their land and started again as independent farmers building up to a viable farm size through renting. In most cases, however, former members or their children settled for some level of compensation in return for surrendering their membership rights to a smaller core group of former managers who then took over the business in the new form of a limited company (GmbH). This settlement and compensation process was at times fought over and at times accepted with resignation depending often on the amount of wealth to be distributed and on the degree of trust by the general membership and village population in the ability of managers to carry on the enterprise as successful employers. In some cases, an eingetragene Genossenschaft, a form of cooperative farming, persisted as allowed under existing German law. While East Elbia (which covered both most of former East Germany and formerly German territories east of the Oder Neisse line which were lost due to World War II) had had more latifundia than western and southern Germany even before the creation of LPGs, one lasting effect of their former existence is that average farm size is larger in each of the New States of Germany than in each of the former Western German states even in the 21st century. See also Volkseigener Betrieb Volkseigenes Gut References External links RFE/RL East German Subject Files: Agriculture, Blinken Open Society Archives, Budapest A press release on a German legal case involving a Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgemeinschaft A glossary of German agriculture and Precision Farming terms & abbreviations translated to English Agricultural labor Collective farming Economy of East Germany