The Association of the German Farmers Associations was an umbrella organization of Christian farmers’ organizations which belongs to mostly the Catholic milieu. It united mainly small and medium farmers. The VdB was politically associated with the right wing of the
Centre Party. It was established as the "Association of Christian German Farmer Associations" on 24 November 1900, at a Conference in Frankfurt am Main, by representatives of the Baden, Bavaria, Alsace, Hesse, Nassau, Eastern and West Prussian, Rhenish, Silesian, Trier and Westphalian farmer associations. The member organizations, especially in the Catholic regions of Western and southern Germany, had been established in the 1880s and 1890s. In North and Eastern areas farmers were more frequently associated with the Agrarian League and the National
Agricultural League. The emergence of these farmer associations can be seen in the broader context of the history of political Catholicism and the Catholic associations of the 19th century. VdB was a sister organization of the
Bavarian People's Party (BVP) which had been established as a splinter of the Center Party in 1919. The Bavarian People's Party was a more politically oriented than the VdB. The VdB was closely intertwined with the cooperative movement. The
revolution of 1918 allowed the Christian Farmers Associations to recruit many new members and to attract new member organizations because farmers were enthusiastic about demands by the
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and the majority
Social Democratic Party of Germany for economic socialization as well as for the separation of Church and State in cultural and educational policy. At this time the VdB was able to recruit Protestant farmers’ association members. With the agricultural crisis in the second half of the 1920s came fierce controversies within the Association as conservative and Protestant member associations demand a stronger
Weimar Republic government and more cooperation with other, usually far more right-oriented, farmers’ associations. This led to splits and exclusions. The new President
Andreas Hermes, long time Minister of Agriculture and food for the
Centre Party (Germany) attempted to stop this development, but only partially succeeded. The Westphalian and Rhenish nobility demanded right oriented policy. In February 1929 the "Green Front" was formed by the Association of Christian German Farmers Associations, many of its member organizations, the National
Agricultural League, the German Agriculture Council (Deutsche Landwirtschafsrat) and the
German Farmers' Party (Deutsche Bauernshaft). This agricultural alliance supported state protectionist agriculture. Hermes, who resisted the Nazi claim to power in 1933, was arrested. His successor was ready to participate in the NS State. The National Socialist agricultural leader
Richard Walther Darré disbanded the Association of German Farmers Associations on 18 January 1934. The member associations had been disbanded the previous year. == President ==