Wilhelm Haas (member of the cooperative)

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Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Haas (born October 26, 1839 in Darmstadt ; † February 8, 1913 there ) was a German politician, social reformer and founder of rural goods and credit cooperatives .

Wilhelm Haas memorial in the Albert Schweitzer facility in Darmstadt (2011)

Life

Wilhelm Haas was the son of a Swiss, Evangelical-Lutheran high school teacher. After attending grammar school, Haas studied law (1857–1861) at the University of Giessen (member of the Corps Teutonia ) and started a career as a civil servant in Hesse. In 1863 he was a trainee lawyer at the court in Darmstadt from 1864 to 1869 at the district offices in Darmstadt, Dieburg, Groß-Gerau, Heppenheim, Büdingen and Friedberg. In 1869 he became a district assessorappointed and from 1874 worked as a police advisor at the police office in Darmstadt and a few years later, in 1886, district councilor in Offenbach am Main. Around 1900 he finally had to resign from the civil service because the authorities disapproved of his cooperative involvement.

Cooperative work

Alongside Eduard Pfeiffer, Victor Aimé Huber, Karl Korthaus, Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch and Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen, Wilhelm Haas is one of the leading founding fathers of the German cooperative system. Along with Raiffeisen, he is considered the most important protagonist of the German and international agricultural cooperative organization .

In the years after leaving the civil service, he was involved in many farming villages. He motivated the local councils to join forces to secure the common purchase of their raw materials. Most of the rural cooperatives, especially most of the credit cooperatives (savings and loan banks ), did not refer to Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen , but to Wilhelm Haas. Like Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch, he was politically liberal; for him, cooperatives were practicable forms of business for self-help. His credo: "The cooperative means freedom , freedom especially in economic relationships."

In 1872 Wilhelm Haas founded the agricultural reference cooperative in Friedberg and initiated the Association of Hessian agricultural credit cooperatives in 1879. A few years later, in 1883, he organized the Association of German Agricultural Cooperatives (from 1903: Reich Association of German Agricultural Cooperatives) and became its first advocate general (president). In 1907 he finally took over the chairmanship of the newly founded International Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives.

After his death in 1924 a memorial created by the Munich sculptor Karl Killer was erected in his honor on the occasion of the 27th German Agricultural Cooperative Day in Darmstadt . It was originally located next to the former association building, Sandstrasse 36. The monument, which was badly damaged in World War II, was renovated in 1956. Today it is located at the northern end of the Albert-Schweitzer-Anlage, near Rheinstrasse at the corner of Hindenburgstrasse.

politics

Wilhelm Haas also gained a lot of influence as a politician. From 1881 to 1911, Haas was a member of the National Liberal Party for the constituency of Starkenburg 10 / Gernsheim and Starkenburg 5 / Fürth (33-34 parliamentary period) of the Second Chamber of the Estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse and was its president from 1887. From 1911 to 1913 he was appointed member of the first chamber of the Hessian estates for life by Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig. From 1898 to 1912 he was a member of the Reichstag and participated, among other things, in the deliberations on the cooperative law passed in 1889 . One of Wilhelm Haas's special achievements in life was that, as an outstanding liberal politician, he initiated agricultural self-help organizations and networked them on a national and international level. In recognition of these services, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig von Hessen awarded him the title of Privy Councilor in 1896 .

Awards

In several places, including Leinfelden-Echterdingen and Markgröningen , streets were named after Haas. One of the headquarters of the Genossenschaftsverband (Association of Regions) is located on Wilhelm-Haas-Platz in Neu-Isenburg .

literature

  • Adalbert Feineisen: Wilhelm Haas. Creator of a great idea. Raiffeisdruckerei, Frankfurt am Main 1956.
  • Theodor Sonnemann:  Haas, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 378 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Rudolf Maxeiner: Trust in your own strength. Wilhelm Haas. His life and work. Deutscher Genossenschafts-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1976, ISBN 3-87655-016-5 .
  • Helmut Faust: History of the cooperative movement. Origin and departure of the cooperative movement in England, France and Germany as well as its further development in the German-speaking area. 3rd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Knapp, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-7819-0168-8 .
  • Hans Georg Ruppel, Birgit Groß: Hessian MPs 1820–1933. Biographical evidence for the estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse (2nd Chamber) and the Landtag of the People's State of Hesse. (= Darmstädter Archivschriften , Volume 5.) Verlag des Historisches Verein für Hessen, Darmstadt 1980, ISBN 3-922316-14-X , p. 120.
  • Jochen Lengemann : MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index. (= Political and Parliamentary History of the State of Hesse , Volume 14) (= Publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse , Volume 48, 7.) Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , pp. 159–160.
  • Peter Gleber: Biographical notes on the founders of the cooperative Schulze-Delitzsch, Raiffeisen and Haas. In: BI, Bankinformation und Genossenschaftsforum , ISSN  0941-0163 , Volume 34 (2005), No. 5, pp. 72-75.
  • Peter Gleber: Cooperative banks as a breeding ground for democracy. In: Bankinformation, BI, Das Fachmagazin der Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken , ISSN  1866-5608 , Volume 36 (2009), No. 5, pp. 38–41.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Haas, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Haas, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (NLP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1839
PLACE OF BIRTH Darmstadt
DATE OF DEATH February 8, 1913
Place of death Darmstadt