Gerling-Konzern Explained

Type:Private
Industry:Insurance
Successor:Talanx Group
Hq Location City:Cologne
Hq Location Country:Germany

The Gerling-Konzern, also known as the Gerling Group, was an internationally operating Cologne-based multi-line insurance company that was taken over in April 2006 by the Hanover-based Talanx Group, brand name HDI Haftpflichtverband der Deutschen Industrie, Germany's third largest insurance group. The group was fully integrated into HDI.[1]

At the beginning of 2016, Gerling also disappeared as a brand after HDI-Gerling became "HDI Global SE".[2] [3] The Cologne headquarters around the (former) Gereonshof street was converted into residential and commercial space as the Gerling quarter.[4]

In 2005 the Gerling Insurance Group employed around 6400 people in over twenty countries around the world. The premium income recently amounted to approx. 4.56 billion euros, the profit amounted to 158 million euros, after the previous years had been rather loss-making.

History

The Gerling Group was shaped primarily by three generations of the Gerling family, the company founder Rudolf Gerling, his son Hans Gerling and grandson Rolf Gerling.[5] [6]

Robert Gerling

Robert Gerling founded together with the underwear manufacturer Wilhelm Marum the Central Insurance Office Robert Gerling & Co. Ges. M. B. (Centrale für Versicherungswesen Robert Gerling & Co. Ges. m. b. H.) in Cologne on 11 March 1904. H., and the Insurance Bureau Robert Gerling & Co. GmbH (Bureau für Versicherungswesen Robert Gerling & Co. GmbH) on 4 May 1904.[7] Gerling and Marum also registered, on 5 December 1904, Rheinischer Insured Association (Rheinischer Versicherten-Verband) to advise policyholders.[8] [9]

On 23 October 1909 Gerling founded a fire insurance company, Rheinische Feuerversicherungs-AG, which collaborated with Kronprinz Versicherungs-AG, merging with it in December 1936.[10] In early 1914, Marum resigned from the insurance bureau. In January 1917 Robert Gerling founded a second reinsurance company Rheinische Versicherungsbank AG[11] [12]

Hans Gerling

In an agreement dated 12 July 1934 Robert Gerling transferred the shares in the Gerling Group to his eldest son Hans, but retained the voting rights until his death. After Robert Gerling died shortly afterwards in January 1935 as a result of acute pneumonia, he did not leave his three sons a legally valid will. Non-family member Walter Forstreuter becomes CEO.[13] In the years that followed, his descendants quarreled in numerous wills before they reached a settlement in April 1958. His son Hans Gerling only took over the management of the company in 1945.[14]

Walter Forstreuter and the Nazi years

After Robert Gerling's death, Walter Forstreuter took over management of the company throughout the Nazi years. After the end of the war, Forsteuter resigned and Hans Gerling, son of the company's founder, took over. However, according to Senate Subcommittee Testimony in 1946, the retirement of Dr. W. S. Kisskalt, vice president of the Munich, from the board of the Union in 1939 could not save the company from being blacklisted, nor did the retirement of Mr. W. Forstreuter of Berlin, Robert Gerling of Cologne, and Hans Harney of Duesseldorf prevent the blacklisting of the Universale of Zurich as a subsidiary of the Gerling concern.[15]

According to the Senate Subcommittee Hearings on the "Elimination of German Resources for War", the role of Gerling and the many subsidiaries Gerling controlled under different names throughout Europe was a concern. In Holland:

After 1939, Munich and Gerling had continued to control Union Reinsurance Co. of Zurich, and Universale Insurance Co. of Zurich and were consequently blacklisted by the British.[17] After France fell to the Nazis, Gerling maintained a presence in all the major French ports. A marine-insurance pool which, since 1941, functions on a corporate basis by establishing a marine-insurance exchange somewhat along Lloyd's principles, was hurriedly set up after the armistice, and backed by German reinsurance facilities. German and Italian offices were opened in all important ports, the Gerling Konzern has representatives at Bordeaux and Le Havre, Aachen-Munich at Bordeaux, Havre, and Nantes, and the Italian Vittoria all along the Mediterranean coast.Premiums collected during the Nazi occupation of France were, the Senate testimony stated, transferred to Gerling. The portfolios of Le Recours, Paris; Lloyds, London; Norwich Union, Norwich, were transferred to Gerling, Cologne.[18]

