United Ship Insurance
| United Ship Insurance VAG® | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Mutual insurance association (V. a. G.) |
| founding | 1856 |
| Seat | Hanover |
| management | Authorized representative: Detlef Kohlmeier (chairman), Olaf Gneipel; Supervisory Board: Klaus-Erich Reinhard (Chairman) |
| Branch | Insurance |
| Website | www.vsv.de |
The Vereinigte Schiffs-Versicherung VAG (VSV) is an insurer of inland vessels used in commercial inland navigation as well as watercraft , hydraulic engineering systems and equipment. The company has a market share of around 30 percent of the German stock of motorized goods and passenger ships . The Vereinigte Schiffs-Versicherung as a mutual insurance association (VaG) is the oldest and largest inland ship insurer in Germany. The company was founded in 1856 as the "Electricity Vehicle Insurance Company in Landsberg an der Warthe ".
structure
In addition to its headquarters in Hanover, the company has branches in Wörth am Main and Duisburg . In addition to a large number of its own experts, the association also employs freelance experts in Haren (Ems) , Plaue , Rotterdam and Antwerp . In addition, through its subsidiary Leuchtturm Versicherungs-Service GmbH , the company has also been offering insurance cover for other areas as well as other services such as ship inspection commissions , appraisals etc. since 1970 .
Company history
founding
On March 15, 1856, some ship owners founded a ship insurance under the name Strom-Fahrzeug-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft zu Landsberg an der Warthe in order to “... mutually insure their vehicles against accidents, excluding everything they carry and are loaded with. "
The founders were ship owners in the Landsberg area, in what is now Poland, whose shipping area, according to the founding statutes, extended to the waters of the Warta , Netze , Vistula , Oder , Elbe , Spree , Havel and Saale . At that time , the insurance covered barges made of wood that were pulled or moved with sails. The vehicles had only a small tonnage in relation to today's shipping and were very small. According to the statutes, only ships with a value of at least 250 Reichstalers were accepted as the lowest limit .
In the year it was founded, a two cents contribution from the insured sum for larger vehicles and three cents for ships with a value of less than 350 Reichstalers were levied for each punt . The following year the premium was reduced to one and a half cents respectively. Members who joined later, it is said, “who did not contribute to the costs of the foundation”, paid an additional thaler. In addition, special emphasis was placed on Prussian virtues at the time . The basic requirement for the admission of a member was:
“... a moral and impeccable leadership. Skippers who have given themselves up to drink or to careless behavior are not receptive. [...] Members who apparently endanger the welfare of the society must be excluded with the loss of all their claims to the society fund. "
So that the members were encouraged to drive carefully and to reduce damage, it was also stipulated that they had to bear ten percent of any damage themselves. In addition, as early as the 19th century, policyholders were obliged to report a claim promptly . According to a regulation, the damage had to be recorded immediately by the nearest local authorities (which meant magistrates, manors or village courts).
Only copies of the statutes and the official gazette of the Royal Prussian Government in Frankfurt from July 30, 1856 are now in the City Archives Frankfurt (Oder) and in the Brandenburg State Main Archives Potsdam from the early days. King Friedrich Wilhelm personally issued the business permit as follows:
"On your report of May 8th of this year, the attachment of which is attached, I want to give the electricity vehicle insurance company in Landsberg ad W. the rights of a legal person with the proviso that the statutes of the same are confirmed by the Government in Frankfurt ad O. are subject. This my decree is to be brought to the public's knowledge along with the company's articles of association through the official gazette of the government in Frankfurt ad O.
- Charlottenburg, May 17, 1856.
- (signed) Friedrich Wilhelm
- (signed) by Heydt Simons von Westphalen "
Late 19th century to 1945
Little is known today about the portfolio figures and business results of the insurance company in the founding years due to the loss of documents due to the war. However, the company developed positively and took an important position among the East German river hull insurance associations. At the end of the 19th century, around 250 vehicles with a total value of 2 million marks were insured.
After the expansion of the West German canal network and the construction of the Mittelland Canal (from 1906), the navigable connection between the Rhine and the Central and East German waterways, the business expanded more and more to the West German areas. That is why a main agency was opened in Hanover . The headquarters remained in Landsberg an der Warthe .
From the annual report of 1939 it is known that 744 inland vessels were insured with a total insurance amount of 17 million Reichsmarks . This corresponds to an average sum insured of around 23,000 Reichsmarks per vehicle. The annual subscription income at that time was 245,000 Reichsmarks. In the last years of the Second World War , the management of Landsberg was relocated to the premises of the previous main agency in Hanover. During the air raids on Hanover , the entire business inventory and business documents were destroyed.
1946 to 1950
In the post-war period , inland shipping was largely down. Although only a few members could be reached again immediately after the end of the war, twenty members met in Hanover on March 28, 1946. At an extraordinary meeting they decided to move the headquarters from Landsberg to Hanover. The impending upswing can already be seen in the 1949/1950 annual report. This report showed a membership of 375 and a fleet of 454 ships with an insurance value of 20,387,470 DM . At the end of the 1950s, the DM 1 million mark in premium income was exceeded for the first time.
