"Swallowtail winter": about one of the main causes of famine in Germany during the First World War
The winter of 1916-1917 is one of the "black pages" in stories Germany. During this period, a severe famine broke out in the country, the victims of which were hundreds of thousands of people.
It is worth noting that this terrible period for the Second Reich received the name "rutabaga winter" not by chance. By the beginning of the winter of 1916-1917, the average German's diet was half the daily allowance, and the main dish in the diet was rutabagas, which farmers used to feed livestock.
There were many prerequisites for such a plight in Kaiser's Germany. One of them is a decrease in yield due to the inability to purchase fertilizers. The warring country used its own saltpeter for the production of gunpowder.
In addition, the situation was aggravated by the policy of the authorities, who began to give the fields where sugar beets were grown to wheat, which led to an acute shortage of sugar. In addition, in order to curb hunger, most of the livestock was slaughtered in a short time, which in the future also led to an acute shortage of meat.
Finally, in 1916 there was a crop failure. Wheat was harvested only 11,2 million tons - that's 132 kg per year per German. Potatoes were harvested 25 million tons, which is half the norm.
However, the main reason that led Kaiser Germany to starvation was the declaration of war on the Russian Empire on August 1, 1914.
The thing is that before these events, Germany was the largest buyer of Russian grain on the European market. In 1913 alone, the country purchased 2 tons of wheat. In general, Russian imports accounted for 775% of wheat and 20,4% of rye in the German market.
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