RAIFFAISEN, FRIEDRICH WILHELM. - Originator and organizer of agricultural credit cooperatives, b. at Hamm a. d. Sieg on 30 March 1818, d. at Neuwied on 11 March 1888.
He was the first to conceive and create the cooperative credit and agricultural organization which, together with those established by H. Schulze-Delitzsch for workers and small urban tradesmen, increasingly gained ground also in Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. After some years in a military career, R. entered public administration, serving for about 20 years as mayor in several small towns. This public office brought R. into direct contact with the population, especially the agricultural population, whose needs he came to know, becoming particularly acute as a result of the famine of 1846-47. In order to overcome these grievous conditions of the farmers, aggravated also by the misuse of credit and by usury, R. conceived and founded, contributing his own
Babylonian account of the struggle of Marduk against Tiamat and the monsters that stood at her side.