Planet Money - The great German land lottery

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

Every ten years, a group of German farmers gather in the communal farm fields of the Osing for the Osingverlosung, a ritual dating back centuries. Osing refers to the area. And verlosung means "lottery," as in a land lottery. All of the land in this communal land is randomly reassigned to farmers who commit to farming it for the next decade.Hundreds of years ago, a community in Germany came up with their own, unique solution for how to best allocate scarce resources. For this community, the lottery is a way to try and make the system of land allotment more fair and avoid conflict.Today on the show, we go to the lottery and follow along as every farmer has a shot at getting the perfect piece of land — or the absolute worst piece of land! And we see what we can learn from this living, medieval tradition that tries to balance fairness and efficiency.This episode was hosted by Erika Beras and Emma Peaslee. It was produced by Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Jess Jiang. Reporting help from Sofia Shchukina. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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That's donate.npr.org. Okay, here's the show. Before we get started, this episode includes some swearing once in English, but some in the German dialect called Franconian. This is Planet Money from NPR. Today is a day that Friedrich Neuser has been waiting for for the past 10 years. Good morning. How are you doing, Friedrich?

Good morning. Have you a How are you doing, Fredrik? Good morning. Good morning. Have you a good night? Yes, yeah. Okay. We're meeting him and his family in rural Germany, in the middle of miles and miles of farm fields. This is your sister.

Ah, very nice to meet you. I'm Erika. From America. Erika from America. Fredrik loves a joke and is relentlessly positive. He's this tall, lanky potato farmer in his 60s. For the last 10 years, Friedrich has planted, harvested, and cared for nine specific plots of land here in Germany, specifically in this area called the Ossing.

The Ossing is collectively owned by a group of 141 farmers. But after today, the plots he's farmed and cared for will no longer be his. He'll trade them in for new plots through a lottery, a land lottery. Every 10 years for the last 500 years, so since the 1500s, the people in this community hold a lottery where farmers randomly get assigned plots of land

that they will farm for the next 10 years of their lives. It's like farmland musical chairs. So at today's lottery, the map of all this land is gonna be wiped clean. Friedrich and all the farmers here, their economic fates will be decided by pulling names out of a bag. The lottery is about to kick off soon.

It takes place on hundreds of acres of grain, corn, potato fields, fields that will be up for grabs today. The opening ceremony starts inside a big tent. We settle in at a table with Friedrich. I hope Fortuna is good to me. Friedrich is talking about Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fortune, and he hopes today she

helps him out. He says the first thing he wants is at least two pieces of good land. A good field would be to get two pieces of land, two hectares of sandy soil, to work it out and to grow potatoes. He says he wants sandy soil because that's what's best for growing potatoes. And the second thing he wants is not too much bad land. Friedrich has nine plots of land, which means he will get nine new plots of land. But not every plot is suited for potatoes.

Some land is really bad for growing potatoes. It's too swampy or the soil is too dense. And every plot that's not ripe for potatoes will cost him. I think it's beginning. The master of ceremonies steps to the microphone for the start of the Ossing Ferloson. That translates to the Ossing Land Lottery. Yes, the Ossing welcomes you, dear guests.

He says the Ossing Land Lottery greets you, dear guests. Friedrich is starting to look kind of nervous. Yes, the tension is rising. The tension is there. Yeah, I see you. Everybody looks a little happy, but also a little nervous right now. The adrenaline is... Friedrich says his adrenaline is going up, up, up. Everybody looks a little happy but also a little nervous right now. Adrenaline is ch-ch-ch-ch-ch.

Friedrich says his adrenaline is going up, up, up. As he says this, his hand goes up like a roller coaster climbing. I raise my microphone as if I'm making a toast. All right. Let there be good land. For good land. Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Erika Barris, and I'm Emma Peasley. In many ways, economics is about the best way a society could allocate their scarce resources. Hundreds of years ago, a community in Germany came up with their own

unique solution to that question. Today on the show, we follow along as every farmer has a shot at the perfect piece of land, or the absolute worst piece of land. And we see what we can learn from this living medieval tradition that tries to balance fairness and efficiency. So why does Osing have this unusual lottery system? Well, we asked a bunch of people and they all said we need to talk to George Rudolph. George tells us he was a farmer, but today his main gig is being the Ossing historian.

