Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch

German economist, responsible for the organizing of the world's first credit unions. He was also co-founder of the German Progress Party.

He studied law at Leipzig and Halle universities and, when thirty, he became an assessor in the court of justice at Berlin, and three years later was appointed patrimonialrichter at Delitzsch. Entering the parliament of 1848, he joined the Left Centre, and, acting as president of the commission of inquiry into the condition of the labourers and artisans, became impressed with the necessity of co-operation to enable the smaller tradespeople to hold their own against the capitalists. He was a member of the Second Chamber in 1848-1849; but as matters ceased to run smoothly between himself and the high legal officials, he threw up his public appointments in October 1851, and withdrew to Delitzsch. Here he devoted himself to the organization and development of co-operation in Germany, and to the foundation of Vorschussvereine (people's banks), of which he had established the first at Delitzsch in 1850. In 1859 he promoted the first Genossenschaftstag, or co-operative meeting, in Weimar, and founded a central bureau of co-operative societies. In 1861 he again entered the Prussian Chamber, and became a prominent member of the Progressist party. In 1863 he devoted the chief portion of a testimonial, amounting to £7500, to the maintenance of his co-operative institutions and offices. This, however, was only to meet an exceptional outlay, for he always insisted that they must be self-supporting. The next three or four years were given to the formation of local centres, and the establishment of the Deutsche Genossenschafts-Bank, 1865.

The spread of these organizations naturally led to legislation on the subject, and this too was chiefly the work of Schulze-Delitzsch.