The Insurance Law Center at UConn Law
is pleased to invite you to a lunchtime lecture by
Dr. Oliver Brand
Martin Flynn Global Law Faculty
Chair of Private Law, Insurance Law, Business Law & Comparative Law at the University of Mannheim, Germany
on the topic of
Misuse of Insurance by Totalitarian Systems:
A Cautionary Tale from Nazi Germany
on
Thursday, April 17, 2025 at 12:30pm ET
Thomas J. Meskill Law Library
Room No. 202
UConn School of Law
55 Elizabeth Street
Hartford, CT 06105
Please register using the form below by Tuesday, April 15, 2025.
Lunch is provided for registered attendees.
Remote participation option is available for registered attendees.
Abstract
Insurance is generally seen as a benefit to society as it allows people to safeguard against the financial consequences of all sorts of unfortunate events. But what happens if the state begins using the tools of insurance law to systematically deprive groups of citizens of any kind of financial security?
Using the actions of the Nazi government in Germany (1933–1945) as an example, this talk explores how instruments like insurance supervision, which were designed to protect insureds and their interests, can be corrupted to work against them by an unscrupulous state.
The collapse of contractual rights, the complicity of the German insurance industry in persecuting citizens of Jewish faith, and also individual acts of resistance against the maelstrom of the Nazi insurance regimes will be highlighted. An outlook on the resilience of modern insurance law against such instances of gross misuse will conclude the talk.