61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

Linked payment transactions and services during wartime
Swiss insurance services were an important asset in Switzerland’s balance of
payments; trade in insurance policies generated a surplus for Switzerland
amounting around 40 million francs per annum in the early 1930s (i.e., 2.3%
of Swiss exports in 1930), rising to at least 60 million ten years later (4.5% of
Swiss exports in 1940). 6 These payments were exempt from the clearing agreements
concluded from 1934 on as German and Swiss private insurers were able
to convince their authorities that for technical reasons, insurance payments had
to be made immediately and without impediment and that insurance services
could not easily be rationed – as was the case with foreign trade, for example –
without creating major economic disadvantages.
During the war, insurance payment transactions between Germany and
Switzerland increasingly developed in a way which favoured Switzerland and cost
Germany valuable foreign exchange. In 1941, Germany made net payments
totalling 6.7 million reichsmarks; in 1943, this figure had increased to
11.7 million reichsmarks, with more than 20 million calculated for 1944. The
Swiss insurance companies continued to insist that their claims be met promptly
outside the clearing system; they were thus able to secure preferential status
within the financial sector. During the war, Germany paid a total of 156 million
francs to Swiss financial creditors; this included 89.6 million francs to insurance
companies. From Germany’s point of view, this high level of foreign exchange
expenditure was justified by the important contribution made by Swiss insurance
services to the wartime economy. This included insurance for ammunition
factories during the war – in 1941, Zürich Unfall insured around 50 enterprises
which were classed as ammunition factories. Basler Transport insured IG Farben-
Werke; for this purpose, it successfully applied (together with other Swiss
companies) for admission to the German War Insurance Association (Kriegsversicherungsgemeinschaft)
during the war in order to pool the additional risks arising
from the military conflict. When the Scandinavian reinsurers terminated their
cover in 1943 due to the poor progress of the policies, Basler Transport significantly
reduced its contribution to the insurance of IG Farben-Werke. Schweizer
Rück had also taken on a share of this risk as a reinsurer; via its subsidiaries, it
provided health insurance and reinsurance for the Hitler Youth as well.
On the other hand, the Swiss negotiators appear to have recognised the danger
of becoming overly dependent, in political terms, on Germany. Nazi party
organisations were particularly hostile to the provision of public services, such
as insurance protection, by private and especially by Swiss companies. During
the first years of the war, they exerted pressure on Swiss companies to sell their
German subsidiaries and shareholdings. However, the Swiss insurers – unlike
the Austrian companies after the «Anschluss» (annexation) in 1938, for example
285