In 1915, due to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

food restrictions and

rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

, the German bureaucracy decided to regard

pigs The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...

as co-eaters with humans and tried to preserve supplies. As a result, five million pigs were massacred in the so-called Schweinemord (German: pig massacre) to both make food and preserve grain. However it did little to increase the supply of grain, as officials did not take into account the use of pig manure as fertilizer on small farms. Because of this, killing the pigs actually decreased crop yields in the region.

References

*Roger Chickering: ''Das Deutsche Reich und der Erste Weltkrieg'', C.H.Beck, , P. 5
Online
*Cove, Dennis and Westwel, Ian ed. ''History of World War I: the Home Fronts, Technologies of the War'', , P. 65

German Empire in World War I Rationing by country Famines in Germany 1915 in Germany Agriculture in Germany Regulation in Germany 20th-century famines 1915 disasters in Germany {{World-War-I-stub