Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch

Born Aug. 29, 1808, in Delitzsch; died Apr. 29, 1883, in Potsdam. German economist and political figure.

During the Revolution of 1848–49, Schulze-Delitzsch was a member of the Prussian National Assembly, where he aligned himself with the liberal “left center.” He became a leader of the Progressive Party (Deutsche Fortschrittspartei) after its founding in 1861. Schulze-Delitzsch, who belonged to the vulgar economists, reiterated J. B. Say’s theory of productive services and the propositions of F. Bastiat’s Economic Harmonies. In 1849 he launched a campaign among German workers and artisans to establish cooperative societies and savings and loan institutions. Regarding these measures as the only way to eliminate poverty, he and his followers distracted the workers from the class struggle and helped bring about the preponderant influence of the liberal bourgeoisie over the working-class movement.

In his cooperative plans, Schulze-Delitzsch supported the “harmony of interests” between labor and capital, just as he did in his theoretical works on economics. Cooperation, in his view, was to transcend class and unite the members of all classes; its goal was to bring about social peace within the framework of a capitalist society. Schulze-Delitzsch’s plans of cooperation collapsed as the societies founded by him went bankrupt and an independent German working-class movement developed.