IHK Berlin
The IHK Berlin ( Berlin Chamber of Commerce and Industry) has the legal mandate, as a self-governing body of the economy, to represent the overall interests of all businesses in the state of Berlin vis-à-vis politics and the public.
The IHK Berlin is based in the Ludwig-Erhard-Haus , which is named after Ludwig Erhard , the first Minister for Economic Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany. The house is located on Fasanenstrasse in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district next to the Theater des Westens between Kurfürstendamm and the Berlin Zoologischer Garten train station .
history
The Berlin Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1902 by an order of the Prussian Minister of Commerce on December 19, 1901. A year later, the Chamber was given sovereignty over the Berlin Stock Exchange . In the first few years after it was founded, the Berlin Chamber of Commerce had its business premises in a rented apartment on Charlottenstrasse in Berlin-Mitte. In 1905 the chamber then moved into its own representative building on Dorotheenstrasse. Its first president was Wilhelm Herz (until 1913); Franz von Mendelssohn (1865–1935) followed him from 1914 to 1927 .
In 1919 the Potsdam Chamber of Commerce was dissolved and integrated into the Berlin Chamber. The IHK Potsdam was not rebuilt until after the Second World War. With the entry into force of the Chamber Act of April 1, 1924, the Berlin Chamber of Commerce was renamed the Berlin Chamber of Commerce and Industry .
From the " seizure of power " by the Nazis in 1933 as part of were Gleichschaltung the Jewish representatives and employees of the Chamber of Commerce in Berlin from their posts removed without the remaining representatives of the Chamber of Commerce which would have seriously resisted. In the same year the Brandenburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry was dissolved and integrated into the Berlin Chamber. With a law of August 20, 1934, the chambers of industry and commerce in the German Reich lost their independence and were placed under the Reich Ministry of Economics . In 1938 the Berlin Chamber was converted into the Gauwirtschaftskammer Berlin . In 1943 the Nazi regime finally dissolved the chambers of industry and commerce.
Five years after the end of the war, the IHK was first re-established as a registered association on July 1, 1950 in the western part of Berlin . On June 18, 1954, the then Federal Minister of Economics, Ludwig Erhard, laid the foundation stone for the building on Hardenbergstrasse , which opened on June 18, 1955. In 1958 the IHK Berlin received the status of a corporation under public law . In the eastern part of the city one was also Chamber of Commerce set up, as executor of the planned economy should represent Berlin East economy the (small) non-state sector. The East Berlin Chamber was subordinated to the East Berlin Magistrate in 1958 and was named Chamber of Commerce and Industry from 1983 .
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the eastern part of Berlin dissolved on the day of German reunification on October 3, 1990. Since then, the IHK Berlin has been representing all commercial companies in the reunified federal capital.
In 1998 they moved into the newly built Ludwig-Erhard-Haus in Fasanenstrasse , which was built from 1994 to 1997 by British architects Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners. In 2002 the IHK Berlin celebrated its 100th anniversary.
In 2018, the IHK Berlin bought the Ludwig-Erhard-Haus for a total of 26.5 million euros from the real estate fund and is now the sole owner. Thanks to the savings in leasing fees of 7.3 million euros per year, the IHK Berlin was also able to reduce membership fees by 20 percent, according to its own information. The average membership fee is 141 euros.
Business areas
The content of the IHK Berlin's work is divided into six business areas:
- HR & Finance
- Advice & service
- Education & Profession
- Economic policy
- Organization & development
- Strategy & honorary office, with the office of the Berlin Business Juniors
organization
The IHK Berlin employs around 250 full-time employees. These work according to the specifications of the general assembly with max. 110 directly elected volunteer representatives. In the last election (2012), over 11,000 of the 197,000 companies reached took part, i.e. 5.85%. After the elections, the general assembly can itself expand by indirect election by up to twelve members who did not receive a seat through the direct election.
General Assembly
The highest decision-making body of the IHK is the general assembly (VV). The VV elects the Presidium and appoints the General Manager on the proposal of the President. It defines the guidelines for the Chamber's work. The VV also decides the amount of the contributions and advises and decides on the Chamber's budget.
All persons who are authorized as owners, managing directors or board members to represent a member company of the IHK Berlin can be elected to the general assembly. The members of the General Assembly are elected every five years by members of the Chamber in a general and secret ballot. Every company - regardless of its size - has one vote in voting. However , it is not a question of the same election because the votes of the companies are given different weights in order to ensure that the various branches of industry are represented in the plenary meeting in accordance with their economic strength. The IHK Berlin does not publish the unweighted number of votes of individual candidates.
