Das Jahrhundert der Stichproben

The sampling method is commonly accepted in the present and always new areas of science use it in their search for the "truth". The way to this level of acceptance was laborious from the sparsely, rather intuitively founded beginning to the complete development of the theory in the 20th century. In this paper this way of the sampling theory and practice is portrayed with consideration of the german-speaking Europe. The description allows the conclusion, that from the 20th century can also be spoken as the century of samples.