Anyone who has their house or apartment near a river is rightly concerned about the growing risk of flooding. Every homeowner fears the heavy storms that are hitting Germany with increasing frequency and intensity. Snow masses can pose a real risk. There is another risk that few people are aware of. Earthquakes are rare in Germany, but they can cause major damage. Insurance does not automatically cover damage if a house, household goods or car are destroyed. Anyone who wants to protect themselves needs additional protection. This can be particularly useful for owners of older houses.
The Roermond earthquake happened more than 30 years ago. But the woman from Cologne, who is in her mid-forties, remembers it as if it were yesterday. She was a teenager and lived with her parents and older sister in Heinsberg, near the border with the Netherlands. In the middle of the night, the walls of the house shook. The father got the frightened children out of bed and pulled them into the kitchen, where the family sought shelter under the heavy kitchen table. The four of them stayed there all night.
The earthquake of April 13, 1992, with a magnitude of 5.5 to 6, was the strongest in the region for almost 250 years. There were injuries and considerable material damage. In Germany alone, the damage was estimated at 150 million DM (76.7 million euros), and in the Netherlands at a similar amount. Of this, 50 million US dollars (46 million euros) were insured at today’s prices, according to reliable statistics from the reinsurer Swiss Re.
Compared to other natural disasters, this amount of damage is small. But the earthquake damaged 150 houses in Heinsberg alone, and some had to be demolished. And the next earthquake could have much worse consequences.
Damage caused by natural disasters is generally not covered by building insurance
In 1992, many homeowners were probably left with the cost of repairs, as building insurance does not usually cover damage caused by certain natural disasters. It pays for storms, hail, fire and damage caused by leaking water, but not for floods, heavy rain, landslides or earthquakes. Anyone who wants to protect themselves against these disasters needs natural hazard insurance.
It is taken out as an additional component to building or contents insurance. However, many people do not take out this additional cover. In Germany, only about half of all private homes are currently insured against damage caused by natural hazards. This can be expensive in an emergency.
In car insurance, protection against natural hazards is regulated differently. Partial comprehensive insurance offers drivers protection against storms, hail and lightning strikes as well as against flooding. If, for example, the vehicle is swept away by a flood and completely destroyed, the insurer will pay the replacement value, and in the case of newer cars, depending on the contract, even the new price. Partial comprehensive insurance is included in fully comprehensive insurance.
The risk of earthquakes in Germany cannot be ignored, say experts
Exceptions are avalanches, landslides and subsidence: anyone who wants to insure their car against these rather rare natural hazards often needs additional protection. However, some insurers have integrated them into their tariffs. At HUK-Coburg, the largest car insurer in this country, earthquake damage is automatically covered in the partial comprehensive insurance.
Marco Pilz, an expert at the Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam (GFZ), warns against underestimating the risk of earthquakes: “Compared to the rest of the world, Germany has a low to medium risk of earthquakes, but it is not negligible.” The experts at the Geoforschungszentrum produce hazard maps.
“The areas most at risk are along the Rhine, especially in the Upper Rhine Graben and the Lower Rhine Bay between Cologne and Aachen, on the Swabian Jura around Albstadt and then south of Leipzig in the Vogtland,” says Pilz. Earthquakes in the range of the historically largest magnitudes of around 6.5 occur here on average every thousand to three thousand years. “About every hundred to three hundred years there is a moderately strong earthquake of magnitude 5.5 or higher.”
These are the big quakes. Smaller quakes are much more common: the measuring stations register around two to three quakes with a magnitude of 4 per year, reports the seismologist. However, they usually do not cause any damage.
Germany is therefore “not necessarily a high-risk area” when it comes to earthquake risks, says Martin Käser. He is a geophysicist at the Munich-based reinsurer Munich Re and simulates earthquakes on the computer to predict the extent of possible damage.
His specialty is the modeling of natural disasters. Even though weather-related hazards play a much greater role in Germany, he believes earthquakes should not be neglected. “Even if an earthquake occurs relatively rarely, the area of damage is usually relatively large,” explains the geophysicist.
In 2019, experts from the German Research Centre for Geosciences calculated how great the damage could be on behalf of the German federal government. They carried out a risk analysis and simulated what would happen if an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 occurred near Cologne. This is not an unrealistic scenario: in the middle of the 18th century, there was a similarly strong earthquake near Düren.
A simulation for Cologne gives an impression of the extent of the damage
The result: Of the approximately 170,000 residential buildings in Cologne, around 10,000 are likely to suffer moderate to severe structural damage, says GFZ expert Marco Pilz. The structural integrity of these buildings would then be so badly damaged that an inspection would be necessary and major renovation work would be required.
Many other houses are expected to suffer minor damage, such as windows falling out or damage to the roof. “The older the buildings, the greater the damage is likely to be,” says Pilz. This is because it has only been compulsory to build earthquake-proof buildings in areas at risk since 2006; before that there were only recommendations. “This means that only a small proportion of the existing buildings have been built to be truly earthquake-proof,” says the scientist. “Houses built in the last 20 years are likely to be better able to withstand an earthquake like this.”
It could be worthwhile, especially for owners of older houses, to think about protection. Anyone who is thinking about taking out natural hazard insurance should read the small print carefully to see what protection is available in the event of an earthquake, advises consumer advocate Philipp Opfermann. “The conditions vary depending on the insurer.” The deductibles vary. “You should ask yourself: How high is my deductible and can I live with it?”
The costs for natural hazard insurance vary greatly. They also depend on whether the building is in an earthquake or flood risk area and how old it is. Jörg Friederich from SV Sparkassen-Versicherung, one of the largest building insurers in Germany, estimates the amount due for the additional protection to be 15 to 20 percent of the total premium volume of a building insurance policy. Incidentally, the earthquake risk only accounts for a comparatively small share of this. “The main drivers of price are the dangers of heavy rain and flooding, because they occur much more frequently,” says Friederich. But there are also areas, for example directly on river banks, where the natural hazard risk costs many times more than the usual fire cover.
Munich Re expert Martin Käser complains about a lack of awareness of earthquakes in Germany. He advises people whose house is in earthquake zone 3, the highest risk zone, to check offers from various insurers and possibly have a building inspection carried out to uncover potential weak points. Once these have been identified, advice can be given on what it would cost to eliminate them. “With such a one-off payment, you may already feel safe enough and not want any additional insurance cover,” he says.