1960 to 1970
After the initial difficulties had been overcome, the premium income and the number of vehicles grew steadily. However, most of the ship insurance companies soon came to the conclusion that a guarantee for future successful survival in the market could only be guaranteed with sufficient liquidity and efficiency. The amalgamation of many smaller companies was therefore a necessary consequence.
A first success in maintaining and strengthening the electricity vehicle insurance company as a medium - sized self-help institution was shown in 1970. After about one year of negotiations, the merger agreement between the "Schiffer-Hülfsgesellschaft Germania" in Duisburg- Ruhrort and the "Electricity Vehicle Insurance Association" closed on January 1, 1971. In this context, the name was also changed to Vereinigte Schiffs-Versicherung V. a. G. The total sum insured thus rose for the first time over the 100 million euro limit. At the same time, the members could be offered a significantly improved service through the offices in Hanover and Duisburg.
Another important development step in the history of VSV was the foundation of the subsidiary "Leuchtturm Versicherungs-Vermittlung GmbH" in 1970. This company offers both members and non-members insurance cover and service outside of the SAAM range. In 2009 the name was changed to Leuchtturm Versicherungs-Service GmbH.
In 1973 there was another merger with "Jus et Justitia Kaskoversicherungsgesellschaft aG" in Mannheim. This marked the decisive breakthrough in expanding the insurance portfolio on a broad basis to include the Rhine river area with the Neckar, Main and Moselle. The merger created the largest association of medium-sized insurance associations in Germany. In addition to the offices in Hanover and Duisburg, another VSV branch was opened in the house of the former “Jus et Justitia” in Mannheim.
1980 until today
In the 1980s, the volume of business was significantly influenced by the state-sponsored scrapping campaigns . Nevertheless, the VSV achieved a total insured sum of around DM 200 million as early as 1980. In the same year, the current administration building in Hanover at Seelhorststrasse 7 was acquired and moved into. The administrative building on Marienstraße in Hanover, which was occupied in 1955 for the 100th anniversary, was no longer spacious. With the German unification in 1990 , the VSV's business area expanded considerably. While until then cargo shipping was the main member, the reunification of passenger shipping increased in importance. With the opening of the waterways to the east, the trade areas there gained in importance. That is why the Mannheim branch was relocated to Wörth am Main.
The total amount insured by the Vereinigte Schiffs-Versicherung is now over 500 million euros . It currently manages a fleet of around 800 vehicles, of which around 250 are motor ships and 300 are passenger ships . This gives it a market share of around 30 percent of the German fleet in this area, which in 2017 comprised a total of 800 motorized goods ships and 1,000 passenger ships.
Company names, associations and mergers
- 1856: Foundation as "Electricity Vehicle Insurance Company zu Landsberg ad W."
- Without year: Conversion of the "Electricity Vehicle Insurance Company" to the "Electricity Vehicle Insurance Association"
- 1970: Foundation of the subsidiary "Leuchtturm Versicherungs-Vermittlung GmbH"
- 1971: Merger of the "Strom-Fahrzeug-Versicherungsverein" and the "Schiffer-Hülfsgesellschaft Germania" to form the United Ship Insurance V. a. G.
- 1973: Merger of the Vereinigte Schiffs-Versicherung V. a. G. with the "Jus et Justitia Kaskoversicherungsgesellschaft aG"
- 2009: Change of name of the subsidiary "Leuchtturm Versicherungs-Vermittlung GmbH" to "Leuchtturm Versicherungs-Service GmbH"
Web links
- United Ship Insurance in the BaFin company database
Individual evidence
- ^ Frankfurt (1856): Official Gazette of the Government of Frankfurt ad Oder: Official Gazette Office of the Government. P. 240.
- ^ Frankfurt (1856): Official Gazette of the Government of Frankfurt ad Oder: Official Gazette Office of the Government. P. 245 (§13).
- ^ Frankfurt (1856): Official Gazette of the Government of Frankfurt ad Oder: Official Gazette Office of the Government. P. 246 (§18).
- ^ Frankfurt (1856): Official Gazette of the Government of Frankfurt ad Oder: Official Gazette Office of the Government. P. 244 (§10, §11).
- ^ Frankfurt (1856): Official Gazette of the Government of Frankfurt ad Oder: Official Gazette Office of the Government. P. 239.
- ↑ a b United Ship Insurance V. a. G .: Anniversary publication 2006, p. 2
- ↑ a b United Ship Insurance V. a. G .: Anniversary publication 2006, p. 3
- ↑ u. a. Council Regulation (EEC) No. 1101/89 of April 27, 1989 on structural adjustments in inland navigation [Official Journal L116 of April 28, 1989]. The regulation aimed to reduce the excess capacity in inland navigation.
- ↑ Vereinigte Schiffs-Versicherung V. a. G .: Anniversary publication 2006, p. 4
- ↑ Central inland waterway inventory file at the Waterways and Shipping Directorate Southwest as of December 31, 2017, (PDF, 16 kB)
Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 35.5 " N , 9 ° 45 ′ 18.4" E