Hans Gerling negotiated with the Allied occupation authorities for permission to operate Gerling Konzern, and OMGUS has a complex 140 page file concerning the Nazi-era activities of the Gerling Konzern and its many subsidiaries which it investigated from 1945 to 1949.[19] [20]

Postwar

Since the 1930s, the insurance company has continuously expanded its premises at Von-Werth-Straße 14. In the 1950s, with the participation of the architects Hentrich and Heuser, the office buildings in the direction of Gereonshof (near Friesenplatz) were extended in a complex manner. The completion of the Gerling high-rise in Cologne's Gereonsviertel on 25 January 1953 set an urban development accent. At the instigation of Hans Gerling, Arno Breker, Hitler's favorite sculptor,[21] contributed to the design.[22] Until the 1980s, what was soon to be known as the Gerling complex was gradually expanded into a separate district in the direction of Friesenstrasse.

Hans Gerling founded Gerling Speziale Kreditversicherungs-AG on 20 April 1954, which initially operated trade credit, surety and fidelity insurance.[23] After Hans Gerling's childhood friend Iwan David Herstatt acquired the Cologne-based bank Hocker & Co. on 2 June 1955; Gerling made a contribution of DM 5 million as a limited partner (81.4%, the rest was held by subsidiaries of Gerling -Group) at the bank, which has been operating as "Bankhaus ID Herstatt KGaA" since 10 December 1955.[24] Due to the majority stake, the Herstatt Bank was a subsidiary of the Gerling Group. As a result of incorrect speculation by the Herstatt Bank, it collapsed in June 1973[25] Bank depositors were wiped out in what Time magazine called "the most disastrous German banking collapse since the turmoil of the '30".[26] On 26 June 1974 the Federal Banking Supervisory Office withdrew the Herstatt Bank's banking license.[27] [28]

In July 1973, the investigative journalist Günter Wallraff went undercover in Gerling for two months as a porter and house messenger and reported on "anachronistic working conditions, arbitrary termination, and whims of the noble superiors to whom the 'little employees' in the patriarchal insurance company were at the mercy".[29] [30]

In December 1974, under public pressure, Gerling had to pledge 51% of the shares in his group to the Deutsche Bank as collateral, an insurance holding company of Deutsche Industrie (VHDI) consisting of 59 industrial companies - of which Friedrich Karl Flick was the majority shareholder - acquired 25.9%, the remaining 25.1% of the shares were taken over by Zurich Insurance Company. The sale brought 210 million DM into the comparative assets of the Herstatt bank, which Gerling paid voluntarily to enable a compulsory settlement. In February 1978, Zurich sold its shares to VHDI. In 1985 Flick held 51% of Gerling Insurance Co.[31] After Gerling bought back a total of 88.8% of the shares in VHDI in January 1986 and the pledge was dissolved again, he regained control of the Gerling Group.

Rolf Gerling

After Hans Gerling's death in August 1991, his son Rolf Gerling took over the company as the sole heir Credit insurer Gerling NCM were sold. Rolf Gerling now held 94% of the Gerling Group, and Chairman of the Supervisory Board Joachim Theye 6%.

In October 2001, the Gerling Ring-Karree near the Friesenplatz, based on a design by the architect Sir Norman Foster, was completed and occupied near the company's headquarters at Gereonshof.

