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Episode: The great German land lottery
Author: NPR
Duration: 00:28:55
Episode Shownotes
Every ten years, a group of German farmers gather in the communal farm fields of the Osing for the Osingverlosung, a ritual dating back centuries. Osing refers to the area. And verlosung means "lottery," as in a land lottery. All of the land in this communal land is randomly reassigned
to farmers who commit to farming it for the next decade.Hundreds of years ago, a community in Germany came up with their own, unique solution for how to best allocate scarce resources. For this community, the lottery is a way to try and make the system of land allotment more fair and avoid conflict.Today on the show, we go to the lottery and follow along as every farmer has a shot at getting the perfect piece of land — or the absolute worst piece of land! And we see what we can learn from this living, medieval tradition that tries to balance fairness and efficiency.This episode was hosted by Erika Beras and Emma Peaslee. It was produced by Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Jess Jiang. Reporting help from Sofia Shchukina. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Summary
In this episode of NPR's Planet Money titled 'The great German land lottery,' hosts Erika Beras and Emma Peaslee explore the Osingverlosung, a centuries-old tradition in Germany where farmers randomly reassess communal farmland every decade. This unique lottery aims to promote fairness and minimize conflicts within the farming community, as demonstrated through the experiences of participants like Friedrich Neuser. The episode captures the emotional stakes involved, the inefficiencies of the process, and the subsequent trading that follows the lottery to enhance land productivity, highlighting the delicate balance between fairness and efficiency in resource allocation.
Go to PodExtra AI's episode page (The great German land lottery) to play and view complete AI-processed content: summary, mindmap, topics, takeaways, transcript, keywords and highlights.
Full Transcript
00:00:00 Speaker_14
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00:01:00 Speaker_15
Before we get started, this episode includes some swearing, once in English, but some in the German dialect called Franconian. This is Planet Money from NPR. Today is the day that Friedrich Neuser has been waiting for for the past 10 years.
00:01:18 Speaker_15
Good morning. How are you doing, Friedrich? Good morning.
00:01:21 Speaker_02
Have you a good night?
00:01:22 Speaker_15
Yes.
00:01:24 Speaker_02
We're meeting him and his family in rural Germany, in the middle of miles and miles of farm fields.
00:01:30 Speaker_07
This is their sister.
00:01:32 Speaker_02
Ah, very nice to meet you.
00:01:34 Speaker_15
I'm Erica.
00:01:35 Speaker_07
From America.
00:01:36 Speaker_15
Erica from America. Friedrich loves a joke and is relentlessly positive. He's this tall, lanky potato farmer in his 60s.
00:01:45 Speaker_02
For the last 10 years, Friedrich has planted, harvested, and cared for nine specific plots of land here in Germany. Specifically in this area called the Osing. The Osing is collectively owned by a group of 141 farmers.
00:02:00 Speaker_15
But after today, the plots he's farmed and cared for will no longer be his. He'll trade them in for new plots. Through a lottery. A land lottery.
00:02:11 Speaker_02
Every 10 years, for the last 500 years, so since the 1500s, the people in this community hold a lottery where farmers randomly get assigned plots of land that they will farm for the next 10 years of their lives. It's like farmland musical chairs.
00:02:28 Speaker_15
So at today's lottery, the map of all this land is going to be wiped clean. Friedrich and all the farmers here, their economic fates will be decided by pulling names out of a bag.
00:02:40 Speaker_02
The lottery is about to kick off soon. It takes place on hundreds of acres of grain, corn, potato fields, fields that will be up for grabs today. The opening ceremony starts inside a big tent. We settle in at a table with Friedrich.
00:02:55 Speaker_07
I hope Fortuna is good to me.
00:02:58 Speaker_15
Friedrich is talking about Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fortune, and he hopes today she helps him out.
00:03:04 Speaker_02
He says the first thing he wants is at least two pieces of good land.
00:03:08 Speaker_07
He says he wants sandy soil because that's what's best for growing potatoes. And the second thing he wants is not too much bad land.
00:03:28 Speaker_02
Friedrich has nine plots of land, which means he will get nine new plots of land. But not every plot is suited for potatoes. Some land is really bad for growing potatoes. It's too swampy or the soil is too dense.
00:03:43 Speaker_02
And every plot that's not ripe for potatoes will cost him.
00:03:50 Speaker_15
I think it's beginning. The master of ceremonies steps to the microphone for the start of the Ossing Fairlausung. That translates to the Ossing Land Lottery. He says, the Ossing Land Lottery greets you, dear guests.
