Photo:J. Behrens

Over 160 interested people attended the event at the beginning of July in the premises of the Topography of Terror Documentation Centre, where Dr. Jens Ebert, Dr. Susanne zur Nieden and Meggi Pieschel presented the results of their research. The scientific work entitled "The biodynamic movement and Demeter in the Nazi era. Demeter e. V., the Biodynamic Federation Demeter International and the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum - School of Spiritual Science. In addition to other foundations, SAGST also contributed to the funding.

The independent research team was able to draw on extensive sources: 10,000 pages from the Nazi surveillance apparatus as well as documents from more than 30 other archives and estates exist on the approximately 2,000 people who felt they belonged to the biodynamic environment during the National Socialist era. As the current publication shows, those responsible at the time accepted the conditions of the National Socialist regime when the "Biodynamic Reich Association" was founded in 1933 and excluded Jews from the association. In the following years, the movement was initially able to grow and institutional cooperation was established - not least under the protection of Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess, who was a supporter of the new, ecological way of farming.

The authors of the study examine ideological overlaps and forms of cooperation, but also address "serious differences between the biodynamic movement and the National Socialist movement as well as the various forms of resistance by supporters and functionaries", according to historian Prof. Dr. Daniela Münkel in her introduction. Against this backdrop, the association was dissolved by the Gestapo in the summer of 1941, but SS Reichsführer Himmler had six biodynamic experts recruited to take part in horticultural experiments in the Dachau concentration camp. After the end of the war, gardener Franz Lippert was the only person involved who had to undergo denazification proceedings; he was exonerated - like the majority of Germans.

In Berlin, Demeter board member Dr. Alexander Gerber expressly thanked the authors and the five-member scientific advisory board for their intensive and fruitful work: "As a biodynamic community, we are now able to talk at a scientific level, have differentiated answers and can also take a stand as an association," he emphasized. "As ideal descendants of the protagonists of that time, we take our responsibility seriously and distance ourselves from the active collaboration of some biodynamicists, especially their involvement in the SS agricultural institutions in concentration camps. We also condemn the attempted ingratiation with big names in the Nazi system and the exclusion of Jewish members from the Biodynamic Reich Association."

Jens Ebert, Susanne zur Nieden, Meggi Pieschel: The biodynamic movement and Demeter in the Nazi era. Players, connections, attitudes. Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2024.

Positioning against racism: Statement by Demeter e. V., the Biodynamic Federation Demeter International e.V. and the Goetheanum - Section for Agriculture