And the history of this land lottery all starts with, what else? A classic German fairy tale. The story begins a thousand years ago. When an empress, Empress Guni-Gunde, was on a hunting trip here in this area, she got lost. Back then, this land was all forest,

and there were four villages at the edge of the forest, to the north, south, east, and west. So Empress Gunekunde was lost in the woods, and she couldn't find her way out. Until she heard bells from the churches coming from the communities at the corners of the forest. She found her way out and she was so grateful. She gifted the forest land to the people of these four villages. And that forest land became the Olsing. It became the Olsing farmland.

Okay, so parts of this fairy tale are probably not true. Like, these churches did not have bells a thousand years ago, but everyone agrees the empress gave them the land. And while giving them the land was nice, it also created a problem. A problem that would eventually lead to the Ossing lottery. Because the four villages had to share that farmland. Now, communal farmland, it was not such a novel idea, especially around this time in Europe. Lots of places communally

farmed land. But what the people of the Ossing did next was kind of novel. So they had some fight or some trouble with each other because they said, okay, you get better farmland than we and so on. This is Markus Hoffman. He's an interpreter who helped us out. He's from this area and he knows this story well. And he says, you see, the people here fought over the lands with the better soil. They fought over how much land they were getting. It was not a war.

It was just a fight, a verbal fight. They don't kill each other. So it was just squabbling. Yeah. And your land is better than my land. Maybe they punch each other. But it was not a war. It was not a war. OK, so punching, but not a war.

All over who got better land. Some parts were hilly, hard to get to. Some soil was better because it was fertile and you could grow almost anything on it. The worst soil was rocky and full of pebbles. So this is why in the 1500s the villages came up with a novel system to distribute the land. Elsewhere in Europe, communities were turning communal land into plots people owned individually. Here in the Osink though, they came up with their own version of

land ownership. They said okay we have to do it in a fair way for all the people from all four villages. So the villages created the land lottery. Basically, the Olsing would be divided among the people of the four villages. The farmers would randomly be assigned plots. The good ones, the bad ones. Now, some people would be luckier than others. That happens. So there's another part of the lottery. You only got to keep your land for 10 years.

So after 10 years, the names went back in the bag and there was a new drawing. It meant no one would be stuck with a bad plot forever. Another lottery, another chance. And this is the reason why we have the raffle every 10 years. So in one year, you are lucky. You get better land. Or in the next time, you are not so lucky. You get more worse.

The oasing doesn't belong to anybody. It actually belongs to everybody. And while we don't do a lot of things today, the way we did in the 1500s, for good reason, this land lottery has not changed at all. Every 10 years, in a year that ends in 4, right after the harvest, the people here have held a lottery. No matter what. In 1984, the year it rained the day before the lottery and the fields were muddy, they did the lottery. Even in 1944, during World War II, when bombers flew overhead, they still did the lottery. And today in 2024, it's sunny, a little windy,

and people are milling around, mostly dressed in jeans and hiking boots. But there's also a man dressed in lederhosen and a woman in a red velvet dress with puffy sleeves and a crown. Is that the Empress? Pune kunde is coming. When the lottery begins, hundreds of people spill out of the tent and onto a gravel path.

All the people are moving at the same time. Yeah, so it's a traffic jam. Yeah, it's a traffic jam. The first thing to know about this lottery is that it involves a lot of walking. They really walk at a brisk pace. All right, I guess we should walk a little faster. No, there are a lot of people behind us. They won't start until we all get there? Yeah, absolutely.

Friedrich, the potato farmer, is moving fast. He has real dad at the airport energy. He's walking with a purpose, and we initially lose him in the crowd. Oh, there he is. Hello again. Hello again. We're going to walk plot to plot

and watch as they randomly draw winners at each one. In total, the group will walk to about 600 plots. It's a long walk. It's a long walk? I hope I wore the right shoes. We never walk alone. We get to our first plot with Friedrich and his son Veit, who's taking over the farm. Veit has all the stakes with their name. They have nine stakes for nine plots of land.

