Our history
Leonhardt & Blumberg (L&B) was founded by Adolf Leonhardt and Arthur Blumberg in Hamburg in 1903. Right from the beginning, the company acted as Ship-Owners and Marine Insurance Brokers, so that we are proud to look back over a history of more than 110 years in the Marine Insurance business today.
At certain times during the last century insurance brooking even became the main activity of Leonhardt & Blumberg, particularly after the 2 world wars, when all German ships had been lost and reconstruction not yet begun. In 1945 Hans and Otto Leonhardt took care of only a handful of remaining German ships left in the Port of Hamburg. Progress was then made with the large number of diving and salvage craft, engaged to remove the wreckage, remnants and scrap metals of those ships destroyed in the war.
During the 1950s “classical” insurance broking was resumed for the growing L&B fleet as well as for other German shipping companies close to the company. In addition to a variety of seagoing fleets, leading inland craft shipping companies were acquired as clients.
During the 1970s and 80s the volume of third party insurance business begun to outscore the number of L&B controlled vessels by far and we established ourselves as one of the leading Marine Insurance brokers in Germany.
In 1995 L&B Shipping and L&B Insurance Brokers were legally separated. In addition to our traditional German book of business a number of international fleets were gained.
During the 2000s, in the wake of the shipping boom, the volume of insured vessels almost doubled. At the same time, wherever feasible, direct business relations were created with all our international Underwriting partners around the globe.
Today we stand solid, albeit the number of vessels insured has slightly reduced, which is attributed to the continuing shipping crisis.
To deal with the ever demanding challenges of the market we have worked on measures to meet them successfully.
This is done by developing proper IT systems and investing into people – we are convinced our team is our fundament to provide the best services to our clients whenever and wherever needed.