Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen

Infobox Person
name = Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen


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birth_date = May 3, 1818
birth_place = Hamm (Sieg), Germany
death_date = March 11, 1888
death_place = Neuwied, Germany
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Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (May 3, 1818, Hamm (Sieg) - March 11, 1888, Heddesdorf, currently known as Neuwied, Germany) was a German cooperative leader.

Several credit union systems and cooperative banks have been named after Raffeisen, who pioneered rural credit unions.

Life

He was mayor of several towns: from 1845 he was mayor of Weyerbusch/Westerwald; from 1848 he was mayor of Flammersfeld/Westerwald; and finally he was mayor of Heddesdorf from 1852 until late 1865, when, at the age of 47, his worsening health cut his career short - he had caught typhus in 1863 during an epidemic during which his wife had died. [ [http://www.raiffeisen.de/drv/friedrichraiffeisen/FW_Raiffeisen.pdf "Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen 1818-1888", Deutscher Raiffeisenverband (in German), undated] .Accessed: 06-15-2008.]

Works

Raiffeisen conceived of the idea of cooperative self-help during his tenure as the young mayor of Flammersfeld. He was inspired by observing the suffering of the farmers who were often in the grip of loansharks. He founded the first cooperative lending bank, in effect the first rural credit union in 1864.

Organizations named Raiffeisen

Several cooperative banks are named after Raiffeisen.

*Raiffeisen Zentralbank, RZB, a cooperative bank based in Austria, and operating in Eastern Europe
*Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken, a federation of Raiffeisen cooperatives in Germany
*Schweizer Verband der Raiffeisenbanken, the federation of Raiffeisen cooperative banks in Switzerland
*Raiffeisen Romania, the Romanian Raiffeisen Zentralbank branch
* Rabobank, officially Coöperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank B.A., cooperative banking system in the Netherlands
* Banque Raiffeisen, Luxembourg

The Kosovo subsidiary of RZB sponsors the Raiffeisen Superliga, a soccer league in Kosovo.

See also

* Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch
* Credit union history
* Microfinance
* Bond of Association

External links

* [http://www.raiffeisen.de/ Deutscher Raiffeisenverband e.V.]

References