorized administrator of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Copyright by ANDREW HARNOIS 2020 All Rights Reserved RICHARD WALTHER DARRÉ, NATIONAL SOCIALISM, AND BAUERNPOLITIK An Abstract of a Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Andrew P. Harnois University of Northern Iowa May 2020 ABSTRACT Richard Walther Darré joined the National Socialist German Workers Party in 1930 at the behest of Adolf Hitler and was Germany’s Reichsminister of Agriculture from 1933 to 1942. Darré was recruited by Hitler because of his Blood and Soil ideology. This ideology was peasant-centric and argued that the German peasant embodied the ideal racial form and pushed for a rebirth of German agriculture. This thesis examines the career of Richard Walther Darré and focuses on two questions: first, what role did Darré’s Blood and Soil ideology play in his rise and removal from power; and, second, does Darré’s fall from power inform us about any policies Hitler and NSDAP might have had about official’s removal from power? I argue that Darré’s Blood and Soil ideology was responsible for both his rise and fall from power.