Some farmers have dozens of stakes, others just a few. The master of ceremonies stands in the middle of the crowd with a bag that has the names of all the farmers in it. Friedrich has a blank map of the Olsing, ready to be filled in if they call his name. We check out this first plot. How is this land? Is this good or is this bad? No, everything is good land here. This would be good? Yeah, it's good.

What is so good about this land here? Now it's the same ground, it's sandy, no stone, small stone. Some of the best plots are at the beginning of the lottery. This first plot would be good for any crop, but it would be especially good for potatoes. So Friedrich really wants his name to be called. A kid from the community reaches their hand into the bag, pulls out a slip of paper.

The name of the winner trickles through the crowd. Tony! The name they call is Tony, not Friedrich. Tony gets this plot. There's some celebration as the new landowner makes their way to the center of the crowd and hammers a stake in the ground. And then we start moving to the next plot.

Each plot is a little different. Varying sizes, different soil quality, and that adrenaline Friedrich felt earlier? It's stronger. Because the land at the beginning of the lottery is some of the best, it's fertile, workable. He really wants his name to get called. Oh, here we go. Here's another one. See what happens now.

Mittenmaier Claudia. Again, not him. For real, here's another one. See what happens now. Middenmayer Claudia. Again? Not him. After an hour, two miles of walking, and a dozen more names being called. Not you again? No, my name. Friedrich has watched as a lot of his neighbors get good land.

No, my name. No, no. Fortuna is not good to me. Fortuna is sleeping. What's going on? Are you sure your name is in the bag? Are you sure your name is in there? This is Friedrich's fourth lottery.

When his son was little, he was one of the children who pulled the names out of the bag. Kids love to do it because the farmers whose names they pull tip them. Today, his eight-year-old neighbor, Obie, is one of those kids getting handfuls of euros. I got a 30 again. Now I have a 90.

You have a 90? Yeah. So you've read three times? Yeah. After two hours, the lottery is starting to get stressful. Because the good fields get doled out in the beginning, Friedrich is missing out. And he's worried they'll run out of the good land.

As the day stretches on, we start to notice all the ways that it feels like we are not in the year 2024. This whole lottery seems really inefficient. For example, they walk plot to plot, and they measure all the plots by hand, using a tool that predates the metric system. The tool is called a Gert. It's basically a giant wooden ruler with an incremental measurement called a shoe.

That's German for shoe. And it's based on an actual person's shoe size. The people here though say, all this ceremony is because of fairness. Riedrich says the most important thing is fairness. And Markus says that's why the lottery has stuck around. It's still the main reason why we do this lottery stuff. If we do it only from the commercial point of view, I'm pretty sure they would stop it. And would say, okay, one time we sell all the land and who have the most money, he can buy the best areas. But the main purpose of the lottery is fairness for everybody.

And this is key to what makes this system work, that people believe it's fair. The things we're seeing, like measuring the land by hand using an ancient tool, walking plot to plot, and watching each name drawn out of a bag. These are symbols of the system's fairness. And because people believe this is all fair, they're willing to accept the outcome of the lottery. The ritualization helps people accept their fate.

And if any of that were to change, you might lose what makes this so special. They're willing to give up some efficiency for more fairness. But still, people are getting impatient, like eight-year-old Obie, who is waiting to pull names from the bag. I do it fast so everyone can go on, go on, go on. Like, oh, the kids are, like, staying on, go on, go on.

Like all the kids are like staying there for like 30 minutes. And the kids are wiggling their whole hand in the bag, trying to pick it out, opening it, then struggling to like eh, eh, they can't even read. Can you read the names? Sort of. Three hours in and a few dozen plots have new owners. But Friedrich is still waiting for his turn, waiting for his name to be called. Now there are only about 10 good plots left.

If his name isn't called soon, he'll be stuck with bad land. Friedrich though is still holding out hope. And then? Noise! Noise! Woohoo, Friedrich! Ah, that's you! That's mine, yeah.

Friedrich and his son start hammering in the stake with their name on it. Friedrich has a full smile. This is a good one! Yeah! Yeah! This is your claim? Yes! He pulls out his map of the Ossing and writes down his name.

So we're looking at a map of all of Ossing and you're going to write what you just got. It's so gloriously analog. Today is a good feeling. Today is a good feeling. For Tuna, we're good. And then, another few plots later, his name is called again. Veit Neuser. Hi. Hi. Hi!