Sale to Talanx

On 8 November 2005 it was officially announced that the Talanx insurance group would take over the operating companies of the Gerling Group for a purchase price of around €1.4 billion.[32] On 25 April 2006 Talanx and Gerling announced that all approvals for the takeover by Talanx had been obtained and that the so-called closing could take place at the end of April 2006, thus completing the takeover. This ended the family history of the Gerling Group.

Björn Jansli resigned from his office on 1 May 2006.[33] The new management spokesman is Herbert K. Haas. From November 2006 to the beginning of 2011, the investment company, previously called Gerling Investment GmbH, operated under the name AmpegaGerling. AmpegaGerling now operates under the name Ampega Investment GmbH.[34] Gerling Lebensversicherungs AG (GKL) was also renamed HDI-GERLING Lebensversicherung.[35] Today it operates under the name HDI Lebensversicherung AG.

The life insurance division and the property and legal expenses insurance division were consolidated and relocated to Hanover in July 2006. As part of the nationwide restructuring, there was official talk in July 2006 of downsizing by up to 1,800 employees. The new owner Talanx sold the Gerling building in Cologne's Gereonsviertel to Frankonia Eurobau AG in December 2006. From 2010 they were redesigned into an exclusive residential complex under the name Gerling-Quartier. New premises for the life insurance sector were moved into the renovated Rheinhallen at the Cologne-Deutz exhibition center in September 2009. The Gerling Quarter was sold in September 2012 by Frankonia Eurobau AG to the previous 50% shareholder Immofinanz.[36]

When HDI-Gerling Industrie Versicherung AG was renamed HDI Global SE, the name Gerling finally disappeared from the insurance industry in January 2016.[37]

Herbert K. Haas

The Chairman-Supervisory Board for Talanx AG is Herbert K Haas. Haas is also Chairman-Supervisory Board of HDI Haftpflichtverband der Deutschen Industrie VVaG, Chairman-Supervisory Board at HDI-Gerling Firmen und Privat Versicherung AG, Chairman-Supervisory Board at HDI-Gerling Sach Serviceholding AG, Chairman-Supervisory Board at HDI Deutschland AG, Chairman-Supervisory Board at HDI-Gerling Leben Betriebsservice GmbH, and Chairman-Management Board at Gerling-Konzern Allgemeine Versicherungs AG (which are all subsidiaries of HDI Haftpflichtverband der Deutschen Industrie VVaG).[38] [39]

Holocaust-related lawsuits

Insurance

Under the Nazis, Jewish holders of insurance policies were not paid by insurance companies,[40] [41] including Gerling.[42] [43] [44] Several states passed laws demanding transparency for actions undertaken by German insurance companies between 1933 and 1945, and Gerling initiated lawsuits to challenged the laws in Florida and California.[45]

Aryanization

In 2006 the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel published an article about the Aryanization of three properties that had been owned by Jewish owners and that were currently owned by the Dumont Schauberg publishing dynasty.[49] Dumont successfully demanded that Der Spiegel retract the allegations from the article "Klüngeln im Krieg" saying that the allegation that the DuMont publishing family had profited from "Aryanization" during the Nazi era was untrue. Neven-Dumont pointed out that Gabriele Neven DuMont bought the land on 23 March 1941, three years after the Gerling Group had acquired the land from the Jewish Brandenstein family, paying RM 255,000, more than five times the amount that Gerling had paid in 1938.[50]

Business areas

According to the company, the Gerling Insurance Group was one of the market leaders among industrial insurers in Europe and one of the leading providers of company pension schemes in Germany. The business areas included insurance and financial services for large commercial companies, small and medium-sized companies as well as freelancers and private individuals. Other services included risk analysis and advice as well as asset management.

Miscellaneous

The Gerling Group had an art collection that comprised around 4,500 pictures in 2008. The works that have been purchased for the Gerling Ring-Karree are mostly originals as well as high-quality photographs and some graphics. Of the art in the Ring-Karree, 20 percent came from established artists and 80 percent was acquired by young artists in the last two years.

