The great German land lottery

Summary

Planet Money: The Great German Land Lottery

Hosts: Erica Barris and Emma Peasley
Episode: The Great German Land Lottery
Producer: Markus Hofmann
Date: 2024

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Introduction to the Osing Land Lottery

Planet Money delves into a unique and age-old tradition practiced by the Osing community in rural Germany—a land lottery that has been in operation for over five centuries. This system randomly assigns plots of farmland to members every ten years, ensuring a fair distribution of resources among 141 farmers.

Key Quote:
“For the last 10 years, Friedrich has planted, harvested and cared for nine specific plots of land here in Germany... it’s like farmland musical chairs.”
– Erica Barris [02:19]

Origins of the Osing Land Lottery

The land lottery's roots trace back to a century-old fairy tale involving Empress Kunikunde. According to the legend, the Empress, lost in the dense forests of the Osing area, was guided out by church bells from four bordering villages. Grateful for her rescue, she granted the communal land to these villages, laying the foundation for the shared agricultural practices that necessitated a fair distribution system.

Key Quote:
“If they did, maybe one village or one family would have gotten all the good plots, amassed a lot of wealth...”
– Markus Hofmann [30:48]

The Lottery Process

Every decade, the Osing community gathers in a large tent to conduct the lottery, an event steeped in tradition and ritual. Farmers walk through hundreds of acres of farmland, drawing names from a bag to claim plots. Each farmer is entitled to nine plots, but the quality varies significantly—ranging from fertile sandy soil ideal for potatoes to poor, rocky land unsuitable for cultivation.

Notable Moments:

• Friedrich Neuser's Hope:
  “I hope Fortuna is good to me.”
  – Friedrich Neuser [03:30]

• Initial Draws:
  Friedrich experiences a series of disappointments as his name isn’t called, heightening the tension and anticipation ([14:33]).

The Role of Trades in Enhancing Efficiency

While the lottery ensures fairness, it doesn’t always result in the most efficient allocation of land. To mitigate this, the Osing community has developed a secondary market where farmers can trade plots post-draw. This trading floor is akin to a live-action game of Monopoly, where farmers negotiate and strategize to optimize their land holdings.

Key Quote:
“It’s a little like Monopoly.”
– George Rudolph [25:08]

Trading Dynamics:
Farmers often engage in intricate negotiations, sometimes requiring multiple parties to agree to a deal. This process not only maximizes the utility of the land but also reinforces community bonds.

Example:
Friedrich and his son attempt several trades to offload less desirable plots. While some negotiations fall through, the persistent effort exemplifies the community’s commitment to both fairness and efficiency ([26:24]).

Community and Perceptions of Fairness

The enduring success of the Osing land lottery hinges on the community’s unwavering belief in its fairness. Traditional methods, such as using the ancient measuring tool "girt," symbolize the lottery’s integrity. Despite appearing inefficient by modern standards, these rituals ensure that every farmer feels the process is equitable, fostering trust and cooperation within the community.

Key Quote:
“The most important thing is fairness.”
– Friedrich Neuser [16:13]

Community Bonds:
Farmers are not only neighbors but also active participants in communal activities, such as singing in the community choir and attending local school events. These shared experiences facilitate smoother negotiations and reinforce mutual respect during trades.

Conclusion and Outcomes

After extensive walks and numerous name draws, the lottery culminates in a mixture of success and compromise. Friedrich Neuser, initially anxious about securing quality land, successfully acquires seven out of nine plots through strategic trades. This outcome highlights the balance between random allocation and proactive community engagement.

Final Quote:
“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 going to get to farm it happily ever after. Or at least for the next 10 years.”
– Markus Hofmann [31:12]

Reflection:
The Osing land lottery exemplifies a centuries-old solution to resource allocation, emphasizing fairness over efficiency. By integrating a secondary trading market, the community adapts the ancient system to contemporary needs, ensuring that the lottery remains relevant and effective in modern times.

