Countering Real Estate Speculation and Rents?

Grotegut A. Gegen Immobilienspekulation und steigende Mieten? Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook. 2022;63(1):169-197.This article focuses on the reasons for the introduction and rapid abolition of the increment value tax on real estate in Germany between 1911 and 1913. It examines the interplay between the land reformers who campaigned for the tax and the political situation that made it possible for all parties to support an increment value tax. It highlights the fact that the tax neither fulfilled the land reform goal of combating speculation nor generated enough revenue, as was criticised. Nevertheless, the tax was exceptional because it represented the first direct financial relationship between the Empire and the municipalities. A changed political landscape made the introduction of a property tax possible, which in the eyes of many made the increment value tax redundant