See also

References

  1. Web site: HDI puts Gerling acquisition to bed. 2021-04-27. Business Insurance.
  2. Web site: 2016-01-29. Talanx Group's Industrial Insurer Operating with New Name: HDI Global SE. 2021-04-27. Insurance Journal. en-US.
  3. Web site: Company Profile. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210427085621/https://interactive.web.insurance.ca.gov/companyprofile/companyprofile?event=companyProfile&doFunction=getCompanyProfile&eid=107429. 2021-04-27. 2021-04-27. interactive.web.insurance.ca.gov. Company Information.
  4. Web site: Edina. 2015-04-16. Das Monument lebt. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210427085226/https://www.rheinexklusiv.de/gerling-quartier/. 2021-04-27. 2021-04-27. RHEINexklusiv. de-DE. Das "Gerling Quartier" ist das drittgrößte innerstädtische Quartiersentwicklungsprojekt in Deutschland. Die Immofinanz Group investiert rund 400 Millionen Euro in das Viertel zwischen den Ringen und der Kölner Altstadt. Der erste Bauabschnitt steht kurz vor seiner Fertigstellung und umfasst rund 20.000 Quadratmeter an gehobener Wohn- und Gewerbefläche. Bis Ende Mai sollen die meisten Gebäude in dem Luxusviertel bezogen und auch die Außenanlagen gestaltet sein. Prunkstück ist ein 330 Quadratmeter großes Penthouse, das das 62 Meter hohe Haus Gerling krönt. Es wurde im vergangenen Jahr für einen Rekordwert von 5,9 Millionen Euro verkauft..
  5. Web site: THE BILLIONAIRES - September 7, 1992. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20070228113707/https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1992/09/07/76826/index.htm. 2007-02-28. 2021-04-27. money.cnn.com.
  6. Web site: Rolf Gerling. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210427090310/https://www.forbes.com/profile/rolf-gerling/?sh=6ea1833b6fb8. 2021-04-27. 2021-04-27. Forbes. en. Rolf Gerling inherited insurer Gerling Konzern, showed little interest in managing it and saw the legacy plunge into turmoil. His grandfather Robert founded the business in 1904 and his father, Hans, expanded it into a global insurance group. Hans died in 1992..
  7. Book: Schwärzel, Renate. Deutsche Wirtschaftsarchive. 1994. Franz Steiner Verlag. 978-3-515-06211-4. de.
  8. Book: Niebelschütz, Wolf von 1913-1960. Robert Gerling ein dramatisches Kapitel deutscher Versicherungsgeschichte. 1954. Wunderlich. 1067875825.
  9. Book: Koch, Peter. Geschichte der Versicherungswirtschaft in Deutschland. 2012-04-05. VVW GmbH. 978-3-89952-371-3. de.
  10. Web site: History of Gerling-Konzern Versicherungs-Beteiligungs-Aktiengesellschaft – FundingUniverse. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20150921014813/http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/gerling-konzern-versicherungs-beteiligungs-aktiengesellschaft-history/. 2015-09-21. 2021-04-26. www.fundinguniverse.com. Key Dates: 1904: Robert Gerling opens an insurance brokerage in Cologne. 1909: Rheinische Feuer-Versicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft is founded. 1919: Regional subsidiaries are established all over Germany. 1922: Gerling's enterprise is renamed Gerling-Konzern and starts its own life insurance company. 1935: The company founder dies and non-family member Walter Forstreuter becomes CEO. 1945: Robert Gerling's son Hans is granted an insurer's license. 1954: An international reinsurance holding company and a new credit insurance division are established. 1974: Hans Gerling gives up control in his company to compensate for financial liabilities. 1986: German industrial magnate Friedrich Karl Flick sells the company back to Hans Gerling. 1992: Rolf Gerling becomes chairman of the supervisory board after his father's death. 1992: Deutsche Bank acquires a 30 percent share in Gerling. 1998: Gerling takes over American reinsurer Constitution Re. 2001: The company's credit insurance subsidiary merges with Dutch credit insurer NCM. 2002: Gerling is put up for sale after the founder's grandson agrees to give up his majority share in the company..
