HarvestersTractorsVintage John Deere trac­tors take the internet by storm

The last harvest of the year. A combine is unloading rape­seed into a large trailer towed by a John Deere 3130 LS. The camera is shaky, and there is a pale colour filter over the footage. With these and similar record­ings from 1950 to 1992, Thomas Möller now reaches a wide audi­ence on Insta­gram, YouTube and Face­book. Millions of views show just how much interest there is – and more than half his audi­ence are under 35 years old. In the social posts’ comments, tractor enthu­si­asts from different gener­a­tions and coun­tries share their memo­ries, while others marvel at a farming world, they have never expe­ri­enced them­selves.

However, the 51-year-old engi­neer does not post elab­o­rately staged videos on his chan­nels, but rather histor­ical photographs and Super 8 films of the Stadtgut Roggen­horst estate near Lübeck, Germany. They were taken by his father, Hans-Hermann, who docu­mented his farm and farm life at the time for the sheer joy of it.

A farmer behind the camera

Thomas grew up in the 1980s with his four older sisters. His great-grand­fa­ther had been farming the estate; later, his grand­fa­ther and, finally, his father ran the leased farm. Hans-Hermann was not only a farmer, but also a man with a passion for tech­nology. Whilst at work, he often carried his camera with him to capture scenes of field­work, machines, or moments with his family.

He passed on his enthu­siasm for tech­nology to his son, who loved nothing more than sitting on a tractor or watching repairs being carried out in the work­shop. In winter, he and his father enjoyed watching the summer footage of the farm.

Born to be green and yellow

John Deere played an impor­tant role on the estate from an early stage. The connec­tion dates back to Thomas’ grand­fa­ther, who bought a Lanz Bulldog in 1940. Hans-Hermann, remained loyal to the dealer and later opted for a John Deere Lanz 710. For him, this was the logical contin­u­a­tion of his previous expe­ri­ences with Lanz. And the deci­sion was to prove its worth; Thomas recalls that his father was ‘super satis­fied’ with the 710. The tractor remained in the family’s posses­sion until 2015. Today, he has even built a func­tional 1:8 scale model of the machine – using a 3D printer and a great deal of tech­nical exper­tise.

The purchase of the 710 marked the begin­ning of a long-standing rela­tion­ship with John Deere for the family. Next came a 3130, which Hans-Hermann saw in a demon­stra­tion on his own farm. There is even a film showing how the tractor ploughs the field. The farmer later opted for the model with a cab. Thomas found the 3130 much more comfort­able; compared to riding on the mudguard next to his father on the 710, there was a proper passenger seat.

Over the years, more John Deere trac­tors – like the 4240 S and a 4450 – found their way onto the farm, and they even made it into Thomas’ bedroom. “I had a large poster of our 4240 S driving through the mud hanging above my bed,” he recalls. On his windowsill, he used to recreate what­ever was happening outside in the yard using his models. Added to this were posters and brochures from the John Deere dealer; as Thomas himself puts it, enthu­siasm for the brand had become “very, very deeply ingrained in my DNA”.

Thomas Möller in 1988—along with the John Deere 710, on which he could only ride on the fender, and the John Deere 3130, where he found a spot in the passenger seat.

Sorted by size: The entire John Deere fleet of the Stadtgut Roggen­horst estate near Lübeck in 1988.

But it was not just the modern machines that fasci­nated him. He was also capti­vated by the old Lanz Bull­dogs. One of them; a Lanz D 1706 from 1954, was still occa­sion­ally in use on the farm. His father knew about his enthu­siasm and gave him the vehicle for his 16th birthday.

Not every­thing was better in the past

The histor­ical footage now shared brings back memo­ries but also shows just how much agri­cul­ture has changed. Thomas is partic­u­larly impressed by the work achieved back then using low-perfor­mance machines. While the family initially farmed around 160ha, including 100ha of arable land, using draft horses, trac­tors and other machinery later took over more of the labour-inten­sive work.

Comfort also improved. While older trac­tors offered little protec­tion from wind and weather, later models featured enclosed, quieter cabs and air condi­tioning. Above all, however, the work became safer. “I see many situ­a­tions that I consider to be very dangerous on the footage,” remarks Thomas who now heads up a machine safety depart­ment at his company.

A memory of his father illus­trates just how hard the work used to be. He describes combine harvesting back then in just three words: “Noise, heat, dust”. Thomas thinks it is bril­liant that working condi­tions have improved so much over time. The record­ings thus docu­ment not only the history of a family and their machines, but also the changes in agri­cul­ture.