In the footsteps of cooperative pioneer Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch

‘Self-help, self-governance and self-responsibility’ – an idea that has made it onto the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In 2016, the cooperative ideal became the first German contribution ever to be included by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The cooperative ideal is usually mentioned in the same breath as its founders, Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen and Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch, and stands for freedom, fundamental democratic structures and values such as solidarity. True to the principle ‘together we are strong’, the cooperative movement is intended to be a means of ‘helping people to help themselves’. After all, what one person cannot achieve alone, many can achieve together.