00:04:09 Speaker_15
Friedrich is starting to look kind of nervous.
00:04:12 Speaker_07
The tension is there.
00:04:15 Speaker_15
Yeah, I see you. Everybody looks a little happy, but also a little nervous right now. Friedrich says his adrenaline is going up, up, up. As he says this, his hand goes up like a roller coaster climbing. I raise my microphone as if I'm making a toast.
00:04:32 Speaker_06
All right.
00:04:33 Speaker_15
Let there be good land. For good land. Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Erika Barris.
00:04:42 Speaker_02
And I'm Emma Peasley. In many ways, economics is about the best way a society can allocate their scarce resources. Hundreds of years ago, a community in Germany came up with their own unique solution to that question.
00:04:56 Speaker_15
Today on the show, we follow along as every farmer has a shot at the perfect piece of land. or the absolute worst piece of land. And we see what we can learn from this living medieval tradition that tries to balance fairness and efficiency.
00:05:19 Speaker_09
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00:05:50 Speaker_14
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00:06:08 Speaker_15
So why does Ossing have this unusual lottery system? Well, we asked a bunch of people and they all said we need to talk to George Rudolph.
00:06:21 Speaker_02
George tells us he was a farmer, but today his main gig is being the Ossing historian. And the history of this land lottery all starts with what else? A classic German fairy tale.
00:06:36 Speaker_15
The story begins a thousand years ago. When an empress, Empress Kunikunde, was on a hunting trip here in this area, she got lost.
00:06:50 Speaker_02
Back then, this land was all forest, and there were four villages at the edge of the forest, to the north, south, east, and west.
00:07:00 Speaker_15
So, Empress Kunekunde was lost in the woods, and she couldn't find her way out. Until she heard bells from the churches coming from the communities at the corners of the forest. She found her way out and she was so grateful.
00:07:20 Speaker_15
She gifted the forest land to the people of these four villages. And that forest land became the Olsing. It became the Olsing farmland.
00:07:35 Speaker_02
Okay, so parts of this fairy tale are probably not true, like these churches did not have bells a thousand years ago, but everyone agrees the empress gave them the land. And while giving them the land was nice, it also created a problem.
00:07:51 Speaker_02
A problem that would eventually lead to the O-Sing lottery.
00:07:54 Speaker_15
Because the four villages had to share that farmland. Now, communal farmland, it was not such a novel idea, especially around this time in Europe. Lots of places communally farmed land. But what the people of the O-Sing did next was kind of novel.
00:08:18 Speaker_05
So they had some fight or some trouble with each other because they said, okay, you get better farmland than we and so on.
00:08:27 Speaker_02
This is Markus Hofmann. He's an interpreter who helped us out.
00:08:30 Speaker_15
He's from this area, and he knows this story well. And he says, you see, the people here fought over the lands with the better soil. They fought over how much land they were getting.
00:08:39 Speaker_05
It was not a war. It was just a fight, a verbal fight. They don't kill each other.
00:08:45 Speaker_15
So it was just squabbling, and your land is better than my land.
00:08:48 Speaker_05
And maybe they punch each other. But it was not a war. It was not a war, but some punching.
00:08:54 Speaker_02
OK, so punching, but not a war. all over who got better land. Some parts were hilly, hard to get to. Some soil was better because it was fertile and you could grow almost anything on it. The worst soil was rocky and full of pebbles.
00:09:09 Speaker_15
So this is why in the 1500s, the villages came up with a novel system to distribute the land. Elsewhere in Europe, communities were turning communal land into plots people owned individually.
00:09:21 Speaker_15
Here in the Ossingtho, they came up with their own version of land ownership.
00:09:25 Speaker_05
They said, OK, we have to do it in a fair way for all the people from all four villages.
00:09:34 Speaker_15
So, the villages created the land lottery. Basically, the Ulsing would be divided among the people of the four villages. The farmers would randomly be assigned plots. The good ones, the bad ones.
00:09:46 Speaker_15
Now, some people would be luckier than others, that happens. So, there's another part of the lottery. You only got to keep your land for 10 years.
00:09:56 Speaker_02
So, after 10 years, the names went back in the bag and there was a new drawing. It meant no one would be stuck with a bad plot forever. Another lottery, another chance.
