Though it is common to regard the German economy in the early twentieth century as a modern, dynamic, cutting-edge global competitor, in fact until the 1950s a substantial minority of the German population continued to eke out a living from the soil, under conditions, in many cases, of extraordinary backwardness.4 The census of 1933 counted no less than 9.342 million people as working in agriculture, almost 29 per cent of the total workforce.
