Blood and Soil ideology

Reichsarbeitsdienst men sing as they march through a marble gateway engraved with swastikas. They carry shovels over their shoulders. The men are shown cutting down trees as the narrator states that they are erecting the festival hall for the Reichsbauerntag [Reich Farmer day] 1934. Richard Walther Darre, Reich Minister of Food and Agriculture, accompanied by men wearing civilian clothes and men in SS uniforms, inspects the progress of the construction. The next scene shows the celebration itself: the streets are hung with swastika banners; crowds; people parading in native (Pomeranian) costume. Soldiers ride down the street on horseback. Large numbers of SA men marching. Reichsbauernfueher Darre is introduced at a podium. He greets the crowd, which gives him three "Heils" in return. Darre says, "...das Deutsche Bauerntum nicht wieder Lust hat, unter die Gesetze des juedischen Spekulantentums zu gehen und eher bereit ist, mit Adolf Hitler unterzugehen, als sich noch einmal unter die Knute zu beugen." [German farmers are not inclined to again subject themselves to the laws of Jewish speculators, and prefer rather to go down with Adolf Hitler than to come once more under the Jewish yoke.] Two Hitler Youth play drums; they are standing beneath a seal bearing the symbol of the Reichsnaehrstand: an ear of corn and a sword, with a swastika in the background. A brief shot of people folk-dancing gives way to a drum and bugle performance by a group of black-uniformed Hitler Youth. Wilhelm Meinberg (Landesbauernfuehrer in Westphalia) speaks. Many uniformed men behind the podium and in the audience (according to the Cinematography of the Holocaust entry for this film, the attendees include Hanns Kerrl, Konstantin Hierl and Heinrich Himmler). More drumming by the Hitler Youth, then a speech by Herbert Backe (Staatsekretaer im Reichsernaerungsministerium). Yet more drumming, then Walther Darre speaks, against a background of large burning candles. He says that it is appropriate that the oath they are about to make is not made to the old laws but rather to the man who taught them to fight for the laws of blood (Gesetze des Blutes) and who leads in this fight, Adolf Hitler. The sound is not synched properly at some points. Shots of candles and the seal of the Reichsnaehrstandes as the voices of many men are heard reciting the oath of loyalty and bravery to Adolf Hitler. Scenes of farmers plowing, grain fields blowing in the breeze as the voices continue, "Wir brechen die Erde mit eiserner Klinge, dass Frucht sie bringe und Wohlstand werde. Ein neues Jahrtausend wollen wir ueberdauern. Die Schleusen der Zukunft oeffnen sich droben. Wir wollen es schaffen, das deutsche Jahrtausend!" [We break the earth with iron blades that bring the fruit and prosperity. We want to outlast the new millenium. The flood gates of the future open up. We want to create it, the German millenium!] Richard Walther Darre (1895-1953), who coined the term "Blut und Boden", attained the rank of Gruppenfuehrer and was at one time the head of the Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA). He was the Reichsbauernfuehrer from 1934 to 1942, but his admiration for agrarian and peasant life conflicted with the aims of Goering and other Nazi leaders, who stressed industrialization. He was banished for the rest of the war and sentenced to five years in prison at the Ministry Trial, one of the subsequent Nuremberg proceedings.