00:10:07 Speaker_05
And this is the reason why we have the raffle every 10 years. So, in one year you are lucky, you get better land, or in the next time you are not so lucky, you get more worse. The U-sing doesn't belong to anybody.
00:10:23 Speaker_15
It actually belongs to everybody.
00:10:26 Speaker_02
And while we don't do a lot of things today the way we did in the 1500s, for good reason, this land lottery has not changed at all.
00:10:34 Speaker_02
Every 10 years, in a year that ends in four, right after the harvest, the people here have held a lottery, no matter what. In 1984, the year it rained, the day before the lottery, and the fields were muddy, they did the lottery.
00:10:49 Speaker_02
Even in 1944, during World War II, when bombers flew overhead, they still did the lottery.
00:10:57 Speaker_15
And today, in 2024. It's sunny, a little windy, and people are milling around, mostly dressed in jeans and hiking boots. But there's also a man dressed in lederhosen and a woman in a red velvet dress with puffy sleeves and a crown. Is that the empress?
00:11:19 Speaker_15
When the lottery begins, hundreds of people spill out of the tent and onto a gravel path.
00:11:29 Speaker_02
The first thing to know about this lottery is that it involves a lot of walking. They really walk at a brisk pace.
00:11:36 Speaker_15
I guess we should walk a little faster. They won't start until we all get there?
00:11:43 Speaker_02
Friedrich, the potato farmer, is moving fast. He has real dad-at-the-airport energy. He's walking with a purpose, and we initially lose him in the crowd.
00:11:53 Speaker_15
Oh, there he is. Hello again. Hello again. We're going to walk plot to plot and watch as they randomly draw winners at each one. In total, the group will walk to about 600 plots. It's a long walk. It's a long walk? It's a long walk, yes.
00:12:09 Speaker_15
I hope I wore the right shoes. We never walk alone.
00:12:12 Speaker_02
We get to our first plot with Friedrich and his son Veit, who's taking over the farm. Veit has all the stakes with their name. They have nine stakes for nine plots of land. Some farmers have dozens of stakes, others just a few.
00:12:24 Speaker_15
The master of ceremonies stands in the middle of the crowd with a bag that has the names of all the farmers in it. Friedrich has a blank map of the Olsing, ready to be filled in if they call his name. We check out this first plot. How is this land?
00:12:39 Speaker_15
Is this good or this is bad?
00:12:41 Speaker_07
No, it's every single good land here.
00:12:42 Speaker_15
This would be good?
00:12:43 Speaker_07
Yeah, it's good.
00:12:44 Speaker_15
What is so good about this land here?
00:12:47 Speaker_07
Now it's the same ground, it's sandy, no stone, small stone.
00:12:53 Speaker_02
Some of the best plots are at the beginning of the lottery. This first plot would be good for any crop, but it would be especially good for potatoes. So Friedrich really wants his name to be called.
00:13:04 Speaker_15
A kid from the community reaches their hand into the bag, pulls out a slip of paper. The name of the winner trickles through the crowd. Tony! The name they call is Tony. not Friedrich. Tony gets this plot.
00:13:20 Speaker_15
There's some celebration as the new landowner makes their way to the center of the crowd and hammers a stake in the ground. And then we start moving to the next plot. Each plot is a little different, varying sizes, different soil quality.
00:13:33 Speaker_15
And that adrenaline Friedrich felt earlier, it's stronger. Because the land at the beginning of the lottery is some of the best, it's fertile, workable. He really wants his name to get called. Oh, here we go. Here's another one. See what happens now.
00:13:49 Speaker_15
Again? Not him.
00:13:52 Speaker_02
After an hour, two miles of walking, and a dozen more names being called... Not you again? Friedrich has watched as a lot of his neighbors get good land. No, no, no.
00:14:04 Speaker_07
Fortuna is not good for me.
00:14:09 Speaker_05
Fortuna is sleeping. What's going on? Are you sure your name is in the bag?
00:14:15 Speaker_15
This is Friedrich's fourth lottery. When his son was little, he was one of the children who pulled the names out of the bag. Kids love to do it because the farmers whose names they pull tip them.
00:14:27 Speaker_15
Today, his eight-year-old neighbor Obi is one of those kids getting handfuls of Euros.
00:14:33 Speaker_13
I got a 30 again.
00:14:34 Speaker_02
Now I have a 90.
00:14:36 Speaker_15
You have 90?
00:14:36 Speaker_02
So you've read three times?
00:14:39 Speaker_13
Yeah.
