Leonberger Bausparkasse

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leonberger Bausparkasse

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1929
resolution 2001
Reason for dissolution Merger with Wüstenrot Bausparkasse AG
Seat Leonberg , Germany
Number of employees 2400 (1979)
Branch Building society

The Leonberger Bausparkasse AG was a building society in the Württemberg city ​​of Leonberg . It emerged from the Christian Notbund founded in 1924 for mutual aid . The Leonberger Bausparkasse merged with Wüstenrot Bausparkasse AG in 2001 . At this time the "Leo-Bau" was the fourth largest private building society in Germany.

Pin with LeoBau logo for special honors

Company history

founding

The missionary Christian Röckle , from Eltingen (now a district of Leonberg) and founder of the Philadelphia Association (1883–1966) founded the Christian Emergency Association in Leonberg in 1924 for mutual aid . In order to alleviate the housing shortage, a building cooperative with a department for building savings contracts on a non-profit basis was added. It was transformed into an independent legal entity on February 27, 1929, the Creditgenossenschaft des Christlichen Notbundes zur Mutual Hilfe eGmbH (CCN) . This started operations in two rented rooms on Steinstrasse in Leonberg. Loans were only granted for a specific purpose. 25 building society savers received 264,800 RM, and the first building society building was built. In the conflict between evangelism and entrepreneurship, Christian Röckle resigned from the board in 1932.

1929 to 1945

At the end of 1929 the CCN had 458 members, one year later 2779. In 1930 the Creditgenossenschaft became the CCN-Bausparkasse , which moved into an administration building on Silberbergstrasse. In 1934 the company changed its name to Leonberger Bausparkasse eGmbH and had a new building built on Lindenstrasse by the architect Willem Bäumer .

The building society reform in 1938 limited the field of activity of building societies to satisfying the subordinate (today: subordinate) real estate loan requirements . This reduced the financing share of the building societies in the individual property. The building society reform resulted in a concentration of the industry.

Four building societies joined the Leonberger Bausparkasse in 1939:

  • Vaterhaus-Bausparkasse GmbH, Pforzheim
  • Kosmos-Bausparkasse AG, Stuttgart
  • Bausparkasse Germania AG, Cologne
  • Bausparkasse Das Heim eGmbH, Krefeld

As early as 1933, Volkshilfe-Bausparkasse eGmbH, Stuttgart, had merged with Leonberger Bausparkasse.

The company took advantage of the concentration movement to transform the cooperative into a stock corporation. For this purpose, the share capital of Kosmos-Bausparkasse was acquired and the company name was changed to Leonberger Bausparkasse . The Vaterhaus-Bausparkasse GmbH and Bausparkasse Germania AG were initially merged with this. Finally, the new Leonberger Bausparkasse took over the holdings of Bausparkasse Das Heim and the former cooperative. These transactions roughly tripled the Leonberger's business volume.

The major shareholder of the new Leonberger Bausparkasse was the Allgemeine Rentenanstalt (ARA), a company of the Württembergische Lebensversicherungs AG in Stuttgart.

Despite the Second World War, the Bausparkasse continuously increased its new business from 1939 to 1943, although private residential construction almost came to a standstill. In 1944 the level of the previous year was almost maintained. The company explained this development with the fact that many building society savers wanted to accumulate capital during the war so that they could start building their own home immediately after the war. Only in 1945, when Germany was increasingly becoming a theater of war, did new business collapse.

1945 to 1978

New contracts reached a new high as early as 1946. In order to quickly alleviate the housing shortage in the post-war period, Leonberger offered housing savings contracts. They also played a role in financing the first condominiums . In the post-war period, the company was the last building society that was still properly listed. As a result of the currency reform in 1948, the balance sheet total shrank to 12 million DM, but rose again to around 100 million DM by the end of 1953. During the currency reform, building society savings were treated better than ordinary savings deposits due to the conversion ratio of 10: 1.

