Edgar Schnell (Manager)

Edgar Schnell (born June 18, 1889 in Oslo ; † 1972 ) was a German insurance manager and local politician ( FDP ) in Cologne .

Entrepreneurial activity

In 1931, Schnell succeeded Hans Riese as General Director of Nordstern Allgemeine Versicherung , which he originally joined as an apprentice in 1908. Before working as General Director of Nordstern, he was a member of the board of Fortuna Versicherung, a subsidiary of Thuringia Versicherung .

After the Nordstern got into trouble in 1931 due to the banking crisis, Colonia and AachenMünchener commissioned Schell to audit the accounts and prepare restructuring proposals when the two companies took over the majority of shares in Nordstern. After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, he repeatedly made clear the importance of German private insurance . As part of the reorganization of the insurance system in the “Third Reich”, he became head of the transport insurance sector in the Reich Insurance Group . Seven groups in the transport sector reported to him. For the war time, his specialist group was constituted as a “special group”, which stood on an equal footing with the economic groups “private insurance” and “public insurance” of the Reich Insurance Group. At a meeting of the Reich Insurance Committee on November 19, 1940, he came to the conclusion that the German transport insurers were organizationally in a position to take over the market shares of the British competition at that time, but objected to the fact that IG Farben was still doing its foreign business Insured abroad. During the Second World War , the insurance business of Nordstern Insurance increasingly came to a standstill. Until the IHK Berlin was dissolved in 1943, which was the Gauwirtschaftskammer Berlin from 1938 , Schnell was also appointed an expert for transport insurance.

After the end of the war, Schnell took over the business again from May 1948, with the consent of the military government . In addition to Berlin, Nordstern Allgemeine opened a second headquarters in Cologne . From January 1949 Schnell also took over the management of the life insurance company Nordstern Leben, whose headquarters were relocated from Berlin via Bremen to Cologne. Even before the war, he had striven for uniform management of both companies. He also took over the management of Nordstern Rückversicherungs AG. One of his main concerns was the reorganization of the company's reinsurance needs in the course of the reconstruction, along with the normalization of the relationship with the London market, where he was able, for example, to get Willis, Faber & Dumas to take on the reinsurance of Nordstern. Nordstern was the first German insurance company to consistently resume business abroad as far as the Arab region after the war. Because of the increasing international business, he arranged, among other things, in-house English foreign language lessons for all company employees.

On December 31, 1961, he retired.

Local politics in Cologne

After the war, he quickly joined the FDP district association in Cologne. After the party received 11.4% of the vote in the local elections in 1952, he moved into the City Council of Cologne and became Second Deputy Mayor. Even after the local elections in 1956 he remained there as a member of the FDP council faction, but fell ill during a trip to Africa in the winter of 1957/58 and was only able to work there to a limited extent as a result. After that, he decided not to run for the city council again.

Others

In 1959, Mayor Theo Burauen Schnell gave a chimpanzee named "Edgar", who was looked after in the monkey enclosure at Cologne Zoo , on his 70th birthday . Schnell was an air sportsman and honorary member of the Cologne Air Sports Club . Thanks to his support, a Schleicher Ka 2 was bought for the club's gliding group , which was named "Nordstern Köln II" by Thea Schnell in March 1966.

Publications

• German private insurance as a vital component of the National Socialist economic order . Neumann's magazine for insurance, Berlin 1935.

Awards

In 1957 Schnell was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit. This year he celebrated his 25th anniversary as chairman of Nordstern.

literature

• Quick, Edgar . In: August Ludwig Degener : Who is who? The German Who's Who , Vol. 15, Arani, 1967. ( books.google.de )

Web links

• 100 years of Nordstern insurance, 1866–1966

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hermann August Ludwig Degener, Walter Habel: Who is who? The German who's who. Volume 17 . Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1973, p. 1262.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Under the North Star: Star History . ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Hans Fander (Ed.): Fander's Pages . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} 3. Insurance in the politicized economy . In: Gerald D. Feldman : Allianz and the German insurance industry, 1933-1945 . CH Beck, 2001, p. 373 ff.
4. ^ The Insurance Business in 'Greater Germany' . In: Gerald D. Feldman: Allianz and the German Insurance Business, 1933-1945 . Cambridge University, 2001.
5. ^ ^{A b} Edgar Müller-Gotthard: Parallel Sounds . In: Franz Lürbke (Ed.): Lürbke's story (s) .
6. ↑ experts . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1939, part 3, p. 150. "Schnell, Edgar, Gen.-Dir, IHK (for transport insurance)".
7. ↑ experts . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1943, part 3, p. 114. "Schnell, Edgar, Gen.-Dir, IHK (for transport insurance)".
8. ↑ ^{a b} Unterm Nordstern: Sterngeflüster ( memento of the original from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Hans Fander (Ed.): Fander's Pages.
9. ^ Friedrich Jacobs: Beginnings of the FDP local politics in Cologne . In: FDP member newspaper Cologne Intern . 09 / 1979-05 / 1980; reproduced in: 60 years of the FDP parliamentary group in the Cologne City Council . (PDF) FDP parliamentary group in the Cologne City Council.
10. ^ Bernhard Fassbender: Names of the Cologne aviation , aviation archive Cologne.
11. ^ The Cologne helicopter airport, Cologne aviation archive.