German World War I Food Program: Seizing Food in Occupied Countries


Figure 1.--

As the war proved to be very different than the Franco-Peussian War, agricultural production began to suffer. The primary problem was the concription of agicultural workers. But the shift of the ecomony to a war footing meant that needed inputs of fertilizer and farm machinery wee no longer available. Thus gricultural production declined at the same time Germany was cut off from needed imports. Germany was forced to ration the availavle food. The only other altrnative was to seize food in the countries the German Army occupied. This began in Belgium, another highly indistrialized country that was not self sufficent in food production. The German Army moved to seize the civilian food stocks within a few days of the drive into neutral Belgium. Disaster was prevented when America launched a major effort to feed the Belgians. OThis was possible because Belgium was located on the North Sea and it was possible to negotiate access with the Germans. Tragically this was not possible on the Eastern Front. There was no way of getting food to them. Negotiations over Belgium was difficult, for Eastern Europe it proved impossible. We do not yet have data on the food stocks the Germans seized in the East. We suspect that much of it went to feeding the eastern army. One report suggests that food was obtained from Romania when that country was dfeated (1917).








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Created: 12:12 AM 3/6/2018
Last updated: 12:12 AM 3/6/2018