AFFAIRS OF THE PEASANT PARTY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A002100180009-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Sequence Number: 9
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2006/11/04: CIA-RDP80-0081OA002100180009-9 FL D 120'4
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
SECRET
SECURITY INFORMATION
COUNTRY East Germany
SUBJECT Affairs of the Peasant Party
This Document contains information affecting the No-
tional Defense of the United States, within the mean-
ing of Title 18, Sections 793 and 794, of the U.S. Code, as
amended. Its transmission or revelation of its contents
to or receipt by an unauthorized person is prohibited
by law. The reproduction of this form it prohibited.
25X1
REPORT NO. F
DATE DISTR. It .ugizst 1953
NO. OF PAGES 2 25X1
1. When Have Reichelt, formerly chief of the organization department of the
Democi'atic'Peasant Party (DBD), was appointed Minister of Agriculture and
$arestry, he was succeeded in his party job by ' DietrichBeeler (or Besiler).
The latter was trained in the Soviet anion, and upon hia;return was a
member of the SED. He was agsigned to the DBD and functioned as its chief
for organization under the state committee for Brandenburg; later he, was.
-istr of Agriculture of Brandenburg. He is said to have no contact with
farmers .
2. R.iohelt., ' up to the 'middle of May 3.953, was Minister only in name; the work
of that Ministry was still being conducted by the former Minister Paul Scholz,,
ostensibly for the purpose of training Reiohelt
3. A..new2rprominent person in, Dll' affairs is one Merke, formerly business
manager of the state organization for Saxony Anhalt. He was the son of a
landowner in last Prussia, who was a lieutenant during the war, was trained
in the U.S.S.R., and was assigned to the DBD by the SED. As a "new farmer"'
in Kreis Delitzsoh, $ f'ot ad in 1951 the first collective farm (IGF) in
Saxony-Anhalt. He,. a now deputy president of the Ieipzig Dietrict Council.
4. The general secretaryof the party, Berthold Rose, is seriously ill, and is
in a sanatorium in control. Germary. He is a friend of Wilhelm Sohr6der,,
formerly Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in Thwingia, who was recently
removed from office, supposedly on account of ill health. Rose was rebuked
by the Central Committee of the SED because no prows had been made, in the
reeducation of the peasantry; and it has been pad to dismiss the chief of
the training.departmsnt, (Eduard or Hans) von Sehnitzler..
5. In Nbiy 1953 only 50% of the membership contributions were collected by the
DBD. This is the lowest figure since 1950. At the same time, the circulation
of the party3s.paper Bauern-Echo has doolined considerably.
SECRET
Approved For Release 2006/11/04: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA002100180009-9
 Approved For Release 2006/11/04: CIA-RDP80-0081OA002100180009-9
It is reported that the DBD is to be dissolved at the end of the current
tj.ssal year, and that all its members will be taken into the Si) Swithout
further examination.
7. Source asserts that there are now 1+,800 collective farms in the Russian
son*,, and that their membership includes 32% of all peasants with a holding
of lose than 15 hectares.
Approved For Release 2006/11/04: CIA-RDP80-0081OA002100180009-9