  11. 2005. Bibliographie zur Unternehmensgeschichte. Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte. 50-51. 1. 49–51. 10.1515/zug-1995-0104. 2367-2293.
  12. Web site: History of Gerling-Konzern Versicherungs-Beteiligungs-Aktiengesellschaft – FundingUniverse. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20150921014813/http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/gerling-konzern-versicherungs-beteiligungs-aktiengesellschaft-history/. 2015-09-21. 2021-04-26. www.fundinguniverse.com. When the Fire Syndicate realized that Gerling's system was successful, they decided to deny him reinsurance protection. When World War I cut Gerling off from his reinsurers abroad, he founded a second reinsurance company, Rheinische Versicherungsbank A.G., in 1917. It was followed by the establishment of Allgemeine Versicherungs-AG, another direct insurer that did not limit itself to fire insurance, in 1918. The Syndicate declared a total boycott against Gerling. However, the small number of his large industrial clients, among them steel giant Krupp AG and chemicals manufacturer Bayer AG, was easily administered from his Cologne headquarters at low cost, and Gerling was fortunate enough not to be struck by big disasters..
  13. Web site: History of Gerling-Konzern Versicherungs-Beteiligungs-Aktiengesellschaft – FundingUniverse. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20150921014813/http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/gerling-konzern-versicherungs-beteiligungs-aktiengesellschaft-history/. 2015-09-21. 2021-04-27. www.fundinguniverse.com. When the company founder died, his three sons were too young to take over responsible management positions. He had appointed his oldest son--also named Robert Gerling, Jr.--who at that time was 21 years old, to inherit his shareholdings in Gerling-Konzern. His second oldest son, Hans, was 19 years old and studied business administration. Gerling's youngest son, Walter, was 16 years old at the time. For the time being, one of the company's executive directors, Walter Forstreuter, took over the leading position and steered Gerling-Konzern through the rough waters of the Nazi era that ended with World War II. Neither the Gerling family nor Forstreuter were members of Hitler's party NSDAP. The Gerling companies did not closely cooperate with the Nazis but did not oppose to doing business with them either. In 1937, after he had finished his studies, Hans Gerling joined the family business. For two years he learned the trade from scratch in one of Gerling's branch offices. For five years, Hans Gerling left the corporate realm when he was drafted into the German army. In 1939, his older brother Robert left the country for the United States and, in 1940, gave up his mandate as an executive director..
  14. News: Times. Craig R. Whitney Special to The New York. 1976-11-13. West German Rich: Hard Work and a Bit of Luck. en-US. The New York Times. 2021-04-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20210427091438/https://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/13/archives/new-jersey-pages-west-german-rich-hard-work-and-a-bit-of-luck-the.html. 2021-04-27. 0362-4331. In 1945 Dr. Gerling returned from five years' army duty as an enlisted man to find his father's business, like his home, in ruins. The son's ambition, persistence and hard work got the company going again, and then he bought out his older brother, who had emigrated to America before the war..
  15. Book: United States Senate. Committee on Military Affairs.. Elimination of German Resources for War. 1945. 405. English. Four important Swiss concerns are on the British and American blacklists. The National of Basle was on the proclaimed list in World War I and recently La Suisse of Geneva has been added. The Union Reinsurance Co. of Zurich has been identified as a subsidiary of the Munich. The retirement of Dr. W. S. Kisskalt, vice president of the Munich, from the board of the Union in 1939 could not save the company from being blacklisted, nor has the retirement of Mr. W. Forstreuter of Berlin, Robert Gerling of Cologne, and Hans Harney of Duesseldorf prevented the blacklisting of the Universale of Zurich as a subsidiary of the Gerling concern..
