Established 1999

POLISH AGRICULTURE

25 kwiecień 2008

Poles and land

Poles are decidedly against the sale of land to foreigners in surveys. The reasons behind this are not only economic, but also originate in historic knowledge passed from generation to generation and love for the land of Polish literary and poetic classics. The patriotic hymn written by Maria Konopnicka (1842-1910), which has become the second most frequently sung national hymn today begins with the words „We shall not abandon the land.” The great poet Cyprian Kamil Norwid (1821-1883) taught Poles that „The fatherland is land and graves.”









LUDWIK STASZYŃSKI



One of the issues which has and continues to provoke many emotions in Poland is the sale of land to foreigners. However, this is not only a problem in Poland. Despite formal freedoms in the turnover of land, a number of countries in Europe and beyond protect access to their agricultural land, setting up various requirements and difficult conditions for ownership, that in practice severely limit foreigners’ access to agricultural tracts. Poland has also moved in this direction, modeled on some state in the EU. Irrespective of the transition periods agreed upon in the EU accession treaty, which postpone access to land by foreigners for some years, a host of legal barriers were introduced in Poland in 2003 for the farmer who is interested in the purchase of land. New regulations reveal a preference for adjoining land turnover (pre-emption). These regulations are designed to prevent land speculation or fragmentation as well as the sale of agricultural land to those lacking the proper qualifications.









Unbelievably cheap


Economic conditions do not favor land resources in the Polish economy in accordance with the national interest. Thanks to a slump in agriculture, land in Poland is laughably cheap. The average price of one hectare of agricultural land in 2001 amounted to 1,420 euro (or $1,271). In 2002 that price fell even further to an average of 1,310 euro for one hectare. Land prices, considered to be stable since 1995, almost never change. The prices quoted are average figures. The prices of quality land are roughly 30 to 50 percent higher, while lower quality plots are 40 to 50 percent lower than the average. A farmer from the former 15 EU countries could purchase one hectare of agricultural land in Western or Northern Poland, or, for example, in the Sub Carpathian region with a direct payment obtained annually from Union funds from one hectare of his own land! This example confirms the opinion concerning low land prices in Poland and meaningfully indicates the need to defend against its sale to foreigners at such rock bottom prices. Cheap land prices in Poland are so attractive that they lead to a number of deceitful practices – the establishment of fictional companies with mixed capital, fictional marriages, fictional wills and other ways of skirting the regulations in force.


Another economic factor that exerts a negative influence on the distribution of agricultural land resources are the poor incomes of Polish farmers. Internal turnover of agricultural land would be greater and its price higher if the economic situation improved and incomes increased. Most farmers have too little money to increase their farms, not to mention purchase land in the former EU-15, where land is much more expensive.


German statistics in 2003 show that the average price of one hectare of agricultural land in Germany in 2001 was 9,447 euro; 17,246 euro in the former West Germany and 3,811 euro in former East Germany. In some regions of Germany, the price of quality land is much higher than the average and exceeds as much as 20 to 30 thousand euro per hectare.


It should come as no surprise then that there are transitional periods applied to the purchase of land by foreigners in Poland as well as numerous requirements in place for future potential buyers. To resign from these transition periods and other barriers and regulations would be unfair in comparison with other, more wealthy EU countries and harmful for the Polish economy. It will be possible to life these limitations and transitional periods when the price of land in Poland and other EU countries level out and when Polish farmers can afford to purchase land and farms, for example, in Germany, Austria or France…









Memory lives forever


Limitations in the sale of land to foreigners and the subjugation of this type of transaction under state control operated until recently in Poland on the basis of a law from 1920, passed several months after Poland regained its independence. At the source of this rigorous law were the dramatic and painful experiences of Poland during 123 years of captivity. One of the main elements of brutal germanization, russification and ruthless action against all expressions and aftermaths of the Polish fight for freedom became the partition of Polish land. Pre-partition Poland included 733.5 thousand sq km in 1770 during the rule of King Stanisław August Poniatowski. In 1939 before the Nazi and Soviet invasions, Poland lands were nearly halved at 389.7 thousand sq km. After 1945 those lands were reduced again – to 312.7 thousand sq km.


The partitioning states introduced regulations enabling colonization of Polish lands. A Prussian law of this kind from 1886 called the Settlement Commission into existence, which disposed of large funds earmarked for the purchase of Polish property and settlement of German colonists. In 1894 an aggressive anti-Polish association in support of the German fatherland was established (Ostmarkenverein, hakata). In 1904 the Prussian parliament passed a law forbidding Poles from creating new farms by division or even the erection of housing. In 1907, in another piece of legislation, the Prussian parliament authorized the government to accept Polish land in the process of expropriation. News of Wojciech Drzymała, a peasant from Wielkopolska who was refused permission to build a house and lived with his family in a circus tent, swept through all of Europe. The tent was moved from place to place within the confines of his property. He did not back down despite much persecution and being thrown into jail. Drzymała became a national hero. In 1928 he received a large agricultural plot as a gift from the state.


The acquisition of land through inheritance or testament succession by Poles was also forbidden in the Russian partition. Special high taxes were enforced for Polish land owners and russification was carried out with the help of Russian colonization. Participants in the national uprisings were sentenced to Siberian ordeals and their property was confiscated.


After their attack on Poland in September 1939, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia divided their spoils in half. Germany attached a significant chunk of these lands (92.2 thousand sq km) to the Third Reich. At that time Germany absorbed Śląsk, Wielkopolska, Pomerania and even part of Mazowia. These territories contained a population of 10.5 million, including 9.2 Poles, 622 thousand Germans and 550 thousand Jews. Poles were completely expropriated of their land, real estate, moveable and even personal possessions. The occupants assigned the Poles slave labor. A significant part (approx. 2.5 million) were relocated to the newly-created mini-state, called the General Government, and channeled into mass extermination camps.


The total expropriation of land and real estate also applied to the Polish population in the Soviet occupation zone, within which about 5.2 million Poles lived. They were subjected to brutal, mass deportations into the heart of Russia. During the Second World War, a total of 1.6 million Polish citizens lived on the pre-war territory of the USSR. A great majority of those deported never returned to their families. Farming collectives were established on the land taken from Poles. Part of the Polish population which avoided deportation was relocated after 1945 to the Western regions of Śląsk, Wielkopolska, Pomerania and northern Mazowia (Warmia and Mazuria), granted to Poland on the basis of decisions made by the superpowers. These territories (approx. 114 thousand. km²) were inhabited before WWII by 1.5 million Poles. Today around 10 million Poles, the majority born in these regions, live in the same area.


We shall not abandon the land


Poles are decidedly against the sale of land to foreigners in surveys. The reasons behind this are not only economic, but also originate in historic knowledge passed from generation to generation and love for the land of Polish literary and poetic classics. The patriotic hymn written by Maria Konopnicka (1842-1910), which has become the second most frequently sung national hymn today begins with the words “We shall not abandon the land.” The great poet Cyprian Kamil Norwid (1821-1883) taught Poles that “The fatherland is land and graves.” Konopnicka in verses expressing the great nonmaterial values of land for Poles, put the following words in the mouths of the Polish farmer: “You are rich, German, and your pocket is deep, but for this land, you are still too poor”….



















 



 

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