IHK Lahn-Dill
The IHK Lahn-Dill is the chamber of industry and commerce for the Lahn-Dill district and the old district of Biedenkopf as part of today's Marburg-Biedenkopf district . In addition, there are the communities of Biebertal and Wettenberg in the district of Gießen . The IHK Lahn-Dill, merged in 2008 from the IHKs Dillenburg and Wetzlar, is a corporation under public law . It has 21,816 member companies, including 5,365 companies registered in the commercial register (as of December 31, 2019).
Economic region
335,948 inhabitants live on a total area of 1,514 square kilometers in the chamber district of the IHK Lahn-Dill (as of December 31, 2018). The entire area is characterized by medium-sized manufacturing industry. 37 percent of the nearly 120,000 employees find their job here (as of June 30, 2019). On an annual average for 2019, industrial companies with more than 50 employees alone offered 34,071 people a job in the local region. With an export share of 42 percent, these companies generated total sales of 7.8 billion euros (2019 annual report).
On the basis of an industry characterized by a large variety of branches, the service sector also finds a stable basis. 43,311 people find their job here. With more than 24,000 employees, this branch of the economy is the second most important employer in the region (as of June 30, 2019).
history
Foundation of the Chamber of Commerce in Dillenburg
By decree of September 3, 1863, the establishment of chambers of commerce was ordered across the board for the Duchy of Nassau . They should protect the interests of the trade and advise the state government on all questions of trade and transport. Another ordinance of March 4, 1864 designated Wiesbaden and Limburg as well as Dillenburg as the seat of a chamber of commerce. Their district included the offices of Dillenburg , Herborn , Rennerod , Marienberg and Hachenburg . After the elections carried out in autumn 1864, the 10 elected members met on January 23, 1865 for the constituent meeting and elected the hut owner JC Grün as their first chairman.
After the introduction of the new Prussian district order in 1885, the boundaries of the chamber district also changed. In 1890 the former Rennerod office was assigned to the Limburg Chamber of Commerce; In return, the Hessian district of Biedenkopf came to Dillenburg until 1866 , as well as some communities from the former Selters / Ww., so that the chamber district now included the Dill district , the Biedenkopf district and the Oberwesterwaldkreis .
Founding of the Wetzlar Chamber of Commerce
The establishment of the Chamber of Commerce in Wetzlar, whose merchants and manufacturers had been demanding their own Chamber of Commerce since the beginning of the 1870s, proved more difficult. One obstacle was the special administrative political situation in which the city and district of Wetzlar found themselves. As part of the administrative district of Koblenz and the Rhine Province , they were urged to join the Koblenz Chamber of Commerce, with which they had no common economic interests. In the opinion of the responsible Prussian trade minister, the area was too small to form its own chamber. Only after the Wetzlar companies had committed themselves to extraordinarily large financial sacrifices did he give in. On October 4, 1900, the elections for the Wetzlar Chamber of Commerce took place, and on December 12, 1900. M. the 12 members came together for their constituent meeting in the district house. Eduard Kaiser, general director of Buderus'schen Eisenwerke , was elected chairman. Unlike the Chamber of Commerce in Dillenburg, which was satisfied with a part-time secretary until 1919, the Wetzlar Chamber of Commerce employed a full-time syndic from the start .
Separate ways
The regular demands of the Prussian Minister of Commerce for a merger of small chambers of commerce into strong units were first cast in the form of a draft law in 1917, which floated like a sword of Damocles over the small chambers of commerce even after the end of the war. As a reaction, Dillenburg, Wetzlar and other small chambers of commerce, which were officially called the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) in Prussia since April 1, 1924, joined forces to form the “Interest Group of Small and Medium-Sized Chambers of Commerce” to share their interests in the foreseeable reorganization of the chamber landscape defend. However, the development could not be stopped. In order to avoid an imminent forced merger, the IHK Wetzlar, which economically tended towards the Rhine-Main area, joined the IHK Frankfurt a. M.-Hanau. The IHK Dillenburg merged at the same time with the chambers Siegen and Olpe, with which it was already connected through similar interests, to form the IHK Siegen-Olpe-Dillenburg. Both continued to exist as district offices with their own presidium and unchanged district boundaries until the formal dissolution of the chambers of industry and commerce and their transfer to the regional chambers of commerce in 1942.
New beginning and merger
Immediately after the occupation of Dillenburg and Wetzlar on March 28 and 29, 1945 and thus before the surrender of the German armed forces on May 7, the Dillenburg and Wetzlar Chambers of Commerce and Industry were reorganized within their old chamber boundaries. The respective presidents were initially installed by the American military government. Free chamber elections did not take place again until April 1947.