Production Credits

• Produced by: Markus Hofmann
• Edited by: Jess Zhang
• Reporting Help from: Sofia Shukina
• Fact-Checked by: Sierra Juarez
• Engineered by: Neil Rauch
• Executive Producer: Alex Goldmark
• Interpretation Help: Karina Tall, Adam Berry, Caitlin Carroll, Caroline Dries
• Special Thanks to: Mary Claire Peete for introducing the land lottery concept

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Closing Thoughts:
This episode offers a fascinating glimpse into how tradition and community values shape economic practices. The Osing land lottery serves as a testament to the enduring human quest for fairness and the innovative ways societies manage scarce resources.

Transcript

[Erica Barris]

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[Emma Peasley]

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[Ira Glass]

Quick word before the show. The 2024 election is over, and as a new administration prepares to assume power, it is our job across the entire NPR network to report on what they do with that power. That's why we're here. And your support makes it possible for us to break down big stories, to fact check and to make sure you understand what's going on. When you donate, you make a difference in our ability to do this work. If you're already a supporter, we're going to take this moment to just say thank you, truly. And if you're not, you can go to donate.npr.org to give. That's donate.npr.org okay, here's the show.

[Erica Barris]

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 ten years. Good morning. How are you doing? Frederick?

[Friedrich Neuser]

Good morning.

[Markus Hofmann]

Good morning.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Have you a good night?

[Markus Hofmann]

Yes.

[Erica Barris]

Yeah.

[Markus Hofmann]

Okay. We're meeting him and his family in rural Germany in the middle of miles and miles of farm fields.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Sister's here. Sister.

[Erica Barris]

Ah, okay. Very nice to meet you.

[Friedrich Neuser]

I'm Erica from America.

[Erica Barris]

Erica from America. Friedrich loves a joke and is relentlessly positive. He's his tall, lanky potato farmer in his 60s.

[Markus Hofmann]

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 Osing. The Osing is collectively owned by a group of 141 farmers.

[Erica Barris]

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.

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[Erica Barris]

So at today's lottery, the map of all this land is going to be wiped clean. Friedrich and all the farmers here, their economic fates will be decided by pulling. Pulling names out of a bag.

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[Friedrich Neuser]

I hope Fortuna is good to me.

[Erica Barris]

Friedrich is talking about Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fortune, and he hopes today she helps him out.

[Markus Hofmann]

He says the first thing he wants is at least two pieces of good land. He says he wants sandy soil because that's what's best for growing potatoes.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Yeah, I hope so.

[Erica Barris]

And the second thing he wants is not too much bad land.

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[Erica Barris]

I think it's beginning. The master of ceremonies steps to the microphone for the start of the Osingferlsson. That translates to the Osing land lottery.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Geste.

[Erica Barris]

He says, the Osing land lottery greets you, dear guests.

[Markus Hofmann]

Friedrich is starting to look kind of nervous.

[Erica Barris]

The tension is there. Yeah, I see you. Everybody looks a little happy, but also a little nervous right now.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Adriana is.

[Erica Barris]

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 Erica Barris.

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[Erica Barris]

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.

[Emma Peasley]

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[Erica Barris]

Osing have this unusual lottery system? Well, we asked a bunch of people and they all said, we need to talk to George Rudolph.

[Markus Hofmann]

George tells us he was a farmer, but today his main gig is being the Osing historian. And the history of this land lottery all starts with what else? A classic German fairy tale.

[Erica Barris]

The story begins a thousand years ago when an Empress, Empress Kunikunde, was on a hunting trip here in this area. She got lost.

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[Erica Barris]

So Empress Kune Kunde 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 Osing. It became the Osing farmland.

[Markus Hofmann]

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 Osing lottery.

[Erica Barris]

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 Osing did next was kind of no.

[George Rudolph]

So they had some fight or some trouble with each other because they said, okay, you get better farmland than we, and so on.

[Markus Hofmann]

This is Markus Hofmann. He's an interpreter who helped us out. He's from this area and he knows this story well.

[Erica Barris]

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.

