Karl Korthaus

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Karl Korthaus (born September 26, 1859 in Holsten , district of Osnabrück, † December 15, 1933 in Berlin ) was a German cooperative founder, association official and politician ( center ). Alongside Eduard Pfeiffer, Victor Aimé Huber, Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch, Wilhelm Haas and Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen, Korthaus is one of the leading founding fathers of the German cooperative system. Alongside Schulze-Delitzsch, he is considered the most important protagonist of the commercial cooperative organization.

Life

Karl Korthaus was born the son of an elementary school teacher, learned the painting trade and attended an arts and crafts school . He then worked in his father-in-law's painting business. He recognized his oratorical talent early on and stood up above all for the interests of his profession. In 1894 he became chairman of the guild committee and secretary of the Chamber of Crafts in Osnabrück. Here he began to deal with cooperatives. In contrast to Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch and his successors, Karl Korthaus advocated limited liability and the establishment of a state central fund for cooperatives. In 1895 he was therefore called in as a consultant for the establishment of the “Preussische Zentralgenossenschaftskasse” (today DZ Bank ). In the following years he initiated the formation of founding committees in many cities in the Rhineland, Silesia and Saxony, which resulted in the emergence of many craftsmen's cooperatives. He is therefore also considered the initiator of numerous craftsmen and credit unions. In 1896 he was one of the founders of the cooperative Vereinsbank in Osnabrück. Until 1903 he was a board member there.

In 1901 he became the managing lawyer of the "Main Association of German Commercial Cooperatives". In 1920 the organization merged with the “General Association of Self-Help-Based German Commercial and Economic Cooperatives” founded by Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch to form the “German Cooperative Association” based in Berlin. At the time of the merger, Schulzes Verband was primarily a commercial banking association with only a few commodity cooperatives, while Korthaus mainly organized commodity cooperatives in addition to commercial banks. In the unified commercial cooperative association, Karl Korthaus remained a member of the legal profession and deputy lawyer (= president) until his death.

On the occasion of the 68th cooperative day in Dortmund in 1932, a Korthaus cigar series was brought out to honor the deserved cooperative pioneer. The varieties were named after the cooperative values ​​of self-help, self-management and self-responsibility. They could be bought anywhere in Europe. On July 29, 1921, Karl Korthaus moved into the German Reichstag for the deceased member of parliament Franz Wärme for the Catholic Center Party and was a member of it until the end of the legislative period. From 1925 to 1933 he was finally a member of the Provisional Reich Economic Council , where he was a representative of the craftsmen's cooperatives. Shortly before his death, he took the side of National Socialism: "It would be a disaster if the cooperative representatives stood aside pouting and did not hear the strong pulse of the time," he wrote in 1933 in the Blätter für Genossenschaftwesen.

supporting documents

  • Cooperative Sheets. Years 1920 to 1933
  • Helmut Faust: History of the cooperative movement. 3rd edition, Frankfurt am Main 1977
  • 125 years of DZ BANK. A journey through time through tomorrow, today and yesterday. Frankfurt am Main (2008), pp. 40ff.
  • Archive of the cooperative historical information center: inventory signature A-DG-13 (Korthaus-Zigarre)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Korthaus, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (center), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH September 26, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Holsten, Osnabrück district
DATE OF DEATH December 15, 1933
Place of death Berlin