19th century: Founding and positioning
1863: Founding of the company due to the devastating fire in Glarus
- 1861: Great fire of Glarus.
- 2 May 1863: Basler Versicherungs-Gesellschaft gegen Feuerschaden receives a cantonal trading licence from the government of the canton of Basel-Stadt.
- 1864: Founding of Basler Transport (Baloise Transport) and Basler Leben (Baloise Life).
1864: Expansion of business activities and European expansion
- 1864: Baloise expands its business into two more areas. It continues to pursue the original goal of doing insurance business “in all its branches and directions” by introducing transport and life insurance. The new companies were named according to their purpose: Basler Lebens-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft (Baloise Life Insurance Company) and Basler Transport-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft (Baloise Transport Insurance Company). Where possible and not prevented by monopolies or restricted by quotas, the other cantonal licences follow very quickly.
- The young Baloise achieves growth in Switzerland through the acquisition of other cantonal portfolios, first in Graubünden, then in Geneva, Zurich and Valais.
- 4 August 1864: Basler Feuer receives an operating licence in the Grand Duchy of Baden.
- 29 March 1886: The Kingdom of Saxony is the last of the former German nation states to grant it a licence.
- Other countries follow: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, France, Italy and the Danube Principalities as well as today’s Romania.
1869: Its own reinsurance and a leap overseas
- In 1869, Basler Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft (Baloise Reinsurance Company) is established under the leadership of Basler Transport.
- 1885: Basler Leben commences operations in the accident insurance business.
- The geographical activity expands and Basler Feuer starts doing business in Hamburg, Bremen, Constantinople, Alexandria, Smyrna, Yokohama, Mexico City, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.
- 1874: Baloise establishes a subsidiary in Austria and in 1891 Basler Feuer begins underwriting direct business in San Francisco.
1891: Germany becomes the most important foreign market
- Baloise builds a representative palace in Berlin to make the growing importance of the company clear to the outside world. The Hotel Angleterre is now in this building, and the basilisk is still watching over its portal.