[George Rudolph]

It was Not a war. It was just a fight, a verbal fight. They don't kill each other.

[Erica Barris]

So it was just squabbling. And your land is better than my land.

[George Rudolph]

And maybe they punished each other, but it was not a war. It was not a form.

[Markus Hofmann]

Okay, 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.

[Erica Barris]

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 lands into plots people owned individually. Here in the Osing, though, they came up with their own version of land ownership.

[George Rudolph]

They said, okay, we have to do it in a fair way for all the people from all four villages.

[Erica Barris]

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.

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[George Rudolph]

And this is the reason why we have the raffle every 10 year. 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 Osing doesn't belong to anybody.

[Erica Barris]

It actually belongs to everybody.

[Markus Hofmann]

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 four, 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.

[Erica Barris]

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.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Is that the Empress Kuni Kunde is coming.

[Erica Barris]

When the lottery begins, hundreds of people spill out of the tent and onto a gravel path.

[Friedrich Neuser]

All the people are moving at the same time.

[Erica Barris]

Yeah, so it's a traffic jam.

[George Rudolph]

Yeah, it's a traffic jam.

[Markus Hofmann]

The first thing to know about this lottery is that it involves a lot of walking. They really walk at a brisk pace.

[Erica Barris]

All right, I guess we should walk a little faster.

[George Rudolph]

No, there are a lot of people behind us.

[Erica Barris]

They won't start until we all get there.

[George Rudolph]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[Erica Barris]

Oh, there he is. Hello again.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Hello again.

[Erica Barris]

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.

[Friedrich Neuser]

It's a long walk.

[Erica Barris]

It's a long walk. It's a long walk, Yes. I hope I wore the right shoes.

[Friedrich Neuser]

We never walk alone.

[Markus Hofmann]

We get to our first plot with Friedrich and his son Veidt, who's taking over the farm. Veidt 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.

[Erica Barris]

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 otzing ready to be filled in. If they call his name.

[Markus Hofmann]

We check out this first plot.

[Erica Barris]

How is this land? Is this good or this is bad?

[Friedrich Neuser]

No. Is everything a good land here?

[Erica Barris]

This would be good.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Yeah, it's good.

[Erica Barris]

What is so good about this land here now?

[Friedrich Neuser]

It's the same ground. It's sandy, no stone.

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[Erica Barris]

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. 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.

[Markus Hofmann]

And then we start moving to the next plot.

[Erica Barris]

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. Again, not him.

[Markus Hofmann]

After an hour, two miles of walking, and a dozen more names being called.

[Erica Barris]

Not you again.

[Friedrich Neuser]

No, my name.

[Markus Hofmann]

Friedrich has watched as a lot of his neighbors get Good land.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Know my name still? No, no. Fortuna is not good to me. Fortuna is sleeping.

[George Rudolph]

What's going on? Are you sure your name is in the back.

[Erica Barris]

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 8 year old neighbor Obie is one of those kids getting handfuls of euros.

[Obi]

I got a 30 again. Now I have 90.

[Markus Hofmann]

You have 90? So you've read three times?

[Obi]

Yeah.

[Erica Barris]

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.

[Markus Hofmann]

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 girt. 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.

[Erica Barris]

Friedrich says the most important thing is fairness. And Markus says that's why the lottery has stuck around.

[George Rudolph]

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.

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[Erica Barris]

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 8 year old Obi, who is waiting to pull names from the bag.

[Obi]

I do it fast so everyone can go on, go on, go on. Like all the kids are like staying there for like three minutes and the Kids are wiggling their whole hand in the back, trying to pick it out, opening it, then struggling to like, eh, Eh. They can't even read.

[Erica Barris]

Can you read the names?

[Obi]

Sort of.

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[Erica Barris]

Now there are only about 10 good plots left. If his name isn't called soon, he'll be stuck with Badland. Friedrich, though, is still holding out hope. And then Neuse.

[Emma Peasley]

Woohoo.

[Erica Barris]

Friedrich.