00:14:39 Speaker_15
After two hours, the lottery is starting to get stressful. Because the good fields get doled out in the beginning, Friedrich is missing out. And he's worried they'll run out of the good land.
00:14:52 Speaker_02
As the day stretches on, we start to notice all the ways that it feels like we are not in the year 2024. This whole lottery seems really inefficient.
00:15:02 Speaker_02
For example, they walk plot to plot, and they measure all the plots by hand, using a tool that predates the metric system. The tool is called a Gurt. It's basically a giant wooden ruler with an incremental measurement called a Schuh.
00:15:18 Speaker_02
That's German for shoe. And it's based on an actual person's shoe size. The people here, though, say all this ceremony is because of fairness.
00:15:31 Speaker_15
Friedrich says the most important thing is fairness. And Markus says that's why the lottery has stuck around.
00:15:40 Speaker_05
It's still the main reason why we do this lottery stuff. If we do it only from the commercial point of view, I'm pretty sure they would stop it and would say, okay, one time we sell all the land and who have the most money, he can buy the best areas.
00:15:58 Speaker_05
But the main purpose of the lottery is fairness for everybody.
00:16:02 Speaker_02
And this is key to what makes this system work. That people believe it's fair. The things we're seeing, like measuring the land by hand using an ancient tool, walking plot to plot, and watching each name drawn out of a bag.
00:16:15 Speaker_02
These are symbols of the system's fairness. And because people believe this is all fair, they're willing to accept the outcome of the lottery. The ritualization helps people accept their fate.
00:16:27 Speaker_15
And if any of that were to change, you might lose what makes this so special. They're willing to give up some efficiency for more fairness. But still, people are getting impatient, like eight-year-old Obie, who is waiting to pull names from the bag.
00:16:45 Speaker_13
I do it fast so everyone can go on, go on, go on. Like, all the kids are like, like staying there for like three minutes. Three hours in, and a few dozen plots have new owners.
00:16:58 Speaker_13
But Friedrich is still waiting for his turn, waiting for his name to be called. Now...
00:17:15 Speaker_15
There are only about 10 good plots left. If his name isn't called soon, he'll be stuck with Badland. Friedrich, though, is still holding out hope. And then... Noise! Woohoo, Friedrich! Ah, that's you! That's mine, yeah.
00:17:34 Speaker_15
Friedrich and his son start hammering in the stake with their name on it. Friedrich has a full smile. This is a good one!
00:17:46 Speaker_02
He pulls out his map of the Ossing and writes down his name.
00:17:49 Speaker_15
So we're looking at a map of all of Ossing and you're going to write what you just got. It's so gloriously analog.
00:17:57 Speaker_07
Today is a good feeling.
00:18:01 Speaker_15
Today is a good feeling. And then, another few plots later, his name is called again. Wait, this is perfect? His bag is two stakes lighter.
00:18:13 Speaker_05
Friedrich is happy.
00:18:26 Speaker_15
After a bit more walking, he gets a few more okay plots. But it's now hour six. We've walked about 10 miles. And at this point, we start crossing over into the badland.
00:18:40 Speaker_02
So we're walking down a hill. I'm thinking like maybe these are scratchy plants.
00:18:45 Speaker_15
They definitely feel like scratchy, scritchy roots of something.
00:18:50 Speaker_02
Do you all have ticks in Germany?
00:18:51 Speaker_05
What is ticks?
00:18:53 Speaker_04
Tick. Yes, yes.
00:18:55 Speaker_02
That's not what I wanted to hear.
00:18:58 Speaker_05
Very confident yes. Yes, yes, unfortunately.
00:19:01 Speaker_02
It feels like things are changing. The sun is bearing down on us, and the soil in these plots is noticeably worse. This is not the kind of land Friedrich wants, but he still has three stakes left.
00:19:15 Speaker_02
Friedrich is worried about getting one of these really bad plots. And after a few draws, his name does get called. Friedrich's son Veit hammers their stick in, and when he finishes, he leans over and mutters something to Markus.
00:19:33 Speaker_05
Just before he walked away, he said, you can tell it's a schlumpf.
00:19:39 Speaker_15
Schlumpf is Franconian and we'll let Marcus explain what it means.
00:19:43 Speaker_05
Schlumpf is Franconian slang for it's shitty.
00:19:48 Speaker_02
This land has terrible rocky soil. It's nowhere near his house or even his other plots.
00:19:54 Speaker_15
Yeah, your son said schlamm and walked away. So that seems like he didn't like this land too much.
