German Insurance Museum Ernst Wilhelm Arnoldi
The German Insurance Museum Ernst Wilhelm Arnoldi is an insurance history museum in Gotha ( Thuringia ). It is located at Bahnhofstrasse 3a, in the former management building of Gothaer Lebensversicherungsbank. It is operated on behalf of the City of Gotha by the insurance museum's association of the same name.
building
The insurance museum is mainly housed on the upper floor of the building that was the seat of the Gotha life insurance bank from 1894 to 1946 . The building, which is reminiscent of the early Italian Renaissance , was designed by architect Bruno Eelbo . In the years 1921 to 1923 it received an extension according to plans by the Munich architect German Bestelmeyer . In the interior of the building, in addition to the historic-style conference room (now the exhibition room of the Insurance Museum), the three reliefs made from Carrara marble by the sculptor Adolf Lehnert in the stairwell from 1904 are particularly noteworthy, which symbolize selected age groups and thus a reference to life insurance produce.
The building, which was largely spared from the Second World War , housed two areas of the later State Insurance of the GDR from 1947 , a technical station with mainframes and a machine processing, in which the preparatory and follow-up work for the electronic processing of data was done. After the political change in 1990, the building was bought back by Gothaer Insurance. It was restored and modernized while maintaining its historical ambience and now mainly houses the Thuringian Finance Court and the Gotha Social Court .
A stele with the bronze head by Ernst Wilhelm Arnoldi , a work by the Munich sculptor Max Hoene, has stood in front of the building since May 2020 . Originally, this memorial had been in front of the Gothaer Insurance Headquarters in Göttingen since 1958 and was moved to Gotha.
history
The German Insurance Museum Ernst Wilhelm Arnoldi opened on May 18, 2009. It is the successor to the Museum of the German Insurance Industry (originally Gothaer House of Insurance History), which opened in the same building in 1998 and closed in 2006.
The previous museum was presented to a larger audience on September 17, 1996 by Gothaer Insurance as the “Gothaer House of Insurance History”. The official opening took place on June 3, 1998. At the initiative of the Association of German Life Insurers , it was renamed the Museum of the German Insurance Industry in 2006 in order to obtain better support from the General Association of the German Insurance Industry. However, this was refused by its presidium. Gothaer Insurance then ended its sole commitment to financing the museum and closed the exhibition at the end of 2006.
The museum had its exhibition rooms in the entire basement of the Bahnhofstrasse 3a building. The exhibition is based on a collection of insurance history from Gothaer Insurance, rich in materials and tradition. After the closure in 2006, the rooms were largely unused until they were finally closed in early 2009, when most of the exhibits were relocated to the management of Gothaer Insurance in Cologne. On the initiative of Gotha's Lord Mayor Knut Kreuch, only a small inventory remained in Gotha and formed the basis for the new insurance museum to be opened, which was also given its current name.
Current exhibition
The museum shows on the one hand documents on Ernst Wilhelm Arnoldi, the founder of the fire insurance bank (1820) and the life insurance bank (1827) in Gotha, and on the other hand the development of the German insurance industry based on Arnoldi's ideas. The special features of the Insurance Museum include documentation of the fire in Hamburg in 1842, a collection of savings clocks from the first half of the 20th century, and mechanical and electronic tools for office and field staff from various eras.
The exhibits in the German Insurance Museum were initially limited to the items on loan from Gothaer Insurance in Cologne that remained in Gotha. In the course of time, the museum's friends' association received documents, books and paintings, mostly from private sources, which were archived and alternately integrated into the exhibition. Finally, the development association was also able to purchase exhibits from its own resources and with the support of sponsors.
The exhibition was set up in the former office of the general managers of the life insurance bank as well as in the boardroom of the directors. There are also numerous exhibits on the ground floor of the building, in the courtyard and on the gallery of the house. In addition, special exhibitions are shown on the ground floor.
Library
The Association of Friends of the Insurance Museum operates an archive in the basement of the building in which materials on the history of insurance have found their place, primarily from donations. The library contains an extensive inventory of insurance science, insurance law and insurance history literature, also mainly from donations. The Friends' Association keeps the following collections in its library as self-contained holdings:
- Archive Peter Koch : These are books, essays, manuscripts and documentary material that the lawyer, insurance scientist and practitioner as well as important insurance historian Peter Koch had collected.
- Wolfgang Peiner Collection : The former CEO of Gothaer Insurance and later Hamburg Senator for Economic Affairs collected around 450 celebratory and anniversary publications from insurance companies.
- Herbert Stockmann Collection: The long-standing company doctor at Gothaer Lebensversicherung has retained the entire doctor's library and other work material from the days when there were no computers.
- Gerrit Winter painting collection : The former director of the Institute for Insurance Science at the University of Hamburg perfected his passion as a portrait painter at an early age. He made several paintings by important people from the insurance industry, which are also shown alternately in the exhibition.
Personalities
In the museum, selected personalities are honored who were important for the history of the insurance industry. These include Ernst Wilhelm Arnoldi, Georg Florschütz , Kurt Jannott , Franz Kafka and Peter Koch . Detailed information on the work of these people is available on the website of the German Insurance Museum.
Support association
In 2009 the "Friends of the German Insurance Museum Ernst Wilhelm Arnoldi" was founded in Gotha with the aim of running and promoting the museum.
literature
- Marcel Roth: Kafka in Gotha . In: Positions , ed. from the Association of the German Insurance Industry. No. 82, April 2012, pp. 10-11
- Michael Stanczyk: Contours of the Origin. German Insurance Museum shows the forgotten roots of a dynamic industry . In: Versicherungswirtschaft, Volume 68, No. 7, April 1, 2013, pp. 64–65
- Simon Hopf: Insurance in showcases . In: RheinLand Nachrichten. Newspaper for the employees of the RheinLand Insurance Group, July 2013, p. 16
- Sven Prange: A little trick with a big effect. Ernst Wilhelm Arnoldi - First life insurance in Germany . In: Handelsblatt, No. 90, May 12, 2015, pp. 20–21
- Karsten Röbisch: In the beginning there was fire . In: Positions, ed. from the Association of the German Insurance Industry. No. 1, 2019, pp. 24-26
- Alexander Kaspar: German Insurance Museum Ernst Wilhelm Arnoldi honors Prof. Koch . In: Insurance Industry Today. Daily report from May 21, 2019
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b http://www.dvm-gotha.de/foerderverein-1.html
- ↑ Peter Koch: The Gotha House of Insurance History - Or: How the insurance industry is made clear. Insurance industry 55th vol. 17 of September 1, 2000, p. 1302
- ^ Peter Riecke: Third Arnoldi monument in the city of Gotha. In: Thüringische Landeszeitung. Weimar May 20, 2020, p. 15.
- ↑ Peter Koch: The Gotha House of Insurance History - Or: How the insurance industry is made clear. Insurance industry, Karlsruhe. 55. Volume 17 of September 1, 2000, p. 1304
- ^ Circular letter from the Association of German Life Insurers to the participants in the general assembly on September 9 and 10, 2006 in Erfurt and Gotha. (Cologne) December 2006
- ^ Circular letter from the Association of the Museum of the German Insurance Industry to its members. (Cologne) February 1, 2007
- ↑ http://www.dvm-gotha.de/persoenitäten.html
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 35 " N , 10 ° 42 ′ 43.8" E