In this extreme situation, the Reich took the extraordinary step of announcing a subsidy for the self-built settlements of the unemployed and their families on the margins of Germany’s cities. Each settlement was to be provided with enough land for the families to secure a high degree of self-sufficiency in their food supply.60 The Reich would provide a subsidized loan of 2,500 Reichsmarks towards construction, the rest would come from the self-help of the settlers themselves.
