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