History of the company

The German insurance industry recognized very early that it is absolutely necessary for an active prevention of damages to keep risks to a minimum and to keep them insurable. Already almost 100 years ago, they founded the "Sprinkler monitoring center". In the Third Reich, the association of private fire insurers and the association of public fire insurers were disbanded. Nevertheless, the sprinkler test center was mostly able to continue its work until 1944. After an interruption due to WW II, they were able to fully continue their work in 1947. In June 1948, the test center was integrated into the newly founded Association of Property Insurers (Verband der Sachversicherer e.V., VdS). In the years following, the technical VdS divisions for fire protection and burglary and theft protection were continuously expanded. In 1997 these technical divisions were transfered into a limited company named VdS Schadenverhütung GmbH (VdS Loss Prevention) owned by the German Insurance Association (Gesamtverband der Deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft e.V., GDV).

Today, VdS  is a modern company which enjoys the trust of all groups involved in the security market – insurers, manufacturers, service providers, authorities and consumers. The competencies of VdS are documented by many accreditations or notifications.