Bureau
The executive committee consists of 14 Berlin entrepreneurs, managing directors and board members (as of 2012). The Presidium includes the President, up to four Vice-Presidents and up to nine other members. The tasks of the Presidium include the preparation of the decisions of the General Assembly and the resolution of all chamber matters that are not reserved for the General Assembly.
| Term of office | president | Companies |
|---|---|---|
| 1902-1913 | Wilhelm Herz , Privy Councilor | Owner of the company S. Herz, rubber and plaster extract factory |
| 1914-1931 | Franz von Mendelssohn | Owner of the Mendelssohn & Co. |
| 1932-1935 | Karl Gelpcke | Director of Hypothekenbank Hamburg |
| 1935-1943 | Friedrich Reinhart *, State Councilor | Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Commerzbank |
| 1943-1945 | Heinrich Hunke * (Berlin Chamber of Commerce¹) | Member of the Board of Management of Deutsche Bank |
| 1943-1945 | Wilhelm Zschintzsch * (Regional Chamber of Commerce Mark Brandenburg¹) | |
| 1950-1957 | Friedrich Spennrath | Chairman of the Board of AEG |
| 1957-1968 | Wilhelm Borner | Chairman of the Management Board of Schering AG |
| 1968-1976 | Walter W. Cobler, Consul | Owner of the Turbon works |
| 1976-1984 | Horst Elfe , Officer of the Order of the British Empire | Member of the board of directors of Deutsche Eisenhandel GmbH |
| 1984-1997 | Horst Kramp | Member of the Management Board of Schering AG |
| 1997-2004 | Werner Gegenbauer | Owner of the Gegenbauer group of companies |
| 2004-2016 | Eric Schweitzer | Member of the board of directors of ALBA AG |
| since 2016 | Beatrice Kramm | Managing Director of the POLYPHON Film- und Fernsehgesellschaft mbH |
* Not elected as president by an ordinary general assembly.
¹ Instead of the Berlin-Brandenburg Gauwirtschaftskammer, which was dissolved with effect from October 31, 1943, there was a Berlin Gauwirtschaftskammer for the area of the Berlin Gau and a Mark Brandenburg Gauwirtschaftskammer for the area of the Mark Brandenburg Gau, both with their headquarters in Berlin. They were regarded as the legal successors of the dissolved Berlin-Brandenburg Chamber (source: Order of the Reich Minister of Economics of October 26, 1943, published in Reichsanzeiger No. 251 of October 27, 1943).
Main office
The employees of the IHK, under the direction of the general manager, form the so-called main office . In addition to the president, who is assigned to the honorary office, the general manager also represents the IHK externally.
| Term of office | Chief Executive |
|---|---|
| 1902-1927 | Heinrich Dove |
| 1927-1933 | Oscar Meyer |
| 1936-1943 | v. Baltz, Ministerialrat a. D. |
| 1950-1969 | Bernhard Skrodzki (†) |
| 1969-1990 | Günter Braun |
| 1990-2002 | Thomas Hertz |
| since 2003 | Jan Eder |
See also
- Chamber of Commerce and Industry
- DIHK
- Chamber of Commerce Abroad
- Mission statement of the honorable businessman
literature
- Ernst Jäkel, Werner Junge: The German Chambers of Industry and Commerce and the German Industry and Commerce Day. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1986.
- Peter Lemburg, Werner Hildebrandt, Jörg Wewel-Blake: New beginnings in change. The way to the Ludwig Erhard House. Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89488-127-5 .
- Thomas Hertz: The Berlin Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A contribution to the economic history of Berlin. de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-020669-2 .
Web links
- Homepage of the IHK Berlin
- Early newspaper articles on the Berlin Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the 20th Century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hertz (2008), pp. 13–24 (Herz) and 24–41 (Mendelssohn)
- ↑ Hertz (2008), pp. 1-60.
- ↑ Hertz (2008), pp. 61-97.
- ↑ Hertz (2008), pp. 98-266.
- ↑ Hertz (2008): pp. 304-449.
- ↑ Lemburg et al. (1998), p. 23 ff.
- ↑ Saving millions through real estate purchase. In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 12, 2018, accessed on January 13, 2018
- ↑ New Year's reception in your own four walls. In: Berliner Morgenpost , January 12, 2018, accessed on January 13, 2018
- ↑ Berlin Chamber of Commerce and Industry buys her house and lowers contributions. At: T-Online.de , accessed on January 13, 2018