Itzehoer Insurance

Itzehoer Versicherung / Brandgilde from 1691 Insurance association on mutuality
legal form	Mutual insurance association
founding	November 10, 1906
Seat	Itzehoe , Germany
management	Uwe Ludka, CEO
Number of employees	801
Branch	Insurance
Website	www.itzehoer.de
	As of January 10, 2020

Main entrance in Itzehoe

The Itzehoer Versicherung / Brandgilde von 1691 VVaG is a mutual insurance association in the private, commercial and agricultural sector with its headquarters in Itzehoe

history

On November 10, 1906, 47 men met at the “Germania” hotel in Kiel to negotiate the establishment of a new association. Some basic ideas and demands of the founding fathers Otto Schwenck and Johannes Wieckhorst, the first chairman and co-founder of the association, were:

"The insurance extends as far as possible to all liability cases that can affect the farmer as such."
"It relates to personal injury and property damage with an insurance limit of up to 50,000 marks, and with the restriction that the association would only reimburse 90% of the damage amount."
"To cover the damage and expenses of the association, a contribution will be charged."
"The connection to the provincial association secures the associations the support of the Chamber of Agriculture."
"After all, every club should hand over damage over 5,000 marks to the Chamber of Agriculture for settlement."

The founding fund consisted of a cash deposit of 10,000 gold marks and five bills of exchange for 3,000 marks each. This could be repaid to the sponsors after just a few years due to good business results. The Agricultural Liability Insurance Association founded in this way began its business operations with the Elskop office on March 1st, 1907 and already had 10,138 members when it was founded; by the end of 1907 the association had grown to 16,368 members. In 1910 the main office was moved from the marshland village of Elskop to Carlstrasse in Itzehoe.

In 1930, at the height of the global economic crisis and the general need, the liability insurance association dared to take the step to become a motor liability insurer, which is now the largest division of Itzehoer insurance. In 1939 the number of insured motor vehicles (mostly cars) had already risen to 4,000.

The number of members rose from 32,603 in 1945 only slowly to 33,600 in 1950. From 1951, especially due to the increase in motor vehicles used in agriculture and the receipt of hunting liability insurance, the number of members rose quickly to over 44,000 members until 1955. With increasing motorization, with the inclusion of comprehensive insurance, insurance coverage beyond the protection of third party claims against the member was offered for the first time, the motor insurance offer was supplemented and completed with the inclusion of passenger accident insurance in 1971.

In 1960, more tractors than passenger cars were insured for the last time, after which passenger cars increasingly dominated. This symbolizes the change from a pure agricultural insurer to an insurer for private customers. In order to do justice to the smooth management of the growing number of contracts and thus also the growing number of employees, the current corporate headquarters in Itzehoe at Itzehoer Platz was moved into in 1970 after a year and a half of construction.

In 1978 property insurance was taken up; characterized by moderate growth in the first half of the eighties. During these years the association changed from liability and motor insurance to a composite insurer that offers customers all financial and insurance products. From 1979 the association operated general accident insurance; Due to the increasing demand for private old-age provision, it was decided in 1983 to found Itzehoer Lebensversicherungs-AG. In 1984 the first life insurance policies were taken out. For the first time, Itzehoer offered insurance protection not only in the club, but through a subsidiary. The reason for this lies in the separation of divisions required in Germany.

From 1986 the mediation of health insurance companies began; In 1988 the establishment of the Finanz und Versicherungsvermittlungs GmbH (later IHM Itzehoer HanseMerkur Finanz und Versicherungsvermittlungs GmbH) and in 1995 the establishment of the Itzehoer Rechtsschutz-Schadenervice GmbH and the start of legal expenses insurance.

