Aachen Association for the Promotion of Labor

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The Aachen Association for the Promotion of Labor is a former sponsoring and development association in the still young Prussian administrative district of Aachen , which pursued the purpose of administering certain funds through its own savings and bonus funds. The founding was decided in 1824, but the association only started its activities in 1834 after the specified requirements had been met.

Motivations

In 1824, a 13-member committee headed by David Hansemann founded the Aachener und Münchener Feuerversicherungsgesellschaft, later AachenMünchener and today's Generali Deutschland . It was stipulated in the statutes of the founding act under Section 11 that half of the annual profit of the insurance company was to be used to promote social projects to secure the training and work situation. For this purpose, Hansemann founded the Aachen Association for the Promotion of Labor in the same year, which was supposed to manage these surpluses. However, according to paragraphs 38 to 43 of the insurance statutes, the association was only authorized to do so after the insurance company's profit to be transferred had increased to at least 30,000 Prussian thalers and the simultaneous accumulation of a credit of 10,000 thalers through savings from citizens in the club's own coffers to be established, to start subsidizing activities.

Constitution

For the purpose of constitution , the management of the insurance company appointed a committee consisting of members of the insurance company as well as Aachen merchants and industrialists on March 20, 1827, which was to draw up statutes that were separate and independent of the parent company . In it, the committee stipulated, among other things, that the association should particularly support those institutions that made it possible for people to become employable. This included the establishment of kindergartens and orphanages as well as support for vocational schools and workshops. In order to bring about a quick restoration of the workforce after illness or injury, institutions of the health system should also benefit from the funding pot, such as sanatoriums, convalescent homes and bathhouses. Furthermore, the committee stipulated that, among other things, it should also be possible through savings deposits for citizens to financially support people who had reached the subsistence level through no fault of their own in the event of unemployment or retraining with subsidies or transition payments. Money should only be paid out to those who were willing to take suitable measures to regain qualifications for the labor market as quickly as possible. All these measures were among the first concrete implementations of the ideas of a bourgeois social reform .

For the financial management of the money from the insurance surpluses and the citizens' own contributions, the association planned to set up both savings and premium funds. The latter differed mainly in terms of the relatively low maximum deposit and the distribution of an extra premium in addition to the contractually agreed interest. With this system, the bonus funds were used by factory workers and miners and non-self-employed craftsmen, day laborers and servants. In contrast, the savings banks were open to every citizen who wanted to invest small sums safely and profitably over the long term. It should be left to the sponsoring association itself to decide freely about the investment options for savings deposits.

Finally, the committee determined the necessary administrative and control organization of the association, which was to work for the entire then Prussian administrative district of Aachen.

Approval and development

The statutes were written, the committees formed, the first savings and bonus funds established, but several years would pass before the association could officially start implementing its promotional measures in accordance with the prescribed minimum deposits. Initially, these flowed only sparsely into the fund. Due to the industrial revolution in Germany , economic crises did not stop at Aachen and culminated in the Aachen unrest of August 30, 1830 . Gradually, however, the economic upswing set in and in 1834 the goal of financial consolidation was finally achieved. On February 28, 1834, the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. his approval by cabinet order and also guaranteed the association subsidies from state funds. On June 21, 1834, the convened district assembly under the leadership of the incumbent District President August von Reimann passed the statutes presented and elected David Hansemann as the first director of the now active association.

The association was now rapidly expanding its network of savings and premium banks, and by 1844 there were 20 premium banks and 15 savings banks in most of the districts. As a result, the number of private customers and investment capital rose rapidly. This development, but also the fact that the association was the only sponsor of savings banks in the Aachen administrative region for a long time, meant that the municipal Sparkasse Aachen and Sparkasse Düren even had to go into liquidation temporarily in 1848 and only ended it 1884 came to their new foundations. This gave the association financial independence and independence. The Aachener und Münchener then dissolved the contractual relationship with the club and the resulting obligation to pay out their surplus payments exclusively through the club's own coffers with effect from June 24, 1875. These distributions have now been made differently and in part through various newly established foundations such as the Carl Arthur Pastor Foundation or the Generali Future Fund.

After it was regulated in the German Civil Code from February 16, 1900 that "mouth money" was only to be deposited with state-determined cash registers, the newly founded Städtische Sparkasse now had a decisive advantage over the cash registers of the Aachen Association. This went through a gradual downward trend, which finally led to its dissolution on February 12, 1923. The Landesbank der Rheinprovinz took over the association and the districts integrated the association's own savings and premium funds into their district savings banks.

Funded projects (selection)

Immediately after it came into force, the association began to subsidize numerous projects in accordance with its funding guidelines, some of which are particularly striking:

literature

  • Georg Wilhelm von Wedekind: Patriotic reports for the Grand Duchy of Hesse and the other states of the German trade association. First volume, E. Dingeldey, Darmstadt 1835, pp. 118–122 and pp. 338 ff. (Online at Google books )
  • Aachen Association for the Promotion of Labor (Ed.): The Aachen Association for the Promotion of Labor. His becoming, working and wanting from its beginnings to the present. (Festschrift to celebrate the 50th anniversary on June 21, 1884) Aachen 1884.
  • Aachen Association for the Promotion of Labor (Ed.): The Aachen Association for the Promotion of Labor. Festschrift for the 75th anniversary 1834–1909. Aachen 1909.
  • Wilfried Feldenkirchen , I. Krüger (Hrsg.): The savings and premiums fund of the Aachen association for the promotion of hard work as an alternative non-profit corporate concept. In: Location determination Sparkasse. Festschrift for Manfred Pix. Stuttgart 2000, pp. 333-348.
  • Hans Pohl: The Rheinische Sparkassen. Development and importance for economy and society from the beginnings to 1990. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-515-07846-0 , p. 57 ff. (Online at Google books )