Immer Enger

Immer Enger: The Urbanization of Capital and the Financialization of the City – The Case of Zurich’s Insurance Companies
Nora Hochuli

My study delves into Zurich’s insurance sector, tracing its evolution from colonial times to its role in shaping Zurich into a financial hub in the nineteenth century, and its contemporary impact on the city’s built environment and urban housing policies.

The origins of Swiss insurance companies lie in transport insurance firms established by wealthy Swiss textile industrialists and merchants. Their purpose was to insure ships transporting trade goods, whether for importing colonial goods or exporting products to colonies. These entrepreneurs leveraged their trade networks to distribute insurance globally. [1] As speculation and high profits made the insurance industry lucrative, the insurance industry boomed and other insurance branches soon followed, including reinsurance companies that insured the insurers themselves. This development led to significant value creation, with enormous capital flowing back to Switzerland. Today, Switzerland is one of the most well-insured countries in the world, home to some of the largest insurance companies worldwide.

Around 1900, the three major insurers (Swiss Life, Swiss Re, and Zurich Insurance) established themselves on the left bank of Lake Zurich, at Mythenquai in the municipality of Enge, as an integral part of the Seequai project, which manifested Zurich’s stature as a commercial and financial center. [2] The newly landfilled lake basin provided prime real estate for the insurers’ headquarters, creating fertile ground for a new financial sector, nestled between a prosperous quarter of merchants and industrialists and a growing city. In exchange, the landfilling was partly cross-financed by the new landowners. It is noteworthy that the involved visionaries often simultaneously operated as industrialists and merchants, in politics, and in the banking and insurance sector. [3]

This early example of a public–private partnership marked the beginning of a city policy where Zurich relied on financial support from big insurance companies to realize urban projects. Zurich’s insurance companies are among the largest real estate investors globally and have not only gained increasing influence over the city’s built environment but also over urban and housing policies. The development of the Enge district since the establishment of the major insurers can be seen as a condensed example illustrating processes of capital urbanization and the financialization of the city.

Their strong presence and high level of investments have significantly impacted the area, demonstrating a direct correlation between the companies’ development and their physical neighborhood. Through capital-intensive land speculation, not only have rental and land prices increased, but residential spaces have also been replaced by service and office facilities.

These displacement processes have led to social conflicts and gentrification but also provoked a housing movement that emerged in Zurich in the 1970s. Was it, for instance, a coincidence that Zurich’s first house occupation occurred in the Enge district? The slogan “Die Enge wird immer Enger,” which became the motto of the Venedigstrasse occupation, drew attention to the economically profitable replacement of residential space with service space and emphasized that the city council protected capital interests over the needs of its inhabitants. Seven residential houses were replaced by an office complex housing the Schweizerische Lebensversicherung (today’s Swiss life). [4]

Today, Zurich is once again facing a housing crisis, caused by ongoing urbanization processes and profit-oriented land and real estate speculation by large investors, still raising the same question: is Zurich a place for working or a place for living?

Cited and Main Sources

1. Zangger, Andreas. Koloniale Schweiz: ein Stück Globalgeschichte zwischen Europa und Südostasien (1860-1930). Bielefeld: Transcript, 2011. [1]

2. Baumann, Walter. Arnold Bürkli, 1833-1894: Aufbruch in eine neue Zeit. Schweizer Pioniere der Wirtschaft und Technik 60. Meilen: Verein für Wirtschaftshistorische Studien, 1994. [2]

3. „Observatoire des élites suisses“. (Accessed 13 December 2023) Link. [3]

4. Hürlimann, H. Die Geschichte der baulichen Entwicklung der ehemaligen Gemeinde Enge : Vortrag gehalten im Quartierverein Enge. Buchdruckerei Berichthaus Zürich, 1964.

5. Stahel, Thomas, und Jonas Voegeli. Wo-Wo-Wonige: Stadt- und wohnpolitische Bewegungen in Zürich nach 1968. Zürich: Paranoia City Verlag, 2006. [4]

6. Swiss Re Corporate History. „Geschichte der Versicherung in der Schweiz“. Zürich: Swiss-Re, 2013. Swiss Re Archive.

Image Credits

1. “Swiss insurance companies insure the whole world,” self-display of the Swiss insurance companies at the National Exhibition of 1939. Die Privatversicherungen in der Schweiz: Schweizerische Landesaustellung 1939 Zürich. Zürich: Institut Orell Füssli, 1939.

2. Mythenquai Enge 1934: building of the Seequaiproject in front of headquarters of Swiss Re. ETH Library, Image Archive. (Accessed 22 February 2024) Link.

3. “Die Enge wird immer Enge,” house occupation Venedigstrasse, 1971, Zurich. Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv. (Accessed 13 December 2023) Link.

4. Planning Zürich as a financial center: map of 1883 with projection of future developments. Swiss Geoportal. (Accessed 13 December 2023) Link.