Using the resources of the charitable fund, AachenerMünchener finances a large number of public-aid projects all over Germany. In many towns and villages and in factories the company provides fire hoses and fire-fighting equipment to fire brigades free of charge. At the same time, promoting fire-prevention measures of all kinds is also in the company's focus.
In 1870 AachenMünchener contributes to the foundation of the Aachen University with a guarantee fund of 1.3 million marks (equalling about € 9 m today) and another 1 million marks in construction costs. Today the Aachen University is the biggest teaching and research institution for engineering in Western Europe. By 1900, the charitable fund has already donated about 30.6 million marks to public institutions, families in financial difficulties and job-creation projects.
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1870
Contribution to the foundation of the University of Technology Aachen
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By the outbreak of World War I, AachenerMünchener is the German insurance company with the largest volume of foreign business. Between 1893 to 1896 it is the first German insurance company to set up a network of representative offices across the USA, including those in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. By 1900 it has a total of 56 representative offices on all continents, including 25 in Asian cities. This internationalization of business makes it one of the pioneers of the German insurance industry.
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1893 - 1900
Expansion of direct foreign business with General Agents on all five continents
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The company's second disaster year after the Great Fire of Hamburg is 1906: the San Francisco earthquake. Aachener und Münchener pays out compensation benefits equivalent to 15 million marks, or about € 70 million in 2003 purchasing power. As before in Hamburg, its swift settling of claims gains it such a great reputation in the U.S. that the heavy cost of the claims is soon compensated by growth in new business. Mainly as a result of rapid expansion overseas, premium income triples in only twenty years and in 1913 reaches 33 million marks, equivalent to about € 140 million. On the eve of World War I, the company generates a good 50 percent of its premium income outside Germany.
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1906
San Francisco earthquake
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The outbreak of war in 1914 brings this development to an abrupt end. The following years involve substantial burdens for Aachener und Münchener, not only because it has lost all its profitable foreign business and nearly all its foreign assets but also because break-neck inflation increases its costs dramatically.
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1914
Loss of international business and foreign capital investments
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Once the difficulties caused by World War I and German inflation are overcome, the German business is substantially extended by offering third-party, personal accident, motor and marine insurance.
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Starting from 1923 expansion of business activities
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As a result of the difficult economic situation, a number of insurance companies merge during the 20s. Crossed shareholdings and cooperation agreements lead to company groups in the German insurance industry. In the course of this development, in 1924 Aachener und Münchener, which has a strong capital base, takes a majority interest in Thuringia Versicherungs-AG and its reinsurance subsidiary Fortuna Rück in Erfurt. In the same year it also acquires a majority shareholding in Aachen-Potsdamer Lebensversicherung, a life insurance company dating back to 1868 and renamed Aachener und Münchener Lebensversicherung.
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1924
Majority stake in Thuringia Versicherungs-AG and Aachen-Potsdamer Lebensversicherungs AG
Thuringia headoffice in Erfurt |
Generali Deutschland
Corporate Bodies
Company Presentation
Company History
1824 to 1860
1870 to 1924
1929 to 1972
1975 to 1995
1997 to 2002
2002 to 2010
Spokesman of the Board of Management / Chief Executive Officers of Generali Deutschland
