A 19th-Century German Pastor Built the Raiffeisen Model That Still Runs Rural Banking in 100 Countries

A 19th-Century German Pastor Built the Raiffeisen Model That Still Runs Rural Banking in 100 Countries

I first encountered the name Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen not in a European history textbook, but scrawled in fading ink on a charter document inside a Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) office in Maharashtra’s Satara district. The irony struck me immediately — a German public servant born in 1818 had, without ever setting foot in India, … Read more