Völkischer Produktivismus. Nationalsozialismus und Agrarmodernisierung im Reichsgau Niederdonau 1938-1945

The article challenges the conventional wisdom that the Nazi era in Austria was an interlude or even a step back in agricultural development. Building upon a comprehensive body of sources and mixed methods, the study outlines the contours of a project directed towards an alternative modernity beyond liberalism and socialism: on the one hand, the peasantry as a backbone of the German race should be strengthened; on the other hand, farm productivity should be raised according to national autarky. The project of racial productivism – the creation of a both racially and technically productive peasant – was realized at different levels: at the technical level, state-supported pioneer farms managed to raise productivity, while the overwhelming majority of farmers tended to extensification due to lack of resources. At the institutional level, the interventionist state established itself as central regulator of the agricultural sector. Although the “great leap” failed, several small steps were taken along the productivist transition of Austria’s agrosystem – with multiple effects on the postwar development.