Robert Hackelöer-Köbbinghoff

Robert Hackelöer-Köbbinghoff (born November 30, 1871 , † January 29, 1924 ) was general director of Nordstern insurance from 1909 until his death .

Gravestone in the Dahlem cemetery

Head of Nordstern Insurance

From 1871 to 1901 the "Nordstern" was managed by Franz Gerkrath as general director. After his death in 1901, his son Albrecht Gerkrath (1872–1909) succeeded him. In 1909, Hackelöer-Köbbinghoff became General Director of Nordstern Insurance as his successor. In the 15 years under his leadership, the group rose to become one of the largest insurers in Germany, surviving the First World War and hyperinflation .

In 1909 the Nordstern Group consisted of two companies. The Nordstern Life Insurance and the Nordstern Accident. The accident insurance gave up the small life insurance business after Hackelöer-Köbbinghoff took office. With this strategic decision, the company's social objectives and the associated dividend restriction no longer existed. In 1911 the new business field of car insurance was started, in 1911/12 fire and burglary insurance was offered and the company changed accordingly to Nordstern Unfall- und Haftpflicht-Versicherungsgesellschaft AG . In connection with this, the capital was increased to 6 million gold marks . In 1914, the premium income reached 5.9 million marks. In 1914, Nordstern Lebensversicherung had a market share of 4% and premium income of 28 million marks.

The most important event before the war was the acquisition of the “Prussian” insurance group in 1914. The Preussische Feuer-Versicherungs AG , founded in 1866, was one of the most important property insurance companies in the German Empire with a premium volume of 4.8 million marks. After the merger, the group was divided into three parts. Nordstern Preussische Versicherung acted as property insurer , the accident and liability offer was offered by Nordstern Unfall , the life insurance company remained unaffected. With the takeover of the Essener Westdeutsche Versicherungs-Actien-Bank AG in 1914, the expansion in western Germany continued.

The world war presented Nordstern Insurance with new challenges. War damage was contractually excluded in property insurance business, but not in life insurance business. At the suggestion of Hackelöer-Köbbinghoff, the German life insurance companies jointly founded the Bank of German Life Insurance Companies. In the event of long life insurance maturities due to war deaths, this should buy the long-term investments (especially mortgages) of the insurance companies and provide short-term liquidity. However, the Nordstern's funding was good enough that it did not need these funds. Nevertheless, the war resulted in high insurance costs. By 1916, 12 million marks in war-related damage had been incurred; the figures are missing for the following years.

The war also led to new products from the Nordstern: From 1915 onwards, aviation damage insurance was offered. The war bond insurance, which was also new, promised payment of the sum insured in war bonds ; an offer that was owed more to patriotism than to customer interests.

The international business that had grown over decades largely collapsed due to the war. The business in the enemy countries was placed under trust administration at the beginning of the war and later confiscated, the business in the friendly and neutral countries was dramatically reduced due to the territorial changes after the war.

On balance, business declined in the first two years of the war, but then increased again. The premium income after the war was around the level of 1914.

In 1917, Nordstern took over 87% of the capital of Düsseldorfer Allgemeine Versicherungs Actien-Gesellschaft and Hackelöer-Köbbinghoff became the company's supervisory board. However, the shares were sold again in 1921. Instead, the Nordstern Transportversicherungs-Actien-Gesellschaft was founded in 1920, in which the transport insurance business was bundled.

After the challenges of the World War, the group had to cope with inflation in Hackelöer-Köbbinghoff's last years in office. This automatically resulted in massive underinsurance in property insurance . Above all, however, the insurance’s financial investments lost massive amounts of value.

The Nordstern insurance under Hackelöer-Köbbinghoff clearly underestimated inflation. A visible sign was a decision that threatened the company's existence: in 1920, Nordstern acquired the Teutonia insurance company in Leipzig. This had significant international business, including a portfolio of 28 million Swiss francs, which was only congruently secured with 1.16 million francs. The Nordstern itself had not previously had any currency risk on its books. In the following years, the exchange rate of the mark collapsed against the franc due to inflation: Nordstern, however, had to continue to pay its high obligations in foreign currency.

This required an improvement in capitalization. After extensive negotiations with various entrepreneurs, Hackelöer-Köbbinghoff succeeded in convincing Hugo Stinnes to invest in Nordstern in 1923 . Stinnes took over a package of shares with a nominal value of 22.5 million marks, which came from a capital increase. The Nordstern should also benefit from the international relationships of the Stinnes Group through this interdependence. After Hackelöer-Köbbinghoffers death, Stinnes expanded his stake in the Nordstern to a majority.

In 1924, Hans Riese succeeded Hackelöer-Köbbinghoff as General Manager.

additional

Hackelöer-Köbbinghoff was a permanent member of the Imperial Supervisory Office for private insurance with the title of government councilor .

He lived in Berlin-Dahlem and is buried in the local cemetery . In 1922 a house (villa) was built for him by the architect Paul Emmerich on Riemeisterstraße.

He was considered a well-known person in the fire insurance business.

literature

• Horst Schmitz: 100 Years of Nordstern Insurance: 1866–1966, 1966, pp. 34–47
• Industrial representatives of German work in words and images - Biographische Sammlung, Berlin 1920.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wilhelm Kesten: Fire damage association Rhenish-Westphalian collieries . 1948, OCLC 229912382 , p. 12 ( limited preview in Google Book search).