  16. Book: United States Senate. Committee on Military Affairs.. Elimination of German Resources for War. 1945. English.
  17. Book: United States Senate. Committee on Military Affairs.. TESTIMONY OF FOREIGN ECONOMIC ADMINISTRATION AND MATERIALS ON GERMAN PENETRATION OF EUROPEAN INDUSTRY, 26 JUNE 1946. 1945. 388. English.
  18. Book: United States Senate. Committee on Military Affairs.. Elimination of German Resources for War. 1945. 390. English.
  19. Web site: Page 100 OMGUS - External Assets Investigation. 2021-04-27. Fold3. en.
  20. Web site: Page 1 OMGUS - External Assets Investigation. 2021-04-27. Fold3. en.
  21. News: Landler. Mark. 2006-07-24. 'Hitler's Favorite Sculptor' Is Back, Hitting Raw Nerve. en-US. The New York Times. 2021-04-27. 0362-4331.
  22. Web site: Andre Müller, Arno Brecker: "The monumental is my sickness" (03/08/2006) - signandsight. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20060824124459/http://www.signandsight.com/features/884.html. 2006-08-24. 2021-04-27. www.signandsight.com. Soon after the war, despite your National Socialist past, you were already receiving large architectural commissions. In the early 1950s, you were chief architect of the Gerling Company..
  23. Web site: Gerling-Konzern Speziale Kreditversicherungs AG - Company Profile and News. 2021-04-27. Bloomberg.com. en.
  24. Web site: 2021-04-27. International Insolvency: The Case of Herstatt 62 American Bar Association Journal 1976. https://web.archive.org/web/20210427154214/https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/abaj62&div=234&id=&page=. dead. 2021-04-27. 2021-04-27.
  25. News: Times. Clyde H. Farnsworth Special to The New York. 1974-06-29. Failure of Herstatt Disturbs Banking. en-US. The New York Times. 2021-04-27. 0362-4331.
  26. 1974-07-08. BANKING: Collapse on the Rhine. en-US. Time. 2021-04-27. 0040-781X.
  27. News: 1974-06-27. BIG BANK CLOSED BY WEST GERMANY. en-US. The New York Times. 2021-04-27. 0362-4331.
  28. Web site: Desk. International Finance. 2013-10-11. Herstatt Risk- Systemic Risk in the Forex Market. 2021-04-27. International Finance. en-US.
  29. Web site: The Legendary Journalist Günter Wallraff– an Outsider who has Become anInsider in Mainstream German Media. in the book Wallraff edited with Berndt Engelmann, Ihr da oben, wir da unten ("You up there, we down here"): the "happening without invitation" is connected to the author's stint as a porter and messenger at Gerling, an important German insurance company in the early 70s. He reacted against what he saw as the CEO's system of injustice towards people further down in the hierarchy. One day he entered the directors' restaurant for lunch, whereby a major quarrel ensued when the company's own staff had to justify why a simple Bote (messenger) could not have his lunch there. Another happening involved a Swedish TV team filming in CEO Gerling's extravagant office, which heavily scandalized Mr. Gerling as he was the Swedish consul in Cologne at the time. (Engelmann, B. and Wallraff, G. Ihr da oben – wir da unten, 1975).
  30. Camigliano. Albert J.. 1983. Günter Wallraff: B(e)aring the Facts. Monatshefte. 75. 4. 405–418. 30165615. 0026-9271.
  31. Web site: GIANT FLICK GROUP SEEKS TO GO PUBLIC. . 5 December 1985 . hree concerns form the nucleus of the Flick group: Dynamit Nobel chemical group; Feldmuehle, West Germany`s largest papermaking group; and the Buderus, a steel, weapons and machinery group. Among Flick`s holdings worldwide are a 10 percent stake in Daimler-Benz; a 26 percent stake in W.R. Grace & Co., the U.S. chemical concern; and a 51 percent stake in the Gerling Insurance Co..
