The purpose of the present study is to research Hardebek, formerly a nationally owned remount depot of the state of Prussia, to elucidate, from the composition of the settlers, the process and characteristics about construction of the Settlement under the internal colonization policy of Germany during the Weimar Republic. Previous studies that analysed the social structure of German agricultural villages or agricultural policies focused on the roles—as well as the meanings of the roles—played by internal colonization policies. Therefore, little understanding exists on the actual process of colony construction that led to the establishment of farms, which was the outcome of the internal colonization policy. By analysing newly discovers documents in archives and from fieldwork carried out by the author, the present paper finds that refugees and non-refugees were distributed unevenly and that refugees gathered together according to the area of their original expulsion.