Despite the achievements of the chambers of industry and commerce in the reconstruction, which were recognized by all sides, in May 1946 the State Ministry of Greater Hesse withdrew its public function from the Hessian chambers of industry and commerce on the instructions of the American military government. A month later, detailed implementation guidelines were issued, which the chambers of industry and commerce declared to be free associations of traders with voluntary membership. While the chambers of industry and commerce in the other federal states gradually regained their public law status, they were denied it in Hesse. It was not until the federal law on the provisional regulation of the law of the chambers of industry and commerce of December 18, 1956 that they were restored to public corporations. In order to achieve more efficient work in the interests of their members, the Hessian chambers of industry and commerce looked beyond a merger for new forms of cooperation. As a result, there was a stronger division of tasks and a concentration of fields of work in individual chambers of industry and commerce. The cooperation between Dillenburg and Wetzlar developed particularly closely. There was a joint newsletter since 1997 and since January 1998 both chambers have shared a common chief executive, followed by the amalgamation of further departments. The positive experiences with this “confederation” induced both chambers to merge on January 1st, 2008 to form the “Chamber of Commerce and Industry Lahn-Dill” with a double seat in Dillenburg and Wetzlar.
organization
The IHK Lahn-Dill is one of the 79 chambers of industry and commerce in Germany that support the umbrella organization of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry . Company representatives directly elected by all members determine the content and guidelines of the work in the plenary meeting. Company representatives are involved in other specialist committees and working groups in order to strengthen the competitiveness of the economic region in accordance with the key objectives of the IHK. 1,000 volunteer examiners from member companies and vocational schools ensure the smooth functioning of the dual vocational training on site. 50 full-time employees implement the legal requirements and resolutions of the voluntary bodies in their daily work.
In addition to the statutory provisions of the federal government ( IHK law ) and the state (in particular the Hessian implementation law for the IHK law), its own statutes form the basis of the work of the IHK Lahn-Dill. The law regulates that the statutes, the election regulations, the contribution regulations and the fee regulations are subject to the exclusive decision-making by the IHK plenary meeting. The IHK law further regulates that these resolutions of the plenary assembly require the approval of the country that has legal supervision over the chambers of industry and commerce.
The contribution obligations of the members are also regulated by law, whereby the performance of the companies is taken into account accordingly. A large number of small companies can use the services of the IHK free of charge.
As a legally appointed representative, the IHK Lahn-Dill represents the overall economic interests of all industrial, commercial and service companies in the entire chamber district. She is responsible for promoting the commercial economy of her district. The IHK Lahn-Dill has three offices in the cities of Dillenburg , Wetzlar and Biedenkopf .
The general assembly is the supreme body of the Lahn-Dill Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It consists of 45 directly elected and five co-opted company representatives. The honorary members of the general assembly are directly elected for five years, with each company having one vote regardless of size. The formation of 6 branch-specific electoral groups and 3 electoral districts ensures that the general assembly reflects the economic structure of the IHK district and its economic and regional characteristics. The general assembly determines the guidelines of the IHK work and decides on all questions that are of fundamental importance for the member companies or the work of the IHK. Every year the plenary assembly adopts the work program as well as the business plan for its financing and sets the IHK contributions in the business charter.
The General Assembly elects the President and Vice-Presidents from among its members and appoints the General Manager. President of the IHK Lahn-Dill has been Eberhard Flammer since 2014. He represents the IHK Lahn-Dill together with the general manager Burghard Loewe. In addition to the President, the Presidium consists of four Vice-Presidents. The Presidium determines the main focus of the IHK Lahn-Dill's work and prepares the resolutions for the General Assembly.
tasks
The three main tasks are advising companies, representing political interests and fulfilling state tasks in the hands of the economy. The idea of compulsory membership also follows from the overriding tasks of the IHK. Only compulsory membership enables independent advice to politics and administration, the fulfillment of state tasks and the representation of the general interests of the domestic economy.
The IHK Lahn-Dill advocates better local conditions, performs numerous legal tasks and supports companies with a wide variety of services. It acts as a critical partner in politics, an independent lawyer for the market and as a customer-oriented service provider for the economy. The spectrum of fields of activity ranges from advising public administration and legislative bodies to expert opinions for the courts, from responsibility for commercial and industrial vocational training and continuing education to individual company support.
As a self-governing body and representative of the interests of the economy, the IHK Lahn-Dill communicates the interests of the member companies to the public and influences legislative and administrative procedures - from the municipality to the EU, through statements.
Business areas
The work of the IHK Lahn-Dill is divided into the following business areas:
- Location policy
- Start-up assistance and business support
- Initial and continuing education
- Innovation / environment
- International
- Law / fair play
Self-image
The self-image is laid down in the model adopted by the General Assembly. Accordingly, the IHK Lahn-Dill represents the general interests of its members and promotes the economic development of the region on the basis of the social market economy. The main objective of the IHK Lahn-Dill is to strengthen the competitiveness of the Lahn-Dill economic region. Achievement of this goal must be measured at all times by the improvements achieved and the comparison with other regions. The main tasks are
- To strengthen the social market economy,
- To take on the challenges of demographic change and
- To strengthen the innovative strength of companies.
The performance of these tasks is concretized in the work priorities approved annually by the general assembly.
Magazine: LahnDill Economy
The LahnDill Wirtschaft is the magazine of the Lahn-Dill Chamber of Commerce and Industry. With it, the IHK Lahn-Dill informs its member companies about regional and national economic events. The print edition appears ten times a year, on the first calendar week of the month (editions 01/02 and 07/08 are both double editions). The print run is 18,000 copies.
swell
- Martin Will: Self-administration of the economy: Law and history of self-administration in the chambers of industry and commerce, craft guilds, district craft associations, chambers of crafts and chambers of agriculture, 2011 ISBN 3161507053 , page 307-315
- Statutes of the IHK Lahn-Dill