  32. Web site: Talanx A balanced, international group. 2021-04-26. www.talanx.com. en. With the take-over of the Gerling companies, which stand with just as long a history as HDI itself for experience and tradition in the personal lines and industrial insurance, the Talanx Group achieved a further objective: to be a balanced, internationally operating group. The Group further strengthened its international line-up by purchasing or founding numerous companies abroad, e.g. the acquisition of the Turkish insurer Ihlas Sigorta A. S. in 2006 and the founding of Hannover ReTakaful, Bahrain..
  33. Web site: Jansli steps down from all executive roles after Gerling insurance takeover. 2021-04-26. next-generation-communications.tmcnet.com.
  34. Web site: Ampega Investment GmbH - Company Profile and News. 2021-04-26. Bloomberg.com. en.
  35. Web site: 2016-01-29. Talanx Group's Industrial Insurer Operating with New Name: HDI Global SE. 2021-04-26. Insurance Journal. en-US.
  36. Web site: A NEW LANDLORD FOR GERLING QUARTER . Made by FRANKONIA. 2021-04-26. frankoniaeurobau.de.
  37. , Lausitzer Rundschau, 8 January 2016, retrieved 10 January 2016.
  38. Web site: HVRRF Company Profile & Executives - Hannover Rueck SE - Wall Street Journal. 2021-04-27. www.wsj.com.
  39. Web site: Short profile Herbert K. Haas.
  40. Web site: "Aryanization". 2021-04-26. encyclopedia.ushmm.org. en. The state also confiscated all the insurance payments that should have been paid to Jewish property owners, who were then made responsible for property repairs after the pogrom. View This Term in the Glossary After payment of these fines and extra taxes, any remaining funds were paid into blocked accounts at German banks. The Nazi German state strictly supervised these accounts. The owners could draw only a fixed monthly sum, the minimum required for their living expen.
  41. News: Wren. Christopher S.. 1998-05-18. Insurers Swindled Jews, Nazi Files Show. en-US. The New York Times. 2021-04-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20150527082750/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/18/world/insurers-swindled-jews-nazi-files-show.html. 2015-05-27. 0362-4331. The Nazi Government was known to have confiscated insurance payments to Jews whose property was damaged in Kristallnacht. But the newly unearthed documents suggest that German insurance companies not only connived with the Nazis to avoid paying Jewish policyholders, but also sometimes exceeded Government guidelines and canceled unrelated life, health and pension policies on which Jews had been paying premiums for years. Some of the documents are to be presented today at a hearing in Manhattan scheduled by the New York State Senate Insurance Committee. The panel, headed by Guy J. Velella, Republican of the Bronx, is considering legislation that would penalize European insurers who do business in New York if they failed to pay claims related to the Holocaust. The documents, which abound with anti-Jewish slurs, include a confidential industry estimate that at least 19 of the 43 German fire insurance companies stood to suffer losses for the year if they fulfilled their obligations to Jewish policyholders for Kristallnacht. That contradicts an assertion of some German insurers that they did not profit from the Holocaust..
  42. Web site: Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims: Background and Issues for Congress. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20080605214653/https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34348.pdf. 2008-06-05. Congressional Research Service.