In 1954 the building society celebrated its 25th birthday with around 60,000 building society savers and contracts worth DM 665 million. In the meantime, there were more than 200 employees in the office and more than 300 in the field . The Leonberger Bausparkasse supported the sales force with constant home visits in larger cities, which, in addition to attracting new home savers, also served to advise existing customers.

In 1958 alone, new business rose by 48.2% compared to an average increase for all building societies of 36.3%. The total number of contracts increased to almost 160,000 contracts with a home savings sum of over DM 2.5 billion.

In 1959 Leonberger was admitted to the deposit business . The advertising for the savings business was operated very cautiously at first, as the building society competed with the banks with this branch of business, which were their largest suppliers of foreign money. The accounting was converted to punch cards , the back office was rationalized and modernized.

In 1961 the Leonberger Bausparkasse was the third largest of the 17 private building societies. It had a market share of 10.5 percent. The constant increase in building prices prompted Leonberger in 1961 to propose using more prefabricated components in residential construction. In experimental buildings in Cologne , 15 to 20 percent of the pure construction costs were saved.

The institute achieved a record result in 1966. 77,055 new home loan and savings contracts were signed. The balance sheet total rose to 1.5 billion DM. A year later, the downturn in the economy and the effects of the Tax Amendment Act 1966 led to a drastic decline in new contracts.

From 1974 on, the Württembergische Feuerversicherung AG , the Württembergische Rechtsschutzversicherung AG, the Allgemeine Rentenanstalt (ARA) and the Leonberger Bausparkasse AG appeared under a uniform group name. For 1974 the Leonberger Bausparkasse reported new business with 119,000 contracts. The liable equity capital amounted to 88.661 million DM. Since the introduction of the Deutsche Mark, the building society had financed 460,000 apartments with 12.415 billion DM.

1979 to 1998

In 1979, 50 years after it was founded, Leonberger employed more than 2,400 people and had total assets of around 5.3 billion DM.

In 1984 Leonberger Immobilien GmbH was founded as a real estate brokerage subsidiary, and in 1986 Leonberger was the first building society to go public .

In 1988, in line with the trend towards the all-finance group of the late 1980s, Commerzbank acquired a stake in Leonberger Bausparkasse. The two major shareholders Commerzbank and Allgemeine Rentenanstalt each held 39.9 percent of the subscribed capital, the rest was accounted for by around 1,100 shareholders in free float . The Leonberger was the fourth largest private building society in the Federal Republic.

In 1991, Leonberger Bausparkasse experienced the most successful new business in its company's history to date with 173,563 new home loan and savings contracts, 55,571 of which were in the new federal states. The company had set up a completely new field service with employees based there in the new federal states. The shareholders benefited from the result with the third dividend increase in a row.

As a step towards the European domestic market , Leonberger Bausparkasse opened its first foreign branch in Luxembourg in 1991 , which was closed again four years later.

The merger

Ruin of the blown up building society

At the end of 1998, Commerzbank parted ways with Leonberger Bausparkasse after ten years. The Württembergische Versicherungsgruppe ( Stuttgart ) took over its shares. The Württembergische thus held at least 80 percent of the voting rights .

In 1999 the Leonberger Bausparkasse became part of the new financial group Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG (W & W), which arose from the merger of the former Württemberg insurance group with Bausparkasse Wüstenrot . W & W announced an intended merger of the two building societies. The group already held around 95% of the Leonberger shares. The 1999 annual surplus of 23.9 million DM was distributed in full to the shareholders, the dividend rose from 18 to 28%.

In August 2000, the real estate subsidiaries Wüstenrot Immobilien GmbH and Leonberger Immobilien GmbH merged to form the nationwide Wüstenrot Leonberger Immobilien GmbH .

In the last year of its existence, the Leonberger Bausparkasse maintained its market position, the sales force was more successful in the building society business than the industry average. With around 110,000 contracts for Bauspar sums of DM 3.3 billion, the company set a new allotment record. The annual surplus rose to 42.1 million DM.

