6. Professor Reimer Schmidt
Professor Dr.iur.Dr.-Ing.E.h. Reimer Schmidt died
on 14 November 2002 at the age of 86. For decades, Professor Schmidt
had a significant influence in the German insurance field. His scientific
work and his entrepreneurial engagement shaped both the development
of the insurance industry as well as the academic perception of
insurance in Germany for half a century.
Reimer Schmidt was a very dedicated, eclectic and
visionary academic generalist and economist with a compelling personality.
Born in Hamburg in 1916, he earned his doctorate in 1948 as a student
of Hans Möller and was promoted to professor in 1953. He taught
at the University of Hamburg and later at the Rheinisch-Westfälische
Technische Hochschule in Aachen where he became, in 1967, member
of the board of directors of the Aachener und Münchener
Feuer-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft. In 1979 he became Chief Executive
Officer of the Aachener und MünchenerBeteiligungs-AG
(AMB Generali); in 1981 he became president of the Board of Directors;
he left this position in 1991.
Professor Schmidt's work for the German AIDA section,
the "Deutsche Verein für Versicherungswissenschaft
e.V. - DVfVW", is particularly notable. From 1977 until
1991, Professor Schmidt was President of the Executive Committee
of the DVfVW e.V. and from 1979 until 1990 editor in chief of the
"Zeitschrift für die gesamte Versicherungswissenschaft
- ZversWiss", one of the most important analytical insurance
publications in Germany. ZVersWiss, a quarterly published journal,
presents interdisciplinary articles focused on insurance topics.
Talks and lectures given during the annual meeting of the members
of the DVfVW e.V. are regularly published in the ZVersWiss. From
1979 to 1990, nearly 9000 pages of valuable analysis addressing
insurance issues were published. Professor Schmidt's contributions
in particular shaped the character of the ZVersWiss both in the
past and today as a publication which links practical issues and
questions of the insurance field to scientific insurance matters.
As Editor-in-Chief of ZVersWiss, Reimer Schmidt's personality and
guidance gave risk to a leitmotiv that continues to inspire as the
insurance industry faces new challenges both in Germany as well
as internationally.
As President of the "Deutsche Verein für
Versicherungswissenschaft" Professor Schmidt initiated numerous
academic activities and sought to integrate different faculties
dealing with insurance matters. Consequently the annual meeting
of the Association developed into a dynamic interdisciplinary platform
for academic exchange about insurance topics. Boch experienced and
emerging academics and industry analysts present their dissertations,
take part in and contribute to this annual insurance forum. The
fruitful results of this interdisciplinary exchange are in large
part due to Reimer Schmidt's initiation and guiding influence during
his time as President of the Association.
Reimer Schmidt's contributions to insurance matters
were not limited to activities in Germany. Long before the notion
of "globalization" became fashionable, he realised that
insurance inevitably had cross-border implications. The integration
and standardisation of the different insurance laws in Europe -
especially the supervision of insurance companies - was his main
focus. His articles with regard to the freedom of establishment
and services in Europe and the deregulation and financial supervision
of insurance companies paved the way to the integration of insurance
activities in Europe as we know them today.
For many years Professor Schmidt was a member of the
Presidential Council and Vice and Honorary President of AIDA as
well as President of The International Association for the Study
of Insurance Economics (Geneva Association), an organisation of
chief executive officers from insurance companies all over the world.
His legal as well as economic and entrepreneurial approach to insurance
matters manifested itself in many valuable essays, articles and
books, as well as presentations for colleagues, industry, practitioners
and students. Reimer Schmidt understood insurance as a combination
of legal, economic, social, mathematical and technical issues.
Among the many works Professor Schmidt has published
and which are worth mentioning, a few which can be characterised
as "bestsellers" and are indispensable for any good insurance
library include: his postdoctoral thesis "Die Obliegenheiten",
his commentary to the Versicherungsaufsichtsgesetz, published together
with Erich R. Prölss, the "Handwörterbuch der
Versicherung", published together with Dieter Farny, Elmar
Helten and Peter Koch, and the "Versicherungsalphabet".
In Professor Reimer Schmidt, the insurance industry
loses an outstanding personality and a guiding intellectual force.
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ulrich Hübner
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