  43. Web site: 2016-08-15. Researching Unpaid and Unclaimed Holocaust-Era Insurance Policies. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20060503000418/https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/articles-and-papers/symposium-papers/researching-unpaid-unclaimed-insurance-policies.html. 2006-05-03. 2021-04-26. National Archives. en. Claims currently filed with the HCPO reference just over 100 companies as identified by claimants. The HCPO is currently trying to determine how many successor companies are in fact involved -- it may be as few as two dozen. The most frequently cited companies remain Generali, Phönix, RAS, Victoria, Allianz, Anker, Basler, and Donau. But claimants have also identified Barmenia, Fonciere, Gerling, Hermes, Isar, Lloyds, Merkur, Nordstern, ÖVAG, Swiss Life, Star, and Vita, to name but a few..
  44. Web site: Goldwyn Blumenthal. Robin. Grim Legacy. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210117115720/http://www.barrons.com/articles/SB942457599366095095. 2021-01-17. 2021-04-27. www.wsj.com. en-US. Indeed, Quackenbush has begun investigations of four other companies -- Gerling and Munich Re, of Germany, and Swiss Re and Basler, of Switzerland and is trying to get them to join the international commission, according to Dan Edwards, a Quackenbush deputy..
  45. Web site: 2000-04-02. Munich Re at Impasse with Regulators over Holocaust Claims. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20180316151656/https://www.insurancejournal.com/magazines/mag-features/2000/04/03/22611.htm. 2018-03-16. 2021-04-27. Insurance Journal. en-US. New York's Insurance Commissioner recently warned American Re that it could face fines of as much as $1,000 a day if the state's requests for WWII-era policy lists for Victoria were not fulfilled. American Re indicated that it might take the New York issue to court. In fact, on February 8, American Re did sue Pennsylvania's regulator over issues stemming from Holocaust-era policies in that state. Furthermore, Gerling's U.S. affiliates filed a suit naming Quackenbush as a defendant in U.S. District Court in Sacramento on March 16. The suit, similar to one filed by Gerling in Florida, alleges that California's new Holocaust registry law is unconstitutional. Certainly, with that law's compliance deadline of April 7 right around the corner, things are likely to heat up for any companies still perceived to be dawdling..
  46. Web site: Gerling Global Reinsurance v. Gallagher, 267 F.3d 1228 Casetext Search + Citator. 2021-04-26. casetext.com.
  47. Web site: Gerling Global Reinsurance v. Quackenbush, NOs. CIV. S-00-0506 WBS JFM, S-00-0613 WBS JFM, S-00-0779 WBS JFM, S-00-0875 WBS JFM Casetext Search + Citator. 2021-04-26. casetext.com.
  48. Web site: Gerling Global Reinsurance Corp. v. Low, 240 F.3d 739 Casetext Search + Citator. 2021-04-27. casetext.com.
  49. Web site: "Spiegel" muss NS-Vorwürfe gegen Neven DuMont widerrufen. Wie DuMont nun mitteilt, muss der "Spiegel" die Behauptung als unwahr widerrufen, dass der Gerling-Konzern 1941 drei Grundstrücke in der Breiten Straße in Köln, die zuvor jüdisches Eigentum gewesen seien, an DuMont verkauft habe. Dabei habe Gerling nur als Zwischenhändler fungiert, da der Konzern die Immobilien selbst erst kurz vorher aus jüdischem Eigentum erhalten habe..
  50. Web site: 2006-02-21. Quellen entkräften Vorwürfe. 2021-04-26. Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. de-DE. Tatsächlich waren die drei zusammengehörenden Grundstücke der Firma Brandenstein & Rose KG mit erheblichen Grundschulden verschiedener Gläubiger belastet, darunter das Kölner Bankhaus A. Levy und die Gerling-Konzern Lebensversicherungs AG. Bereits im Jahr 1933, also noch vor jeglicher Arisierung, hatten Gläubiger die Zwangsversteigerung anordnen lassen. Im Jahre 1937 wurde sie dann erneut angeordnet und im Frühjahr 1938 durchgeführt. Ersteigerer war der Gerling-Konzern, der den Zuschlag für 46 000 RM erhielt. Gabriele Neven DuMont kaufte die Grundstücke am 23. März 1941, also drei Jahre nachdem der Gerling-Konzern die Grundstücke erworben hatte. Bezahlt wurden 255 000 RM, also mehr als das Fünffache des Betrags, den Gerling 1938 entrichtet hatte. Es ist kaum davon auszugehen, dass der Gerling-Konzern ein ihm gehörendes Grundstück unter Wert verkauft hätte..

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