August Zillmer

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August Zillmer (born January 23, 1831 in Treptow an der Rega , † February 22, 1893 in Berlin ) was a German actuary and manager in the insurance industry . The Zillmer method is named after him, a technically improved method for calculating the actuarial reserve for life insurances compared to the calculation method customary in Germany at that time .

Live and act

Zillmer was the son of a master bricklayer, he first attended the community school in his hometown and later the grammar school for the gray monastery in Berlin, where he graduated from high school in 1851 . He then studied mathematics and natural sciences at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin . In 1858 he was at the University of Rostock to Dr. phil. doctorate and received a position as an actuary at the life insurance company "Germania" in Stettin, which was founded the year before . In 1867 he moved back to Berlin, where he became second director of the newly founded Nordstern Lebens-Versicherungs-AG .

In the same year he published the first German-language systematic textbook on actuarial mathematics, The mathematical calculations in life and pension insurance, in Berlin . As early as 1863, with his book Contributions to the Theory of the Premium Reserve, he made a significant contribution to improving the balance sheet representation of life insurance contracts. The need to cover the increasingly widespread one-off commissions for the conclusion of life insurance contracts on the balance sheet, especially in Great Britain , led to inappropriately low actuarial reserves, which endangered the long-term existence of insurers. Zillmer turned against this and recommended a method that was already known but not yet generally used as an alternative, which was later named after him as the Zillmer method . He also suggested the establishment of the College for Life Insurance Science in Berlin , the first meeting of which took place in 1868.

Grave of August Zillmer

Zillmer stayed in Berlin until 1876 and then moved to Elberfeld as director of the Vaterländische Lebens-Versicherungs-Actien-Gesellschaft in Elberfeld . After the death of the last of his children, he moved back to Berlin in 1882, where he died in 1893 after suffering from asthma for several months . He was buried in Cemetery I of the Jerusalem and New Churches in Berlin-Kreuzberg .

Fonts

  • The mathematical calculations in life and annuity insurance. Berlin 1861.
  • Contribution to the theory of the premium reserve in life insurance institutions. Stettin 1863. (Reprinted in sheets of DGVM , Volume VIII, 1976, pp. 278–311)
  • About the birth rate, the death rate, the average age at death and the relationship between these numbers and the average lifespan. In: Rundschau der Insurance von Masius , 13th year 1863, pp. 71–78 and pp. 112–118.
  • Considerations on the simple interest calculation, with special reference to Oettinger's proof. Szczecin 1864.
  • German mortality tables from the experience of twenty-three life insurance companies. Berlin 1883.

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Zillmer, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actuary and manager in the insurance industry
DATE OF BIRTH January 23, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Treptow an der Rega , Pomerania
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1893
Place of death Berlin