In 1996 there was a merger with the second oldest fire guild in Germany to date, the Schleswig-Holstein Fire Guild from 1691 a. G. for Itzehoer Versicherung / Brandgilde from 1691 Insurance association on mutuality. An advisory board set up as part of the merger has the function of counteracting the alienation of the interests of the members - in particular those that have arisen from the history of the fire guild. In order to be able to offer sales of insurance products nationwide, broker sales were set up beyond the borders of Schleswig-Holstein in 1997. Broker sales has existed as an independent directorate under the Itzehoer umbrella since 2000.

In 2004 the German Pension Fund (DPK) was founded together with the Continentale, HanseMerkur Insurance Group, INTER Insurance and the property and liability insurance of the Bäckerhandwerk VVaG (SHB), which is part of the company pension scheme (bAV) with old-age, survivors and disability protection covers all supply risks.

In 2011, Itzehoer Versicherungen acquired the Cologne-based direct insurer AdmiralDirekt.de, the German branch of the British insurer Admiral Group plc. The wholly-owned direct sales subsidiary specializes in vehicle insurance for private cars. AdmiralDirekt.de GmbH already had a customer base of around 33,000 policies and a loss ratio of 80 percent for the 2010 financial year when it was taken over. In June 2012, AdmiralDirekt.de GmbH had an insurance portfolio of over 100,000 policies.

In May 2015, Itzehoer opened a new conference center. A data center and offices were also built in the extension of the headquarters for 6.7 million euros: a total of 1180 square meters of usable space on three floors. In 2017, a new 3000 square meter building was opened in the Airport Business Park in Cologne-Gremberghoven for the 150 employees of the Cologne-based direct sales subsidiary AdmiralDirekt.de.

In 2018, the group took over the legal protection division of ALTE LEIPZIGER and, with a total of 360,000 legal protection contracts, became one of the top 20 legal protection insurers in Germany with a location in Munich. According to the insurance company, it had more than one million customers and over 800 employees as of December 31, 2018. The balance sheet total was 1.75 billion euros.

In 2019, the company passed the hurdle of half a billion euros in premium volume. In October, construction work began on a six-storey extension with space for 200 employees on the premises of the headquarters in Itzehoe. It should be completed in 2022 - the construction costs are estimated at 28 million euros.

Corporate structure

Itzehoer Insurance is a mutual insurance association (VVaG). This means that the insured are also members of the association.

The Itzehoer subsidiaries have the legal form of a GmbH and are 100 percent owned by Itzehoer. Exceptions are the IHM (51%) and better green (50%).

The company is represented through three sales channels: in northern Germany through shop stewards, nationwide through brokers and multiple agents and in online sales in the motor vehicle sector through the company's subsidiary AdmiralDirekt.de in Cologne.

The most important corporate bodies are the supervisory boards and the management board.

Social Commitment

Itzehoer Versicherungen has been committed to the common good for decades. The focus is on cultural, social and sport-promoting activities. Since the mid-1990s, music promotion has been a focus with the John Lennon Talent Award and, from 2014, with the follow-up program ITZEtalent - however, among other things, the major music casting shows on television and greatly changed behavior in live music consumption led to serious upheavals. Therefore, Itzehoer increasingly took on other commitments and withdrew completely from music funding at the end of 2018. Instead, it is intensifying its activities for the common good - from its own donation program “The North Helps” to various cultural sponsorships (including main sponsor of the Itzehoe Theater) and intensive support for various sports such as running, triathlon and equestrian sport to sponsoring the basketball Pro B team “Itzehoe EAGLES ”.

Corporate group

The Itzehoer Insurance group includes:

Itzehoer Versicherung / Brandgilde from 1691 VvaG
Itzehoer Lebensversicherungs AG
IHM Itzehoer HanseMerkur Finanz und Versicherungsvermittlungs GmbH (51 percent stake)
Itzehoer legal protection damage service
Itzehoer Rechtsschutz Union Claims Service
Better green (50 percent stake)
Brandgilde Versicherungskontor insurance broker
IVI Informationsververarbeitung GmbH
AdmiralDirekt.de
German pension fund (participation 23.75 percent)