As a cooperative financial services network, we continue to espouse the principles first set out by Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch, Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen and Wilhelm Haas. As far back as the nineteenth century, they were convinced that collaboration between like-minded persons would be more successful than individuals operating independently. Using a cooperative self-help approach, they turned into reality their vision that even farmers, factory workers, and craftsmen should have access to small loans without constraint. For more information, see The cooperative idea.

In 1883, Landwirtschaftliche Genossenschaftsbank AG was set up in Darmstadt to handle clearing between the cooperative banks. In 1895, Preussische Zentralgenossenschaftskasse was established in Berlin for the same purpose. Both banks formed the roots of DZ BANK. 1929 saw the merger of the Raiffeisen and Haas rural cooperative organizations to become the largest cooperative network in the world.

The establishment of the Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken (BVR), the Federal Association of German Cooperative Banks, in 1972 brought together the Volksbank and Raiffeisenbank organizations. Today, cooperatives are very much a contemporary form of business organization, characterized by particularly sustainable business relationships.