IN THE SERVICE OF STATE AND AGRICULTURE: THE AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION IN BAVARIA AND THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF STATE INACTION, 1871-1895 by MICHAEL FRANCIS HOWELL (Under the Direction of John H. Morrow, Jr.) ABSTRACT By evaluating the activities of the Agricultural Association in Bavaria from 1871 to 1895, one finds that the organization, which functioned in part as an arm of the Bavarian state bureaucracy, played an unsuspecting role in the politicization of that state‘s peasant classes. Specifically, because the Agricultural Association did very little to assist Bavaria‘s large population of peasant farmers during a time of significant economic difficulties, it inadvertently pushed this group to seek solutions to its problems through more overt political means. Granted, the Bavarian government, which was the Association‘s greatest patron, did not help the organization very much, with government leaders often ignoring the Association almost as much as they ignored Bavaria‘s agricultural sector. In light of the government‘s reticence, the Association did not however push the government to seriously address those economic issues that the peasantry increasingly faced after Germany‘s unification. Consequently, by doing almost nothing to help the peasantry for nearly two and a half decades, and by also remaining closely associated with a liberal cabinet and bureaucracy that was often seen as collaborating with the Prussian state, the Association unwittingly helped to keep alive within the peasantry a political awakening first experienced at the time of Germany‘s unification, and which awoke again with the apparent threat of economic ruin in the early 1890s. Similar developments in other parts of Germany suggest that these events were not isolated to Bavaria. Given that most of Germany‘s state governments worked together with similar agricultural associations, the example of the Agricultural Association in Bavaria suggests that the individual state bureaucracies of Imperial Germany played a crucial yet inadvertent role in the politicization of Germany‘s peasant agricultural producers at the end of the nineteenth century. INDEX WORDS: The Agricultural Association in Bavaria, the State, Imperial Germany, Agriculture, Peasantry, Bureaucracy. IN THE SERVICE OF STATE AND AGRICULTURE: THE AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION IN BAVARIA AND THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF STATE INACTION, 1871-1895 by MICHAEL FRANCIS HOWELL BA, Tulane University, 2002 MA, University of Georgia, 2008 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2013 © 2013 Michael Francis Howell All Rights Reserved IN THE SERVICE OF STATE AND AGRICULTURE: THE AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION IN BAVARIA AND THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF STATE INACTION, 1871-1895 by MICHAEL FRANCIS HOWELL Major Professor: John H. Morrow, Jr. Committee: David D. Roberts John P. Short Shane Hamilton Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2013 DEDICATION To my family on both sides of the ocean, and to my father above. iv PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There were many times over the course of writing this study that I was asked, ―How did you ever come across this topic?‖ In truth, it took me more than a few years to figure out how to answer that question. I first became interested in Bavaria while writing my master‘s thesis, which focused more on agricultural production and peasant identity. Far from having my interests sated, I took up my doctoral studies convinced that I would build upon this work. In a way, I have done that. However, the dissertation that I have produced is admittedly very far from what I thought I would write. While studying for my comprehensive exams, I became enthralled with histories of early modern Europe, world-systems studies, and Michael Mann‘s The Sources of Social Power, all of which tended to more centrally place the State within their narratives. At the same time, I was also very interested in what William Cronon had accomplished in his study of Chicago, Nature’s Metropolis, and how he successfully linked the growth of nineteenth-century Chicago to infrastructural developments that allowed for the city to feed off of the natural abundance of the greater Midwest. Combining these two interests, I was convinced that I could write a similar story about Bavaria, directly linking the growth of agricultural developments back to the rise of infrastructure, but also highlighting the role of the state in the process. In doing all of this, my goal was to provide a reevaluation of our current understanding of the State and its place in modern European history. However, after spending a year reading in the library of the University of Augsburg, I concluded that I could not write such a study without first understanding more about the ways in v which the Bavarian state directly attempted to encourage the development of agricultural production during the same period in question. This led me to the Agricultural Association in Bavaria, an organization which I had stumbled across before during my readings, but of which I actually knew very little. Digging further, I found that some work had been done on the Agricultural Association, notably by Stefanie Harrecker. However, only scant information was available for the period after unification. Increasingly, I felt that I could not proceed with a study of infrastructure and agriculture in Bavaria without knowing more about this Agricultural Association. After discovering how much material the Association had left behind, I decided to put my earlier concept on hold and focus all of my attention on the Agricultural Association. Placing this narrative within the context of agrarian politics as they played out in the 1890s, that is, as opposed to bringing the study up to 1914 as originally planned, was also only a later development, but one that I felt was appropriate. This is not to say that the Association and its activities up through the First World War do not merit further work. The holdings of the Haus der bayerischen Landwirtschaft (Center for Bavarian Agriculture), where most of the Agricultural Association‘s records are kept, are immense, and if anything, they absolutely deserve further investigation. That being said, the list of names and institutions that made this project possible is long. To begin, I would like to thank the German Historical Institute, Washington D.C., for covering my initial travel costs to Germany and for also providing me with much needed training in reading old German script. For assistance and support specific to my research on the Association, I am very much indebted to the Haus der bayerischen Landwirtschaft, and in particular, the assistance of Dr. Wulf Treiber, the director of the Haus, and also Dr. Tanja Kodisch-Kraft, the Haus‘ resident archivist. A special thank you is especially reserved for vi Katharina Höninger, the Haus‘ librarian, who not only graciously shared her workspace with me for weeks at a time, but also agreed to photocopy and scan documents on more than one occasion. Without the abundant cooperation of these three people, this study would not have been possible. In addition, I believe that the remainder of the Haus‘ staff also deserve special praise for their professionalism and their friendliness. I was made not to feel a stranger during my stays at the Haus, but rather as a coworker, a gesture that was unexpected but fruitfully appreciated. Further thanks are also extended to the library at the University of Augsburg, where I spent my first year in research, and also to the Johann Christian Senckenberg Library at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, whose interlibrary loan services were indispensable for acquiring the many antiquated texts on Bavarian agriculture that I needed while living in Frankfurt. A word of acknowledgement also goes out to the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, a library that may be difficult to navigate, but whose collection of digitized books is incredible. Though most of the publications they have placed online predate unification, that I was able to peruse even these without leaving my home office was incredibly helpful. Turning for a moment to the United States, I extend a hearty thank you to my Doktorvater, Professor John Morrow, who always and unfailingly supported my ideas, and even took the time to visit me once in Germany to make sure I was still alive and on track. Without his guidance and strong support, I would not have made it very far into this project. Alongside him, I also wish to thank Professor David Roberts for his many years of support, his patience, and the good conversations spent over many good lunches in Athens. A number of other faculty members at the University of Georgia also deserve mention, in particular, Professors Michael Winship, Steve Soper, Michael Kwass, Jake Short, and Shane Hamilton, all of whom wrote recommendation letters for me at some point, or patiently worked with me on draft proposals and vii papers. Lastly, I must also extend a word of thanks to Dr. Andreas Wirsching, the chair for Neuere und Neueste Geschichte at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, and also his colleagues at the University of Augsburg, Drs. Günther Kronenbitter and Stefan Grüner, for their collegial support and assistance during my year of work in Augsburg. For all of their help, I am very grateful. Finally, and now moving closer to home, I wish to thank Walter Krug and Brigitte Krug- Oberlader for their unquestioning support for my wife and I after we relocated to Germany. Without their love and faithfulness, much less their financial assistance, I would not have been able to write this study. For accepting me as one of their own and for sacrificing as they did, I am eternally grateful.