00:20:09 Speaker_02
He says it's a bit schlumpfy, but not worthless. Still land, though. Friedrich, the eternal optimist, knows that all hope is not lost.
00:20:18 Speaker_15
Friedrich has gotten nine plots through the lottery. Two are really good, a few are medium, and two are schlumpfy. But these might not be the plots he ends the day with.
00:20:31 Speaker_15
Because in all the rules of this land lottery, there's another move that can be made. Friedrich says it's not over yet. Hope dies last. There's still a possibility.
00:20:48 Speaker_15
After the break, the Ossing Verlossung allows Friedrich one more shot at getting those good plots of soil.
00:21:05 Speaker_09
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00:22:22 Speaker_01
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00:22:47 Speaker_02
After 15 miles of walking and more than 600 names being drawn, the map of the Ossing has been rewritten. And looking at the new map, it's kind of a mess. Farmers have plots that are all disconnected from each other.
00:23:01 Speaker_02
And wheat farmers have soil that's good for potatoes. Potato farmers have soil that's better for corn. Like Friedrich.
00:23:08 Speaker_15
He got a few pieces of land he doesn't want because they're far from his other plots and they're not great for growing potatoes. And that's bad for Friedrich. That would mean half as many crops in a year on those plots.
00:23:20 Speaker_15
But that's also bad for the economy, because this land would be great for farming corn or wheat. And so Friedrich getting this land is kind of a waste.
00:23:31 Speaker_02
This is partly why pretty much everyone else on the planet buys and sells land. If Friedrich could just buy the land he wants, he could make sure he got exactly the land he needs for potato farming.
00:23:43 Speaker_02
But because he's in the lottery, he has to leave it to chance.
00:23:47 Speaker_15
So the lottery's fair, but maybe not efficient. That's why the people of the Ossing have a second part to the Ossing Fair Lausanne. The celebratory tent has turned into a trading pit.
00:24:02 Speaker_15
Farmers like Friedrich can go to another farmer and outright trade for a better plot. There are more than 600 other plots, hundreds of potential deals.
00:24:12 Speaker_02
And this is maybe the coolest part of the day. Farmers are sprawled out across tables, they're pouring over their maps of the Ossing, they're constantly writing and erasing as they go back and forth on offers.
00:24:24 Speaker_15
A secondary market has emerged, because even though the lottery is designed and executed to be totally, completely random, after the plots are assigned, the new landowners can all trade with each other.
00:24:36 Speaker_15
Essentially, Markus says, it's like this game we all kind of know.
00:24:40 Speaker_04
It's a little like Monopoly. Aha. If you know the game Monopoly.
00:24:46 Speaker_02
Yeah, farmers are trying to trade their plots like Monopoly property, hoping to get a bunch of them together.
00:24:52 Speaker_05
If you have already a good starting point, then it's easier. But if your areas are distributed everywhere in the O-Singh, then you need to negotiate more and you have to trade more often.
00:25:04 Speaker_15
The goal of trade is to maximize what lots we get in life. And that is precisely what everyone here in the O-Singh is doing. Farmers can trade a plot for a plot, but they can also add money to a deal.
00:25:18 Speaker_02
— Are there rules for trading? — Not really. — Not really?
00:25:22 Speaker_05
— Normal human rules. Don't punch each other into the face.
00:25:28 Speaker_15
— Yeah, is that a rule? — Friedrich and his son start trying to make some trades. They want to get rid of their bad, schlumpy plots.
00:25:35 Speaker_07
— They approach one farmer who seems open. They all scrutinize their respective maps.
00:25:52 Speaker_02
But then, the other farmer abruptly walks away.
00:25:55 Speaker_15
Did a deal happen?
00:25:58 Speaker_07
A little bit.
00:25:59 Speaker_02
What does that mean, a little bit? A little bit means the other farmer is open, he's willing to trade, but only if Friedrich and his son convince the farmer with the plot on the other side of them to trade too.
00:26:11 Speaker_02
So they'll have to wait and see on that one.
00:26:14 Speaker_15
Next, Friedrich and his son try making a deal with one of the big farmers, the ones with lots of plots. A lot of the big farmers have set up makeshift headquarters on the beds of their pickup trucks.
00:26:24 Speaker_15
Smaller farmers like Friedrich and his son seek them out, hoping to make a deal.
