Westphalian Provincial
The Westfälische Provinzial insurance group, based in Münster , Westphalia, was merged with Provinzial Nord to create Provinzial NordWest in 2005 . After a restructuring (change of legal form on January 1, 2002) the group last existed
- Provinzial Holding Westfalen Aktiengesellschaft,
- Westfälische Provinzial Versicherung Aktiengesellschaft , legal successor of the former Westfälische Provinzial-Feuersozietät , and
- Westfälische Provinzial Lebensversicherung Aktiengesellschaft, legal successor of the former Westfälische Provinzial-Lebensversicherungsanstalt .
Fire society and life insurance company were merged in the course of the change of legal form to the new, initially still public-law Provinzial Holding Westfalen and were institutions under public law . Their business was transferred to the newly established joint stock companies. These were 100% subsidiaries of the holding company. Control and profit and loss transfer agreements have been concluded between the holding company and the stock corporations under its control .
Guarantor
Half of the guarantors of the Provinzial Holding Westfalen were the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe as well as the Sparkassenverband Westfalen-Lippe (SVWL) and the Westdeutsche Landesbank with 25% each.
Business regions and distribution network
Of the two operational insurers in the insurance group, Westfälische Provinzial Versicherung Aktiengesellschaft is still active as a property and casualty insurer in Westphalia after the merger to create Provinzial Nordwest. The Westfälische Provinzial Lebensversicherung Aktiengesellschaft , on the other hand, was merged with the Provinzial Nord Lebensversicherung AG, which today operates the life insurance business in the business areas of the predecessor companies under the name Provinzial NordWest Lebensversicherung Aktiengesellschaft .
Sales partners are the branches of Provinzial Nordwest and the savings banks in the region.
history
As early as May 1, 1722, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, known as "Schiefe Fritz", signed a "regulation" for the establishment of a fire partnership for the "Duchy Cleve" and the "Graffschaff Marck". The background to these regulations was the fact that the increasing population density in the early 18th century increased the number of fireplaces in houses and thus the number of fires that broke out. With this signing, the first step was taken towards founding a Westphalian “law firm against the risk of fire” and thus an early form of insurance. In the following years, various fire law firms were founded. For January 1, 1837, all in were Province of Westphalia existing firms to "Provincial Fire firm Province Westphalia" merged.
In a next step, the Provinzial-Feuer-Sozietät was transformed in 1880. Since then it has been a provincial institution of the Provincial Association (the predecessor institution of the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe) and thus part of the provincial service administration. Approved by the provincial state parliament, the provincial institute was given its own administrative building on Warendorfer Strasse in Münster.
In 1910, the 28 existing individual fire partnerships were put on a uniform legal basis by the Prussian law firm. This law also approved the operation of "related branches of property insurance", so that the Provinzial-Feuer-Sozietät also includes burglary, tap water, glass and rental loss insurance in its portfolio in addition to forest fire insurance. The Provincial Life Insurance Company was founded four years later, through which liability, accident and motor vehicle insurance (HUK) were also included in the range of services.
During the Second World War , after bombing in 1939, the business operations of the Westphalian provincial were relocated to a provisional headquarters in Nieheim in the Höxter district . After the currency reform in 1948, the Provinzial also benefited from the years of the economic miracle and the income in the four main lines of building fire, storm, furniture fire and tap water insurance grew steadily.
The year 1970 brought with it major restructuring: In a blanket agreement, the Westfälische Provinzial Versicherungen, the savings bank organization and WestLB agreed on a close partnership. The HUK divisions were also transferred from the life insurance company to the fire partnership.
Four years later, the Westfälische Provinzial moved into a new administration building in the Münster-Kinderhaus , which was expanded in 1980 for reasons of lack of space. In 1993, around 900 employees moved into the completed extension to the Provinzial. The move was followed by a renovation of the old building complex.
In 1997 the Westphalian Provincial celebrated its 275th anniversary. At this point in time, 2000 office staff and 675 full-time branch managers were working for the insurance company, who in turn had employed 1200 people. Three years later, in the 2000 financial year, premium income had risen to DM 4 billion and insurance contracts to almost DM 6 million. On January 1, 2002, the insurance business of the previous “fire society” was transferred to Westfälische Provinzial-Versicherung Aktiengesellschaft and the business of the “Lebensversicherungsanstalt” was transferred to Westfälische Provinzial Lebensversicherung Aktiengesellschaft.
The year 2005 marked the year of the merger: the Westphalian Provinzial and the Provinzial Nord merged to form the Provinzial Nordwest. This created the second largest public insurer in Germany at the time, with over three million customers in the business regions of Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Hamburg .