In 2001, Leonberger Bausparkasse AG merged with Bausparkasse Wüstenrot AG. The Annual General Meeting approved the merger on July 17, 2001. The shares were exchanged at a ratio of 1: 1. The "new" Wüstenrot Bausparkasse AG was around a third larger than before. With over three million customers, 3.5 million home loan and savings contracts with a home savings sum of 77 billion euros and over 3,400 office staff in Ludwigsburg, Leonberg and in the branches as well as around 3,100 independent field service partners, the company was the third largest building society in Germany after Schwäbisch Hall and BHW with a market share of around 12%. Within the W & W group, the Bausparkasse was the only significant source of income.

The around 900,000 customers of the former Leonberger Bausparkasse were initially looked after by a Leonberger advisory service . In 2003 the Leonberger brand disappeared for good , the lettering on the office tower was replaced by Wüstenrot . 360 employees were allowed to stay in Leonberg for a few more years, and at the end of June 2008 the last jobs moved to Ludwigsburg. In the spring of 2009, work began on liquidating the Leonberg location completely. Several buildings have been demolished, with more to follow. When the main building was blown up, however, a mistake was made, because a large part of the upper part of the building did not collapse and remained as a huge concrete ruin on the rubble.

The "Leonberger Weg"

In October 1990 the Leonberger Bausparkasse introduced a new building society tariff that set standards in the industry. The LW system (the abbreviation stood for Leonberger Weg) replaced the rigid tariff model, in which building society savers had to commit to a certain variant of their home loan when signing a contract . The new, flexible tariff gave customers the opportunity to change key parameters of their home loan and savings contract up to two months before the allocation.

Instead of the previous seven possible contract variants in tariffs T1 to T5 , the LW system opened up more than 200 possible combinations, which the customer could also change retrospectively without additional costs. The cornerstones were a credit interest between zero and 4.75 percent, a loan interest between 1.5 and 5.75 percent, a loan of up to 150 percent of the home loan and savings balance and a repayment period between 11 and 16.5 years. The basic idea of ​​building society savings as a community of solidarity remained untouched: Those who take advantage of benefits have to accept compromises in other areas. The price of flexibility was increased sales charge of 1.6 per cent of the contract sum .

The LW system required according to the company a preparatory period of four years. The approval by the Federal Banking Supervisory Office took two years to complete. The collective bargaining system was so complex that for the first time it could not be described in tables: The sales force was therefore equipped with a so-called tariff calculator (a pocket calculator with special software).

The aim of the new tariff model was to open up the European domestic market in 1993. The Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall, the BHW Group and, in the spring of 1990, all twelve Landesbausparkassen had already introduced variable tariffs, some of which only offered around ten options.

The complex tariff was replaced a few years later by a simplified version called the Leo Run . For the first time in building society savings, longer savings periods could be exchanged for lower loan interest rates or, conversely, shorter savings periods could be exchanged for higher loan interest rates.

Significance for the city of Leonberg

Economy, image

For decades, Leonberger Bausparkasse was the largest employer in Leonberg and the largest business tax payer . In 1979 it employed more than 2,400 people.

The Bausparkasse was one of three trademarks that made the city's name known nationwide - alongside the Leonberger dog breed and the Leonberg motorway triangle .

Urban planning

The first office buildings on Lindenstrasse were built in 1934 by Willem Bäumer . After the Second World War, the company premises grew considerably on its foundations. The west building was built in the mid-1950s, the north building followed around 1967 and finally the nine-story south building in 1972. At that time, the southern German building societies had reached the peak of their growth. The company premises comprised 37,000 square meters of floor space on an area of ​​21,700 square meters. The architect of the company headquarters was Ludwig Hilmar Kresse , at that time rector of the technical college in Stuttgart . He also planned a similar high-rise , but twice as high, for the competition, the Bausparkasse Wüstenrot in Ludwigsburg.

The office skyscrapers of the Leonberger Bausparkasse were the first skyscrapers in Leonberg and marked the beginning of a new city center . Its demolition in May 2009 ( demolition on May 31) meant a further urban break for the city , as the historic old town is visible again from a greater distance for the first time. At the beginning of 2008, an architectural competition opened the prospect of connecting the historic old town and the new town center with lines of sight and also reserving a generous open space below the old town crown for an equestrian stadium.