[Obi]

Ah.

[Erica Barris]

That's you.

[Friedrich Neuser]

That's mine, y'all.

[Erica Barris]

Ah. Friedrich and his son start hammering in the stake with their name on it. Friedrich has a full smile. This is a good one.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Yeah.

[Erica Barris]

This is your claim.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Yes.

[Markus Hofmann]

He pulls out his map of the Osing and writes down his name.

[Erica Barris]

So we're looking at a map of all of Osing and you're going to write what you just got. It's so gloriously analog.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Today is a good feeling.

[Erica Barris]

Today is a good feeling.

[Friedrich Neuser]

For Duna were good.

[Erica Barris]

And then another few plots later, his name is called again.

[Obi]

Feit Neuser.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Yeah. This past.

[George Rudolph]

Yes, it is perfect in Franconian.

[Erica Barris]

Wait, this is perfect.

[George Rudolph]

This is perfect.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Perfect.

[Erica Barris]

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.

[Markus Hofmann]

So we're walking down a hill. I'm thinking, like, maybe these are scratchy plants.

[Erica Barris]

They definitely feel like scratchy, scritchy roots of something.

[Markus Hofmann]

Do you all have ticks in Germany?

[George Rudolph]

What is ticks?

[Friedrich Neuser]

Second.

[George Rudolph]

Yes. Yes. It's a yes.

[Erica Barris]

That's not what I wanted to say. Very confident. Yes.

[George Rudolph]

Yes, yes.

[Markus Hofmann]

Unfortunately, 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.

[Erica Barris]

And after a few draws, his name does get called.

[Markus Hofmann]

Friedrich's son Veidt hammers their stick in, and when he finishes, he leans over and mutters something to Markus.

[George Rudolph]

Just before he walked away, he said, you can tell it's a klump.

[Erica Barris]

Schlumpf is Franconian, and we'll let Markus explain what it means.

[George Rudolph]

Schlump is Franconian slang for its city.

[Markus Hofmann]

This land has terrible rocky soil. It's nowhere near his house or even his other plots.

[Friedrich Neuser]

Schlam, Schlam, Schlamf.

[Erica Barris]

Yeah. Your sunset schlam and walked away. So that seems like he didn't like this land too much.

[Markus Hofmann]

He says it's a bit schlumpfy, but not worthless. Still land, though, Friedrich, the eternal optimist, knows that all hope is not lost.

[Erica Barris]

Friedrich has gotten nine plots through the lottery. Two are really good, a few are medium and two are schlumpy. 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. Friedrich says it's not over yet. Hope dies last. There's still a possibility. After the break, the Osingferlossung allows Friedrich one more shot at getting those good plaza soil.

[Emma Peasley]

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Episode, my extended interview with Stanford economist Mahoney. Listen with [e-mail] the code switch team.

[Erica Barris]

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[George Rudolph]

I wanted to vote for Trump, but I voted for her.

[Erica Barris]

Gays for Trump.

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I've been crying on and off. I'm terrified. Listen to Code Switch, the podcast about race and identity, from NPR.

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[Erica Barris]

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.

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[Erica Barris]

So the lottery's fair, but maybe not efficient. That's why the people of the Osing have a second part to the Osingfer 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 6, 600 other plots, hundreds of potential deals.

[Markus Hofmann]

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. They're constantly writing and erasing as they go back and forth on offers.

[Erica Barris]

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.

[George Rudolph]

It's a little like Monopoly.

[Erica Barris]

Aha.

[George Rudolph]

If you know the game Monopoly, Yeah.

[Markus Hofmann]

Farmers are trying to trade their plots like Monopoly property, hoping to get a bunch of them together.

[George Rudolph]

If you have already a good starting point, then it's easier. But if your areas are distributed everywhere in the Osing, then you need to negotiate more or you have to trade.

[Erica Barris]

More of the goal of trade is to maximize what lots we get in life. And that is precisely what everyone here in the Osing is doing. Farmers can trade a plot for a plot, but they can also add money to a deal.

