German Raiffeisen Association

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German Raiffeisen Association
(DRV)
logo
legal form registered association
purpose Representation of the interests of the cooperatively organized companies in the German agricultural and food industry
Seat Berlin / Brussels
founding November 18, 1948

president Franz-Josef Holzenkamp
executive Director Henning Ehlers
Members 1,984
sales 65.6 billion euros
Website www.raiffeisen.de

The Deutsche Raiffeisenverband eV ( DRV ) is the umbrella organization of the cooperatively organized companies in the German agricultural and food industry. He is committed to the interests of the 1,984 member companies in the areas of agricultural trade and processing of animal and vegetable products, which together achieved a combined turnover of more than 65.6 billion euros in 2019. The cooperative companies are an integral part of the German agricultural economy: many farmers, gardeners and winegrowers are members and therefore owners of a cooperative.

tasks

As a business association, the DRV represents the interests of members on a national, European and international level towards politics, administration, business partners and the general public. The aim is the practical design of the economic and agricultural policy framework. As a cross-sectoral federal association, the DRV bundles and formulates the expectations of its members and brings them into the political deliberations and legislative process.

The DRV is a service provider for its members in all agricultural, economic, environmental and tax law issues. With market analyzes, it supports its members in their strategic alignment to the requirements of globalized agricultural markets.

Against the background of far-reaching structural changes in the cooperative corporate landscape, the DRV established the Raiffeisen Foundation in 2012 . The foundation supports projects in the fields of education and public relations as well as science and research. In this way, training and further education are sustainably supported, especially in rural cooperatives.

Importance of the Raiffeisen cooperatives

Raiffeisen cooperatives occupy an important market position in the German agricultural and food industry. The member companies are responsible for:

  • 66 percent of German milk processing
  • 50 percent of the grain and rapeseed trade,
  • 33 percent of the cattle trade as well
  • 33 percent of the grape harvest.

The cooperatives trade an average of 18 million tons of grain and rapeseed per year. In purely mathematical terms, 540 billion rolls can be baked from the quantity of grain.

In addition, the Raiffeisen cooperatives are important service providers and trading partners for the agricultural sector, but above all for people in rural areas. They supply farmers with fertilizers, seeds and agricultural technology. A large number of cooperative retail and building material markets as well as petrol stations deliver home and garden supplies as well as mineral oils and fuels to consumers, especially in rural areas.

With around 92,000 employees, the Raiffeisen cooperatives are also an attractive employer.

history

The DRV as the central association of rural cooperatives was founded on November 18, 1948 in Wiesbaden.

The association's history began around 70 years earlier. With the establishment of the "Lawyers' Association of Rural Cooperatives" in 1877 at the instigation of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen , the basis was created for a large organization that has lived on in the DRV since 1948 - supported by cooperative banks and affiliated companies.

The founding fathers of the German cooperative system - Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen , Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch and Wilhelm Haas - worked in parallel on building a powerful cooperative organization. Even if they pursued the same goals, they had different ideas about content and organizational forms. As a result, the movements they founded acted independently of one another for many years. It was not until 1930 that Andreas Hermes succeeded in merging the then 36,339 rural cooperatives with over four million members. The "Reich Association of German Agricultural Cooperatives - Raiffeisen - eV" was created. After the National Socialists seized power, the cooperatives were "brought into line" and in 1934 incorporated into the Reichsnährstand .

Shortly after the end of the war in 1945, discussions began in West Germany on the establishment of a top cooperative association. They culminated in the founding of the DRV in 1948. Resistance fighter Andreas Hermes became the first Raiffeisen president.

Celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Raiffeisen Association Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg (1974)

In 1972 the rural and commercial cooperative organizations were reorganized. The German Cooperative and Raiffeisen Association (DGRV) was created as an umbrella organization. In addition to the DRV, the umbrella and professional associations of credit cooperatives, commercial cooperatives, consumer cooperatives and companies belonging to the cooperative association are organized under its umbrella.

management

President

Advocates General / Directors / General Secretaries

  • 1948 - 1953: Gottfried Meulenbergh
  • May - November 1953: Heinrich Lübke
  • 1953 - 1968: Gustav Klusak
  • 1968 - 1971: Rolf Schubert
  • 1972-1992: Hans-Jürgen Wick
  • 1992 - 1997: Friedrich Bernhard Hausmann
  • 1997 - 2012: Rolf Meyer
  • since 2012: Henning Ehlers

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.raiffeisen.de/verband/
  2. ↑ http://www.raiffeisen-stiftung.de
  3. ↑ Joseph Hönekopp: 100 years Raiffeisenverband 1877-1977. Deutscher Raiffeisenverband (Ed.), Deutscher Genossenschafts-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1977, pp. 31–38.
  4. ^ Walter Arnold / Fritz H. Lamparter: Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen. One for all, all for one. Hänssler, Neuhausen-Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-7751-1069-0 , p. 133.
  5. ^ German Raiffeisen Association (ed.): Milestones 1948-1998. 50 Years of the German Raiffeisen Association Bonn 1998, pp. 17–19.
  6. ↑ Rudolf Maxeiner / Gunter Aschhoff / Herbert Wendt: Raiffeisen. The man, the idea and the work. Deutscher Genossenschafts-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1988, p. 132f.