Colonia (insurance)

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The formerly listed Colonia Versicherung AG , based in Cologne was a German casualty in the group , both the primary and the as reinsurance business were operated. Under the company Axa-Konzern AG , it now forms the core of the German activities of the French Axa- concern.

history

A consortium of the Cologne bankers Simon Oppenheim , Johann David Herstatt (1805–1879), Abraham Schaaffhausen , Johann Heinrich Stein , Bankhaus Seydlitz & Merkens , the Frankfurt Amschel Mayer von Rothschild , Carl Mayer von Rothschild and the brothers von Rothschild (Paris) founded on April 4, 1838 with 3 million thalers (9 million marks) the "Cologne Fire Insurance Company". The occasion was the Prussian law on furniture insurance of May 8, 1837, which severely restricted the work of foreign insurance companies. It took over the insurance portfolio of an affected French company. The application for a license of April 4, 1838 by the Kölnische Feuer-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft described the business purpose of offering the wholesale trade and other businesses in Cologne and the Prussian provinces adequate fire insurance protection. King Friedrich Wilhelm III. only granted approval on March 5, 1839. On July 16, 1839, it began business operations. On March 5, 1841, the company changed to "Kölnische Feuer-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft, Colonia", initially using the Roman name of its founding city as an epithet. At that time the company had 12 employees and 42 main agents in its Cologne headquarters.

The Hamburg fire between May 5th and 8th, 1842, caused the first major loss, especially since the reserve funds of the German fire insurers were relatively weak. For the sake of brevity, only “Colonia” was used as the company name in future. On September 27, 1853, she received the concession for Concordia Lebensversicherungs-AG , and on November 29, 1853, she founded the Kölnische Hagel-Versicherungs-AG as a subsidiary . Another change of company took place on December 22nd, 1919 in "Colonia, Kölnische Feuer- und Kölnische Unfall-Versicherungs-AG", in 1921 this founded the "Rhenish Interest Group" for the purpose of cooperation with "Aachen- / Münchener" and "Vaterländische / Rhenania". Another change to "Colonia Kölnische Versicherungs-AG" took place on May 30, 1938, in 1939 there were already 880 employees. In May 1939 Robert Pferdmenges became chairman of the supervisory board .

After the Second World War , the company employed a total of 762 people in 1949. On August 21, 1969, the merger with “National Allgemeine Versicherungs-AG” Lübeck into “Colonia National Versicherungs-AG” took place. With the 1,669 employees taken on, the number of employees rose to 3,896. Further mergers in 1970 increased the number of employees to 5,286. In 1971 the change to "Colonia Versicherung AG" took place. The numerous takeovers and its own growth made "Colonia" Germany's second largest insurance group in 1989. In July 1989 Alfred Freiherr von Oppenheim sold his majority stake in the Colonia Group for 3 billion DM to the French "Compagnie Financière du Groupe Victoire" and thereby increased the bank capital of the Sal. Oppenheim bank from 180 million DM to 1 billion DM increase. In July 1991 the nested group introduced a holding structure with the "Colonia Konzern AG" as the head of the group, to which Nordstern insurance now also belonged. Even then, the Colonia Group had premium income of 2.5 billion DM .

The majority shareholder of "Colonia Group AG" became in October 1993 the French state "Union des Assurances de Paris" (UAP), whose privatization began in March 1994. The privatized UAP, in turn, was taken over by the AXA Group in May 1997 as part of a merger . Since September 2001 Colonia has been operating as AXA Group AG . Axa gradually acquired the shares of the remaining free shareholders, initially with a voluntary takeover offer announced in December 2005, followed by a squeeze-out in May 2006, with which the listing of “Colonia Konzern AG” disappeared.

Commercial building

The first provisional place of business was in Ehrenstrasse No. 4. Heinrich von Wittgenstein had a new city palace built in 1838 by master builder Ernst Friedrich Zwirner at Trankgasse 9 on the site of the abandoned parish church of St. Lupus, so that the former "Wittgensteiner Hof" in the Trankgasse No. 6 was used. in 1839 as the new headquarters of the newly founded insurance company. In order to free the Domplatte from further extensions, the Colonia and the Cologne-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (No. 8) donated their land to the city of Cologne in 1863 . The Colonia therefore moved to Unter Sachsenhausen 10–12 in a classical building designed by Josef Felten (1863–1923). This was followed by moves to Oppenheimstrasse 11 (1923–1983) and Colonia-Allee 10–20 in Cologne-Holweide (1983 to today).

Others

Colonia-Versicherung was the builder and first owner of one of the tallest residential buildings in Europe, the Colonia-Haus in Cologne , which opened in August 1973 and named after it . The insurance company logo was therefore placed on the roof as a neon sign ; the Axa advertising lettering has now been installed. The new owners still attach importance to the name Colonia-Haus , because unlike the advertising lettering, it has not changed.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ General organ for trade and commerce, 1839, p. 266
  2. ↑ Handbook of German Stock Companies , Volume 48 / Part 5, 1943, p. 4535
  3. ^ Peter Koch, Insurance places in Germany , 1986, p. 192
  4. ↑ Peter Fuchs (ed.), Chronik zur Geschichte der Stadt Köln , Volume 2, 1991, p. 128
  5. ↑ 100 Years of the Magdeburg Fire Insurance Company, 1844–1944, 1944, p. 24
  6. ↑ William L. Evenden, German Fire Insurance Signs , 1989, pp 169 et seq.
  7. ↑ Klara van Eyll / Renate Schwärzel, Deutsche Wirtschaftsarchive , Volume 1, 1994, p. 49
  8. ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung No. 173 of July 29, 1989, Colonia insurance under French influence , p. 9
  9. ^ Colonia Kölnische Feuer-Unfallversicherung AG Cologne Ak 1923 AXA insurance
  10. ↑ Hasso von Wedel, Heinrich von Wittgenstein 1797 to 1869: Entrepreneurs and Politicians in Cologne , 1981, p. 180