[Markus Hofmann]

Are there rules for trading?

[George Rudolph]

Not really.

[Markus Hofmann]

Not really?

[George Rudolph]

Normal human rules don't punch each other into the face.

[Markus Hofmann]

Yeah.

[Erica Barris]

Friedrich and his son start trying to make some trades. They want to get rid of their bad, schlumpy plots.

[Markus Hofmann]

They approach one farmer who seems open. They all scrutinize their respective maps, but then the other farmer abruptly walks away.

[Erica Barris]

Did a deal happen?

[Friedrich Neuser]

A little bit.

[Erica Barris]

What does that mean, a little bit?

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[Erica Barris]

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 Hector headquarters on the beds of their pickup trucks. Smaller farmers like Friedrich and his son seek them out, hoping to make a deal.

[Markus Hofmann]

His son walks up to one of the big farmers and proposes a trade. He tells them about one of his schlumpfee plots. But before he even gets to the specifics, the group laughs him off.

[Friedrich Neuser]

No, it is no fun.

[Erica Barris]

So Friedrich finds the next farmer, and they huddle over his map of the Osing. Over the course of the day, it's become covered with smudged names and phone numbers and all kinds of notes.

[Markus Hofmann]

One farmer says he might make a deal with them, but Friedrichsplat is next to an organic farmer's. That might be a hassle. It might affect how he can farm. So he's going to wait and see who else will make him an offer.

[Erica Barris]

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. Marcus talks us through an exchange between the two farmers.

[Joe Biden]

Okay, is this okay?

[George Rudolph]

So he said, jurgen said to Haiko, 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 Haiko 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.

[Markus Hofmann]

The people here spend three or four hours negotiating. You can picture the map of the Osing being drawn and erased, drawn and erased hundreds of times throughout the night.

[Erica Barris]

And with each trade, the land itself gets close, 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 in the land will be better off. And we see some of this happening right in front of us.

[Markus Hofmann]

A handshake. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. That's official. And we noticed. 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.

[Erica Barris]

To the guesthouse, Grunebaum.

[Markus Hofmann]

And of course they're gonna do this whole thing again in 10 years.

[Erica Barris]

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. Hassan Veidt says, yeah, this is out of date. 100 years ago it was okay, but it's 2024.

[Markus Hofmann]

They get ready to leave. Friedrich feels confident he'll get some trades done in the next couple couple weeks before all the plots have to be locked in until 2034.

[Friedrich Neuser]

All 10 years. It's enough. It's very enough.

[Erica Barris]

Just doing this every 10 years is enough.

[Friedrich Neuser]

It's all enough.

[Erica Barris]

And so another chapter in this thousand year old fairy tale is coming to an end.

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[Erica Barris]

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.

[Markus Hofmann]

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.

[Erica Barris]

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 going to get to farm it happily ever after. Or at least for the next 10 years.

[Markus Hofmann]

Today's show was produced by me, Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Jess Zhang reporting help from Sofia Shukina. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Neil Rauch. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

[Erica Barris]

Thank you to Karina Tall. Adam Berry, Caitlin Carroll and Caroline Dries provided interpretation help. And thank you to Mary Claire Peete for first telling us about this land lottery a couple years ago. I'm Erika Barris.

[Markus Hofmann]

And I'm Emma Peasley. This is npr. Thanks for listening.

[Emma Peasley]

This message comes from Wondery. Some of the craziest conspiracy theories are actually classified government operations. To hear more about these hidden truths, listen to Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamanna on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Erica Barris]

Joe Biden's on his way out. Donald Trump's on his way back. Want to know what's happening as the presidential transition is underway? The NPR Politics Podcast has you covered with the latest news and analysis. Listen to the NPR Politics podcast every weekday. NPR's best political reporters come to you on the NPR Politics Podcast to explain the big news coming out of Washington, the campaign trail and beyond. We don't just want to tell you what happened, we tell you why it matters. Join the NPR Politics Podcast every single afternoon to understand the world through political eyes.