The Schulze-Delitzsch societies were the direct outcome of the period of dearth and famine through which Germany passed in the years immediately preceding the revolution of 1848. The first one was not a credit association, but a cooperative buying society, organized by a local judge named Schulze for the aid of his needy neighbors of the small trading class in the town of Delitzsch. In 1850 a credit association on the same plan was organized. Others followed, in rapid succession in and after the seventies, until at the present time they are numbered by the thousands and their members by millions, and they are scattered throughout the entire empire. The principle of their organization is the association of a comparatively small group of neighbors, or of people who know one another well, or who may easily come to know one another well, by each making a contribution to a common fund to be loaned out to individuals on personal security chiefly, and which, together with the credit of the entire group, may be made the basis of security for larger funds to be borrowed on the open market. They are carefully organized on the cooperative principle, each member having an equal voice in a general assembly which chooses a board of directors and a small administrative board, to which is intrusted the actual management and administration of the affairs of the society. Loans are made to members only, usually for short periods of time, on the personal security of the borrower and of others who are willing to vouch for him, and on the unusually favorable terms which the credit of the entire organization and very low costs of administration render possible. The knowledge which each member has of the character and business methods of his fellow members who borrow, and of the use to which borrowed funds are put, and the stake which each one has in the financial stability and success of the organization, bring the percentage of losses to a very low figure, and make it possible for these societies to grant their members maximum accommodations at minimum prices. To the funds accumulated from initiation fees, membership dues and the sale of the associations' credit have been added, in constantly increasing amounts in recent years, the savings of the members themselves. Many societies have such an amount of funds intrusted to them in this way that they are not only entirely freed from the necessity of borrowing, but are obliged to seek opportunities for investment outside their own group.