In August 2008, the Stuttgart investor Rudolf Häussler acquired the building society site in Wüstenrot after the city had waived its right of first refusal . The Häussler Group announced that it will invest 80 million euros in a high-quality residential area for living, working and shopping. In November 2010, the development plan was approved by the local council.

art

In 1973, the double column symbol of friendship by Gerlinde Beck was placed in front of the entrance to the Leonberger Bausparkasse . The two-tone steel sculpture, more than seven meters high, was a commissioned work . The Wüstenrot Bausparkasse left the work to the city of Leonberg on permanent loan in 2009 .

In 1992, the financial institution and the Christian Wagner Society founded a poetry prize named after the poet Christian Wagner (1835-1918) from what is now the Leonberg district of Warmbronn .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h shares and historical securities Leonberger Bausparkasse AG ( Memento of the original dated June 16, 2009 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dm-aktie.de
  2. ↑ "Mammon only serves the kingdom of God", in: Leonberger Kreiszeitung June 28, 2008
  3. ^ A b c Leonberger Bausparkasse Aktiengesellschaft 1929-1954 , commemorative publication for the 25th anniversary
  4. ↑ a b page no longer available , search in web archives: Enterprises@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.zeit.de , in: Die Zeit July 29, 1954
  5. ↑ The shareholder must know in: Die Zeit May 29, 1959
  6. ^ Leonberger Bausparkasse creates financial reserves , in: Die Zeit June 10, 1960
  7. ↑ The desire to build is unclouded , in: Die Zeit June 8, 1962
  8. ^ Leonberger cheaper housing construction , in: Die Zeit June 9, 1961
  9. ↑ From companies in: Die Zeit June 30, 1967
  10. ^ From undertakings , in: Die Zeit 23 August 1968
  11. ^ Peter Koch: Contributions to the history of the German insurance industry, in: Versicherungswirtschaft Heft 5/1996, p. 43
  12. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Together we canvass for your trust@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.zeit.de in: Die Zeit, August 29, 1975
  13. ↑ From the cradle to the grave in: Die Zeit December 9, 1988
  14. ↑ Börse online 38/1990
  15. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Der Leonberger Weg: Bauspar-Markt ohne Grenzen@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.zeit.de in: Die Zeit, September 4, 1992
  16. ^ Takeover of Commerzbank shares from Leonberger in: Manager Magazine December 9, 1998
  17. ↑ W&W real estate subsidiaries join forces in: Handelsblatt 23 August 2000
  18. ^ Press release Leonberger Bausparkasse dated April 9, 2001
  19. ↑ Wüstenrot expects only moderate growth in: Handelsblatt January 15, 2003
  20. ↑ "Häussler wants to invest 80 million in Leonberg" in: Stuttgarter Nachrichten September 2, 2008
  21. ↑ a b Wirtschaftswoche September 14, 1990
  22. ↑ Hans Laux: Deregulierte Bauspararife, lecture on December 16, 1999 at the 8th Symposium on Finance, Banking and Insurance at the University of Karlsruhe (TH)
  23. ^ "The chance of the century for Leonberg" in: Leonberger Kreiszeitung February 6, 2008
  24. ^ "Urban redevelopment: the largest Leonberger house should be demolished by 2009" in: Leonberger Kreiszeitung February 17, 2007
  25. ↑ "Consensus on the basic idea for a new urban quarter" in: Leonberger Kreiszeitung March 10, 2008
  26. ^ Leonberger Kreiszeitung September 2, 2008, March 19, 2009, April 30, 2009
  27. ↑ Leonberg-Mitte.de: Chronology ( Memento of the original from March 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.leonberg-mitte.de 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. , Accessed January 3, 2011
  28. ↑ "The friendship will remain in Leonberg on loan" in: Leonberger Kreiszeitung March 6, 2009
  29. ^ Christian Wagner Prize for Leising in: Die Zeit, August 28, 1992

Coordinates: 48 ° 47 '57.9 "  N , 9 ° 0' 46.1"  E