Hi! Yes, it is perfect in Franconian. Wait, this is perfect? This is perfect. His bag is two stakes lighter. Friedrich is happy. After a bit more walking, he gets a few more okay plots. But it's now our six.

We've walked about 10 miles, and at this point, we start crossing over into the badland. So we're walking down a hill. I'm thinking like maybe these are scratchy plants. They definitely feel like scratchy, scritchy roots of something. Do you all have ticks in Germany? What is ticks? Ticken?

Yes, yes. It's a... That's not what I wanted to hear. I was a very confident yes. Yes, yes. It feels like things are changing. The sun is bearing down on us and the soil in these plots is noticeably worse. This is not the kind of land Friedrich wants but he still has three stakes left.

Friedrich is worried about getting one of these really bad plots. And after a few draws his name does get called. Friedrich's son Veit hammers their stick in and when he finishes he leans over and mutters something to Marcus. Just before he walked away, he said, you can tell it's a slump. Slump is Franconian and we'll let Marcus explain what it means. Slump is Franconian slang for it's shitty. This land has terrible rocky soil. It's nowhere near his house or even his other plots.

Yeah, your son said, schlump and walked away. So that seems like he didn't like this land too much. Yeah, it's a schlump, but it's not worthless. It's not that high in value. He says it's a bit schlumpfy, but not worthless. It's not that high in value. He says it's a bit slumfy, but not worthless. Still land, though. Friedrich, the eternal optimist, knows that all hope is not lost. Friedrich has gotten nine plots through the lottery.

Two are really good. A few are medium and two are slumfy. But these might not be the plots he ends the day with. Because in all the rules of this land lottery, there's another move that can be made. No, it's not over yet. Friedrich says it's not over yet. Is hope dying last?

Hope dies last. There's still a possibility. After the break, the Ossing-Verlosung allows Friedrich one more shot at getting those good plots of soil. After 15 miles of walking and more than 600 names being drawn, the map of the Osing has been rewritten. And looking at the new map, it's kind of a mess. Farmers have plots that are all disconnected from each other,

and wheat farmers have soil that's good for potatoes, potato farmers have soil that's better for corn. Like Friedrich. He got a few pieces of land he doesn't want because they're far from his other plots and they're not great for growing potatoes. And that's bad for Friedrich. That would mean half as many crops in a year on those plots.

But that's also bad for the economy because this land would be great for farming corn or wheat. And so Friedrich getting this land is kind of a waste. This is partly why pretty much everyone else on the planet farming corn or wheat. And so Friedrich getting this land is kind of a waste. This is partly why pretty much everyone else on the planet buys and sells land. If Friedrich could just buy the land he wants, he could make sure he got exactly the land he needs for potato farming. But because he's in the lottery, he has to leave it to chance. So the lottery's fair but maybe not efficient. That's why the people of the

Osing have a second part to the Osing Fair Lausanne. The celebratory tent has turned into a trading pit. Farmers like Friedrich can go to another farmer and outright trade for a better plot. There are more than 600 other plots, hundreds of potential deals. And this is maybe the coolest part of the day. Farmers are sprawled out across tables, they're poring over their maps of the Osing, and they're constantly writing and erasing as they go back and forth on offers. A secondary market has emerged because even though the lottery is designed and executed to be totally completely random, after the plots are assigned, the new landowners can all trade with each other.

Essentially, Markus says, it's like this game we all kind of know. It's a little like Monopoly. Aha. If you know the game Monopoly. Yeah, farmers are trying to trade their plots like Monopoly property, hoping to get a bunch of them together. If you have already a good starting point, then it's easier. But if your areas are distributed everywhere in the Ossing,

then you need to negotiate more, or you have to trade more often. The goal of trade is to maximize what lots we get in life. And that is precisely what everyone here in the Ossing is doing. Farmers can trade a plot for a plot, but they can also add money to a deal. Are there rules for trading? Not really. Not really.

Normal human rules. Don't punch each other into the face. Yeah, is that a rule? Friedrich and his sons start trying to make some trades. They want to get rid of their bad, slumpy plots. They approach one farmer who seems open. They all scrutinize their respective maps. But then, the other farmer abruptly walks away. Did a deal happen?

