‘Reichsbund Deutscher Kleingarten’: The Reich’s Organization of German Allotment Gardners

As the Schreber Clubs spread across Germany, 1870s Berlin saw an entirely different need for city dwellers to have gardens away from home. The industrial revolution brought a rapid growth of tenements to the city, causing “blue collar” families to build “Laubenkolonien” (summerhouse colonies) as ways to temporarily escape the appalling conditions of city life. At first, any vacant open spaces on the city’s edges were used as temporary gardens by workers before the city borders advanced and the lots fully utilized by their rightful owners. To stop these squatters and help legitimize small gardening, organizations such as the “Vaterlandischer Frauenverein” (Fatherland Women’s Society, affiliated with the Red Cross) purchased empty land and leased it back to families at a modest annual fee beginning in 1901. 

In addition to workers, many members of the German “white collar” classes and their families, wished to also escape the deplorable conditions of the city during their leisure times. As the children, plants and fruit trees were tended to in the small garden communities, so did the political atmospheres grow in each, perpetrated by those advocating either anarchist and communist ideals or hard-core conservative nationalists and monarchists.  

World War I brought allotment gardens into the forefront during the “Steckrubenwinter” (Turnip War) of 1916. From 1916 to 1917, poor yields on farms, the British naval blockade, and the necessity of supplying troops in the field caused a massive shortage of food, especially in the urban areas. In order to survive, families relied on the fruit and vegetables they grew to supplement what meager food they could obtain. With the end of the war, allotment gardens continued to remain popular as places to escape the tensions of the Weimar republic, plagued by paramilitary marches, violent street fighting and other partisan actions as Germany paused on the brink of political upheaval.  

When Adolf Hitler and the “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei” (NSDAP) came to power in 1933, the new government, not totally trusting the underlying political motivations in many of the allotment communities, sought to regulate the gardening organizations and bring them into the Nazi fold. In addition to the political leanings, the Great Depression of the 1930s had caused many Germans who experienced an economic downfall to move into their allotment “Schuppen” (huts). Since these structures were not intended for full-time living, the lack of sanitation, overcrowding and unsightliness caused many inhabitants to be evicted by the police and placed in jails or labor camps. Early enforcement of the racial guidelines later enacted as law in 1938 made it illegal for Jews and others deemed undesirable from the Nazis’ point of view to lease or inhabit allotment gardens, or even belong to the allotment organization.

In 1934, the Nazi government dissolved the network of regional allotment groups and formed the “Reichsbund Deutscher Kleingartner” (RDK - Reichs Organization of German Allotment Gardners). This new organization, under the leadership of Hans Kammler, a ruthless Nazi and later a “Schutzstaffel” (SS) officer, who would become instrumental in overseeing concentration/extermination camps construction and systems administration. Kammler promoted the Nazi ideals of “Blut und Boden” (Blood and Soil) which idealized the agrarian lifestyle of the past, self-sufficiency for Germans in time of need, the feeling of “Volksgemeinschaft” (Third Reich people’s community) and the strict adherence to racial and political views of the party. Members were instructed with speeches and demonstrations on political and racial dogma, the technical aspects of planting, care and the harvesting of crops, along with the rules governing the rented lots’ structures, layouts, upkeep and appearance. The benevolent nature of the NSDAP was promoted when tools, seeds or other supplies were distributed, free of charge or for a small sum to the members. As with all German public organizations in the Third Reich, total control and indoctrination were the hidden agendas.  Though actual membership roles have been lost to history, it is estimated that at its height, approximately 1.4 million members were part of the RDK organization.      

World War II amplified the importance of the RDK lots, and some of the contradictions seen in these gardening communities. Despite Hitler’s desire to maintain the pre-war civilian food supply during the conflict in order to keep the people’s morale high, increasing military needs and transportation issues (victims of the Allied bombing and encroachments) caused havoc in the food industry. During these shortages, loyal RDK members were instructed to grow food for the war effort on their small plots. With dwindling supplies and cities being destroyed, many other German families moved into their garden sheds, making them into provisional homes. At the same time, Nazi authorities hunted for the “undesirables”, such as Jews, communists, anti-Nazis and others who found refuge in the gardening hut communities, well hidden in the array of sheds and greenery which were difficult to monitor by the German police and their agents. 

Members in the RDK were issued a 1 1/16 x 11/16-inch oval pin that featured a closed winged silver eagle on a green background. The chest of the eagle supported a canted swastika, while on the pin border above its head was printed “Reichsbund” and below its feet, “Deutscher Kleingartner”. The green backgrounds were typically made of fine enamel on a pebbled surface, with the separate eagle attached to the solid base by two rivets. The pin and catch attaching device were surrounded by makers’ marks on both the top and bottom. Honor badges for the RDK followed the same basic oval and eagle design with the addition of base numbered wreaths surrounding the outer edges, indicating the years of service to the organization. A “Mitgliedskarte” (membership identification card) was issued to members that consisted of a simple rectangle cut from heavy tan stock with the owner’s name, address, date of entrance to the RDK, and the group number. The upper edge of the card contained a printed facsimile of the membership badge.

After Hitler’s regime lay in ashes, all Nazi associated groups within the decimated Third Reich were dissolved by the Allied forces. The post-war small garden plots became essential yet again as new political conflicts rose between the uneasy Allies of the east and west, along with the logistical issues caused by the war’s past destruction of Germany’s infrastructure, making food supplies in major cities dire. With the rebuilding of a democratic Germany, members of the former Nazi gardener’s association were allowed to join the new “Bundesverband der Kleingartenvereine Deutschlands e.V. (Federal Association of Allotment Garden Associations in German - BKD). As members of this group, they could continue to enjoy the peace, community and fruits from their labors that still flourish around many German cities to the present day.  

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