Historically, inherited land in some German areas had to be shared or divided equally among children, while in others land was ruled to be indivisible. This column leverages this variation in land inheritance rules that traversed political, linguistic, geological, and religious borders and shows that today, equal division areas feature higher average incomes and more entrepreneurship, which goes in hand with a right-shifted skill, income, and wealth distribution. The findings suggest that a more equitable distribution of land fostered innovation during Germany’s transition from an agrarian to an industrial economy, facilitating entrepreneurship in the long term.