October 3 Lower Saxony

Oct. 3

 Garrick, Paul, Raquel, Wiebka, Jorn, Robert

We were picked up by Jorn Dwehus and his daughter Wiebka (20).  They took us to tour a dairy, hog, and crop farm.  They have a couple hundred sows and about 60 milk cows.  They also farm and custom combine.  They talked about the challenges of trying to help their three boys come back to the farm.  They would like to start raising chickens but are having difficulty getting the proper government permits.  Energy production is a big issue with German agriculture.  This farm, like many other farms in Germany, has solar panels, wind mills, and a bio fuels plant.  Environmental issue are a major expense.  For example, silage must be stored on an asphalt surface and all run off contained.  Rules regarding manure are also very strict.  German farms seem to be very highly subsidized especially when it comes to energy production.

All the farms I have seen are very clean and well maintained, often the walkways are cobble stone.  Most of the buildings, both new and old, are brick.  They seem to take great pride in the look and appearance of their farms.  I'm sure public opinion plays some roll in this as most homes and cities are very clean and well kept also.  Many of the buildings are very old, but the construction is very good.  Most of the construction, even new construction, is wood and brick.

They were very gracious and fed us a good meal of green cabbage, potatoes, and all the pork we could eat.  Everywhere we go we are fed very well. If not a full meal, we at least get coffee and cake.  In almost five days I have not had to buy a meal, and have never been hungry.

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Next we traveled to a small direct-market farm.  They raise chickens, ducks, free range geese, and a few beef cows (16).  They also raise vegetables and produce to sell directly from their farm and local farmers markets.  (RWG Osthannover) This is a small diverse farm targeting the local market.  They have  no desire to grow larger and enjoy dealing directly with the customer.  Government regulation is a major issue, because they are inspected frequently and required to meet the same standards as the large farms.  One challenge they have is limited storage space for the consumer; meat must be sold in small quantities.  Demand for their products is strong, and most of the products they sell at the store on the farm are raised, processed, and packaged on the farm.  They also sell a small amount of products from other local farms.  They love to bring the public in to see the farm. Last week they had pumpkin day, and let visitors taste different recipes and see the farm.  1000 people visited.  They gave us hot elderberry juice and some cookies.

Robert's family is from the area (Oldenburg), and he wanted to see some of the town and area he had been told about as a child.  Jorn knew an older lady who met with us and showed us the old Lutheran church, 770 years old.  She and Robert talked for a long time about his ancestors.  She insisted that we have coffee and a sweet bread she had made, very good.  After leaving there, we were not hungry for the rest of the night.  We asked her about the her memories of the war.  In the final month of the war there was a battle that took place in her town where 500 German and 300 Canadian troops were killed.  When the allied forces came through they killed all the livestock and most of the city was burned, including her home (she was about 20 at the time).  Her family was left with just a few possessions that they had intentionally hide outside the home in case the home was destroyed.  They also found 10 baby pigs that survived in the field.  We later found out that her true love had been killed in the war and she had never married

On the ride back, Wiebka told us about her perspective of the war from the German side.  She had taken a history class at the University of Nebraska and thought that they got much of the story wrong.  Many of the German people were against Hitler and tried unsuccessfully to raise up against the Nazis.  She feels like the German people are often blamed for the war when there were many events that led up to the war that we forget to talk about.  It was a terrible time in history.  I came away from today with a new perspective, able to put a face on the human suffering and effects of the war.  There were good people on both sides caught in the middle of a terrible thing.  Very interesting to get to know personally the people of Germany, and I'm grateful for Jorn and his family for letting us have this experience.