00:26:29 Speaker_02
His son walks up to one of the big farmers and proposes a trade. He tells them about one of his schlumpy plots. But before he even gets to the specifics, the group laughs him off.
00:26:40 Speaker_15
No, it is no fun. So Friedrich finds the next farmer and they huddle over his map of the Ossing. Over the course of the day, it's become covered with smudged names and phone numbers and all kinds of notes.
00:26:57 Speaker_02
One farmer says he might make a deal with them. But Friedrich's plot is next to inorganic farmers. That might be a hassle. It might affect how he can farm. So he's going to wait and see who else will make him an offer.
00:27:09 Speaker_15
all around us these strategic trades are happening. And the farmers have different strategies. One of the farmers has a notebook with a list of 15 deals he needs to make to get all of his land together.
00:27:22 Speaker_15
Markus talks us through an exchange between the two farmers.
00:27:31 Speaker_05
So Jürgen said to Heiko, okay, I reserve it for you, I keep that for you, but we cannot close the deal because I have to do something in advance. And Heiko replied, no, no, no, no, that's not a fair deal. I want it for sure and I want it here.
00:27:50 Speaker_02
A little bit of hardball. The people here spend three or four hours negotiating. You can picture the map of the Osing being drawn and erased, drawn and erased hundreds of times throughout the night.
00:28:03 Speaker_15
And with each trade, the land itself gets closer to its most efficient use. In theory, trading means the land can end up with the farmer who will make the most of it, help it yield its highest value.
00:28:17 Speaker_15
And after all the trading is over, the farmers and the land will be better off. And we see some of this happening right in front of us.
00:28:26 Speaker_02
A handshake! Wow, that's official! And we notice, yes, each farmer is looking out for their own interests. But there's also this sense of community. People are making deals and saying, like, we'll figure out the money later.
00:28:42 Speaker_02
Because the people here are all neighbors. They'll sing in the community choir together, their kids will go to school together, and they'll all see each other at the one restaurant in town. Shout out to the Gasthaus Grunerbaum.
00:28:53 Speaker_02
And of course, they're going to do this whole thing again in 10 years.
00:28:57 Speaker_15
The crowd in the tent starts to thin. We check back in with Friedrich and his son. They've had dozens of conversations and the prospects of a few three-way trades But no handshakes. They decide to pause their trading for the night.
00:29:13 Speaker_15
And Friedrich tells us, yes, this whole system is confusing. But it is what they have. They can't change it. Whether it's beautiful or not. Hassan Veit says, yeah, this is out of date. A hundred years ago, it was OK. But it's 2024.
00:29:44 Speaker_02
They get ready to leave. Friedrich feels confident he'll get some trades done in the next couple of weeks before all the plots have to be locked in until 2034.
00:29:53 Speaker_07
All 10 years, it's enough. It's very enough.
00:29:58 Speaker_15
Just doing this every 10 years is enough? It's enough. It's all enough. And so another chapter in this thousand-year-old fairy tale is coming to an end.
00:30:09 Speaker_02
Way back when, the lottery was a solution to all kinds of equity problems. And at different points in history, the people of the Osing could have abandoned this lottery.
00:30:19 Speaker_15
If they did, maybe one village or one family would have gotten all the good plots, amassed a lot of wealth, maybe become the noble families of the area.
00:30:29 Speaker_02
But instead, the Osing holds the lottery every 10 years. Every decade, the plots all get mixed up and reassigned. So everyone gets a chance at getting the good land. And if not, they can see what trades they can make.
00:30:43 Speaker_15
A few weeks after the lottery, we spoke with Friedrich. In the end, he made seven trades and got all the land he wanted. And he's going to get to farm it, happily ever after, or at least for the next 10 years.
00:31:06 Speaker_02
Today's show was produced by me, Emma Peasley. It was edited by Jess Jang, reporting help from Sophia Shukina. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Neil Rauch.
00:31:16 Speaker_15
Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. Thank you to Karina Tal. Adam Barry, Kaitlyn Carroll, and Caroline Dries provided interpretation help. And thank you to Mary Claire Peet for first telling us about this land lottery a couple years ago.
00:31:31 Speaker_15
I'm Erika Barris. And I'm Emma Peasley.
00:31:33 Speaker_02
This is NPR. Thanks for listening.
00:31:42 Speaker_09
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00:32:12 Speaker_08
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00:32:18 Speaker_12
I was like, wow, you literally just died and came back. And the first thing you ask is, do you need any money?
00:32:26 Speaker_08
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