The years between 1930 and 1960 appear, in retrospect, as a period of agricultural political change in Europe, referred to as the "Age of Extremes" (Eric Hobsbawm). Between the protectionist reactions to the "Great Depression" of the 1930s, the regulatory interventions during and after the war, and the formation of market and planned economic systems in the West and East until the end of the 1950s, a new concept of agricultural policy took shape: managing the entirety of agricultural and forestry enterprises as a national enterprise. Despite all the differences, the political and economic systems of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland shared a comprehensive and profound regulation of rural life - extending into everyday household and operational processes. The agricultural political incentives and demands were met with some consensus among the people on the farms.