A little bit. What does that mean, a little bit? A little bit means the other farmer is open, he's willing to trade, but only if Friedrich and his son convince the farmer with the plot on the other side of them to trade too. So they'll have to wait and see on that one. Next, Friedrich and his son try making a deal with one of the big farmers, the ones with lots of plots. A lot of the big farmers have set up makeshift headquarters on the beds of their pickup trucks. Smaller farmers like Friedrich and his son seek them out, hoping to make a deal. His son walks up to one of the big farmers and proposes a trade.

He tells them about one of his slumfy plots. But before he even gets to the specifics, the group laughs him off. No, it is no fun. So, Friedrich finds the next farmer and they huddle over his map of the Ossing. Over the course of the day, it's become covered with smudged names and phone numbers and all kinds of notes. One farmer says he might make a deal with them, but Friedrichsblatt is next to an organic farmers.

That might be a hassle. It might affect how he can farm. So he's gonna wait and see who else will make him an offer. All around us, these strategic trades are happening. And the farmers have different strategies. One of the farmers has a notebook with a list of 15 deals he needs to make to get all of his land together. Markus talks us through an exchange between the two farmers.

But I'm not doing anything now. Is it okay? You know who would cut the sauerkraut. So Jürgen said to Heiko, okay, I reserve it for you. I keep that for you. But we cannot close the deal because I have to do something in advance. And Heiko replied, no, no, no, no, that's not a fair deal. I want it for sure. And I want it here.

So a little bit of hardball. Yeah. The people here spend three or four hours negotiating. You can picture the map of the Ossing being drawn and erased, drawn and erased hundreds of times throughout the night. And with each trade, the land itself gets closer to its most efficient use. In theory, trading means the land can end up with the farmer who will make the most of it, help it yield its highest value. And after all the trading is over, the farmers and the land will be better off. And we see some of this happening right in front of us.

A handshake. Yeah. Wow, that's official. And we notice, yes, each farmer is looking out for their own interests. But there's also this sense of community. People are making deals and saying, like, we'll figure out the money later. Because the people here are all neighbors. They'll sing in the community choir together, their kids will go to school together, and they'll all see each other at the one restaurant in town.

Shout out to the Gasthaus Grunerbaum. And of course, they're going to do this whole thing again in 10 years. The crowd in the tent starts to thin. We check back in with Friedrich and his son. They've had dozens of conversations and the prospects of a few three-way trades, but no handshakes. They decide to pause their trading for the night. And Friedrich tells us, yes, this whole system is confusing.

But it is what they have. They can't change it. Whether it's beautiful or not. The son Weitz says, yeah, this is out of date. 100 years ago it was OK. But it's 2024. But now, in 2024, no, it doesn't fit anymore. They get ready to leave.

Friedrich feels confident he'll get some trades done in the next couple of weeks before all the plots have to be locked in until 2034. For 10 years it's enough. It's very enough. Just doing this every 10 years is enough. It's enough. It's all enough. And so another chapter in this thousand-year-old fairy tale is coming to an end. Way back when, the lottery was a solution to all kinds of equity problems and at different points in history the people

of the Osing could have abandoned this lottery. If they did maybe one village or one family would have gotten all the good plots, amassed a lot of wealth, maybe become the noble families of the area. But instead, the Osing holds the lottery every 10 years. Every decade, the plots all get mixed up and reassigned. So everyone gets a chance at getting the good land. And if not, they can see what trades they can make. A few weeks after the lottery, we spoke with Friedrich. In the end, he made seven trades

and got all the land he wanted. And he's gonna get to farm it happily ever after, or at least for the next 10 years. -♪ Today's show was produced by me, Emma Peasley. It was edited by Jess Jang, reporting help from Sofia Shukena. It was fact-checked by Tierra Juarez. It was engineered by Neil Rauch. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. Thank you to Karina Tall. Adam Berry, Caitlin Carroll, and Caroline Dries provided interpretation help.

And thank you to Mary Claire Peat for first telling us about this land lottery a couple years ago. I'm Erica Barres. And I'm Emma Pesley. This is NPR. Thanks for listening.