more than 4 million acres of land were bought under cultivation between 1880 and 1900.
growth
farm machinery and chemicalfertilisers became cheaper and more widely available, enabling the enterprising to increase their yield.
growth
growth of towns and protection given to German grain-growers after 1879 created opportunities for more enterprising farmers to supply food to a growing domestic market.
growth
by the early 20th century, Germany was producing 40 million tonnes of potatoes per year, a tonne for every adult German.
growth
tariffs helped farmers by preventing cheap Russian and American grain imports from flooding the German market.
decline
the share of agriculture making up the GNP fell from 35-40% to 25%.
decline
the percentage of the population employed in agriculture fell from 50% in 1871 to 35% in 1907.
decline
many peasants abandoned agriculture and moved to the industrial towns.
decline
increasing numbers of landowners ran into financial difficulties and were forced to sell up or mortgagefarms.
'synthetic' foods (e.g. margarine, new processes (e.g. beer-making) and refrigeration (which allowed transatlantic meat imports)) all challenged traditional farming practices.
'germany was a world power when it came to trade and wealth'
distributed goods (e.g. chemicals, metal goods, machinery, textiles and coal) across Europe and penetrated the markets of north and SouthAmerica, Africa and Asia.
'germany was a world power when it came to trade and wealth'
by 1913, imperial German was one of the majortrading and exporting nations of the world.
'germany was a world power when it came to trade and wealth'
volume of imports and exports had grown four-fold between 1880 and 1913.