FORESTS AND EMPLOYMENT IN GERMANY 19 



EMPLOYMENT POLICIES IN PRUSSIA 



In 1934 the head of the Prussian Government issued instructions 

 to the forest supervisors (Forstmeister) regarding employment of 

 laborers {20, v. 16, p. 54-8). So far as practical, they are required to 

 give winter work to small landowners and seasonal workers who can- 

 not make enough to live on from other sources. Forest work that 

 can be done in winter and deep snow is to be deferred until winter. 

 Work suitable for unskilled laborers should be reserved for them, as 

 they cannot be used for timber cutting. Young single workers are to 

 be laid off in the summer so that they will work on farms, and per- 

 manent workers are also to be put at the disposal of farmers during 

 the planting and harvest seasons. (There has been a shortage of 

 farm labor in some parts of Prussia.) Workers who are economically 

 independent by reason of an income from their farms or from other 

 sources are to be discharged. In districts with too many experienced 

 woodcutters, hours are to be shortened so that all may work; where 

 there are too few skilled workers, the policy is to train local farmers 

 or artisans who are likely to be available for several years. Young 

 men are to be taken on for training only after having served in the 

 Labor Service (such service was voluntary in 1934). In employing 

 new workers, preference is to be given to married persons with several 

 children and, other things being equal, to members of the National 

 Socialist Party organizations and war veterans. The local labor 

 office is to be consulted in employing or discharging workers. 



The migratory lumberjack as known in the United States is rarely 

 found in Germany today. 6 Where workers are unevenly distributed, 

 as in the Harz Mountains, it is not possible for all of them to live at 

 home during the logging season. It is generally the policy to give the 

 work nearest home to married men with families, and to send the 

 younger, unmarried men to the more distant jobs, where they live 

 in camps. In special cases, as where fires, windstorms, or insect 

 epidemics necessitate quick cutting of abnormally large quantities of 

 timber, large numbers of laborers have to be brought from a distance. 

 In the Rominten forest of East Prussia, for example, 500 men were 

 brought from other East Prussian forests to cut 200,000 cubic meters 

 of defoliated spruce in one district. 



As in Baden, some of the communes in western Prussia have been 

 in the habit of letting logging in their forests to low bidders. In 1933 

 they were ordered to give up this practice and instead, to select 

 reliable foremen and hire workers at a reasonable fixed wage. Pref- 

 erence is to be given to unemployed persons with dependents and not 

 enough land to support them without supplementary work. Other 

 conditions being equal, war veterans (Frontkampfer) and members 

 of the party units are to be given the preference. Lists of eligible 

 laborers are made up by the head of the commune and the local 

 leader of agricultural workers, and checked by party officials to insure 

 that they are of approved racial origin and political views. Enough 

 experienced wood cutters must be employed to insure that the work 

 is well done (1, v. 15, p. 639). 



6 The practice of hiring woods crews of migratory German and foreign laborers in some forest districts 

 grew up after 1900, owing to shortage of local workers. Such crews were usually hired through a contractor. 

 The practice has been discontinued except in case of emergencies (33) . 



