About the middle of the 18th century the recognition of the importance
of forestry led to a severance of the forest and hunting interests, and
it became the practice to place the direction of the former into the
hands of some more or less competent man--a state forester--usually
under the fiscal branch or treasury department of the general
administration. Fully organized forest administrations, in the modern
sense, however, could hardly be said to have existed before the end of
the Napoleonic wars (1815) which had undoubtedly retarded the peaceful
development of this as well as of other reforms.
The present organization of the large Prussian forest department in its
present form dates from 1820, when Hartig instituted the division into
provincial administrations, and differentiated them into directive,
inspection and executive services. The direction of the provincial
management was placed in the hands of an Oberforstmeister, with the
assistance of a number of Forstmeister, who acted mainly as inspectors,
each having his inspection district consisting of a number of ranges.
The ranges (100,000 to 125,000 acres) were placed in charge of
Oberförster or Revierförster, who with the assistance of several
underforesters (Förster) conducted the practical work. At first only
indifferently educated, these latter were allowed little latitude, but
with improvement in their education they became by degrees more and more
independent agents.
This tri-partite system of directing, inspecting and executive officers,
after various changes in titles and functions, finally became
practically established in all the larger German states; in some rather
lately, as for instance, in Bavaria, not until 1885, and in Württemberg
in 1887.
With this more stable organization, the character and the status of the
personnel changed greatly: the prior right of the nobility to the higher
positions, which had lasted in some States until 1848, and the practice
of making connection with military service a basis for appointment were
abolished, and, instead of Cameralists, educated foresters came
everywhere to the head of affairs. The lower service, which had been
recruited from hunters and lackeys, and which was noted for its low
social, moral and pecuniary status, was improved in all directions. The
change from incidentals in the way of fees, and natural instead of money
emolument for the lower grade foresters, (which had been the rule, and
still play a role even to date), to definite salaries, and the salutary
change of methods in transacting business, which Hartig introduced,
became general. With the development and improvement of forestry
schools, the requirement of a higher technical education for positions
in State service could be enforced. Yet only within the last twenty-five
or thirty years, has the ranking position of forest officers been made
adequate and equalized with that of other public officials of equal
responsibility, and still later have their salaries been made adequate
to modern requirement.
The central administration now lies in the hands of technical men
(_Oberlandforstmeister_) with a council of technical deputies
(_Landforstmeister_) all of whom have passed through all the stages of
employment from that of district managers up. This central office or
“division of forestry” is either attached to the department of
agriculture, or to that of finance, and has entire charge of the
questions of personnel, direction of forest schools, of the forest
policy of the administration, and the approval of all working plans,
acting in all things pertaining to the forest service as a court of last
resort. The working plans are made and revised by special commissioners
in each case, or, as in Saxony, under the direction of a special
bureau, with the assistance of the district manager. Upon the basis of
the general working plan prepared by these commissions, an annual plan
is elaborated by the district managers with consultation and approval of
the provincial and central administration. These plans contain a
detailed statement of all the work to be done through the year, the cost
of each item, and the receipts expected from each source. This annual
working plan requires approval by the provincial administration, which
is constituted as a deliberative council, consisting of a number of
Forstmeister with an Oberforstmeister as presiding officer. The titles
of these officers, to be sure, and the details of procedure vary
somewhat in different states, but the system as a whole is more or less
alike.
The district manager or Oberförster, now often called _Forstmeister_,
has grown in importance and freedom of position, although his district
has grown smaller (mostly not over 25,000 acres), and, being one of the
best educated men in the country district, he usually holds the highest
social position, although his emoluments are still moderate. He holds
many offices of an honorary character, as for instance that of justice
of the peace, and the position of states’ attorney or public prosecutor
in all cases of infraction of the forest laws. These forest laws are
still largely local, _i.e._, State laws, although the criminal code of
the empire has somewhat unified practice.
Curiously enough, wood on the stump is still not considered property in
the same sense as other things, so far as theft is concerned; the
stealing of growing timber is not even called theft, the word used in
the laws being _Frevel_ (tort), and, like other infractions against
forest laws, it is punished by a money fine, more or less in proportion
to the value of the stolen material or the damage suffered. This money
fine may be transmuted into imprisonment or forest labor, but corporal
punishment, which still prevailed in the first decades of the century,
has been abolished. Wood stealing was very general and rampant during
the beginning of the century, but improvement in the condition of the
country population and in the number and personnel of the forest
officers since 1850 has now reduced it to a minimum.
Formerly, and until 1848, the administrators and even the forest owners
acted at the same time as prosecutor, judge and executioner, and only in
1879, was this condition everywhere and entirely changed, and
infractions against forest laws adjudged by regular courts of law,
holding meetings at stated times for the prosecution of such
infractions.
Nevertheless, the court proceedings in forest matters still vary from
the usual court practice, providing a simpler, cheaper and more ready
disposal of testimony and witnesses, and quicker retribution, which is
largely rendered possible through having every forest officer under oath
as a sheriff, and his statement, and perhaps the confiscated tools
employed in the theft, being accepted as _prima facie_ evidence of the
infraction.
The social position of the underforesters and the forest protective
service has also been improved until all charges of incompetency and
immorality, which were not undeserved even until past the middle of the
nineteenth century, have become reversed; the forest service being
morally on as high a plane as all the departments of German
administrations.