Adolf Franzke

Adolf Franzke (born May 28, 1878 in Viersen ; † March 1, 1957 in Kiel ) was the head of the Schleswig-Holstein State Fire Fund.

education

Adolf Franzke was a son of the postmaster Gustav Hermann Franzke and his wife Maria, née Thammer. After attending the humanistic grammar school in Essen , he studied both law, economics and commercial subjects at universities in Leipzig , Munich , Berlin and Kiel and attended the Cologne University of Applied Sciences . He consciously chose the subjects for later activities in the insurance industry. The doctorate to Dr. jur. followed in 1901 at the University of Rostock.

On June 13, 1906, Franzke passed the exam as an assessor and was allowed to work as a judge at the same time. He worked for court authorities until 1908 and then switched to insurance companies in Cologne and Elberfeld . Franzke fought as a soldier throughout the First World War . On November 1, 1918, he joined the Saxon Fire Insurance Chamber. As a government councilor later promoted to the senior government council, he headed the furniture department. In this position he successfully achieved savings for insurance companies. To this end, he wrote in 1921 about the profitability of fire insurance operations and uniform insurance .

Work in the Schleswig-Holstein State Fire Fund

Franzke then applied as general director of the Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesbrandkasse. In his application he emphasized that of the types of insurance that he had come to know practically, he preferred public-law fire insurance. The 59th Provincial Parliament elected him to this post on May 3, 1922.

In the office Franzke was considered a very knowledgeable director who had organizational and character skills. In particular, his personnel decisions were considered successful. In the first two years he rearranged the state fire fund according to the tasks assigned to it. After the German inflation , Franzke had to cope with other difficulties: The fire fund, which no longer had sufficient reserves due to the inflation, had to help across the country after a wave of fires. She received no support from her reinsurance company on the previously favorable terms. In this emergency, Franzke decided to reorganize the Landesbrandkasse without the support of reinsurance.

To this end, he reformed the terms of the contract and added measures to prevent fire. One of the new conditions was that payees had to rebuild the burned down buildings. Residents of houses with willow roofs had to pay their own share. Franzke also introduced emergency fire surcharges and significant premium increases for policyholders who are particularly at risk. In 1925, thousands of people quit for this reason.

The new insurance system came into force in 1925/26. Completely new for insurance companies, there was a concept of comprehensive and well-structured fire protection measures that should save the insurance company further losses. Franzke designed a complete system of which he was able to convince all employees. He invented the full-time fire show, a fire protection museum and the fire protection research laboratory of the state fire fund. He also modernized the investigations into fire insurance after fires. In addition, he promoted the fire extinguishing system, which he had modernized. In addition, there were investments in extinguishing water systems and buildings that were used for training the fire brigade.

Franzke could not use statistical data for his decision to redesign the contractual conditions and to promote fire protection in this way. His decision proved to be correct as early as 1926, when the damage to the state fire fund fell to 5.2 million marks. It reached its low point in 1936 with 1.2 million marks. By the beginning of the Second World War , the state of Schleswig-Holstein saved several million marks. Franzke's successful reform was noticed at home and abroad.

In addition to fire protection, Franzke rationalized and reformed the insurance system of the state fire fund. In 1926/27 he introduced the first punch card procedure at a public fire insurance company. On January 1, 1939, he established storm insurance in Schleswig-Holstein, for which no contributions had to be paid. When the house buck damaged buildings in the 1930s, Franzke carried out extensive inspections of the houses across Germany. He planned to introduce insurance against longhorn beetles in Schleswig-Holstein, but was no longer able to do so due to the outbreak of World War II.

On January 5, 1944, bombs destroyed Franzke's house. He survived the impacts seriously injured and was hospitalized until the end of 1945. He resumed work at the beginning of June and retired at his own request on June 21 of the same year.

Adolf Franzke died on March 1, 1957 in Kiel, where he was also buried.

Awards

Franzke was the bearer of the Iron Cross First and Second Class and the War Merit Cross with First Class Swords.

literature

• Georg Helmer: Franzke, Adolf . in: Schleswig-Holstein Biographical Lexicon . Volume 1. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1970, pp. 142–144