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Munich Re

German reinsurance company

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ166637 ↗
Source-derived summary

Munich Re Group or Munich Reinsurance Company (German: Münchener Rück; Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft) is a German multinational insurance company based in Munich, Germany. It is the world's largest reinsurer. ERGO, a subsidiary of Munich Re, serves as the primary insurance arm of the Group. Munich Re's shares are publicly listed. Munich Re is included in the DAX index at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the Euro Stoxx 50, and other indices.

History

In 1880 Carl von Thieme, a native of Erfurt who was the representative in Bavaria of his father's Thuringia insurance company, founded in Munich Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft together with Wilhelm von Finck (co-owner of the Merck Finck & Co. bank) and Theodor von Cramer-Klett. This was followed by the founding of Allianz Versicherungs-Gesellschaft in 1890 in Berlin. Carl von Thieme was head of Munich Re until 1921, and Wilhelm von Finck served as Chairman of the supervisory board until 1924. Munich Re became renowned after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 as the only insurer that remained solvent after paying out all the claims, a total of 15.5 million Marks.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Munich Re” as german reinsurance company. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Munich, German and reinsurance.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1880, 1890, 1921, 1924—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1880-04-03. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Munich, German and reinsurance providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Munich Re”, the useful work is to connect “german reinsurance company” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q166637. VIAF identifies the subject as 154077093. The Library of Congress control number is n81137018. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1880, 1890, 1921 and 1924.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Munich Re”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Munich Re primary sources, Munich Re archive and Munich research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Munich Re”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Munich Re” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.