Versorgungswerk der Zahnärztekammer Berlin

Versorgungswerk der Zahnärztekammer Berlin

Founded in 1965, the Versorgungswerk der Zahnärztekammer Berlin (VZB) provides mandatory retirement, disability, and survivor benefits for roughly 11,000 self-employed and employed dentists in Berlin. The fund operates as a public-law corporation under the oversight of the state of Berlin and is a member of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft berufsständischer Versorgungseinrichtungen, the umbrella group for German professional pension schemes. The VZB’s recent history reads as a cautionary case study in mandate drift. A decade-long investment program steered by former leadership channeled assets away from diversified, liquid, and secure instruments into concentrated, high-risk private-market exposures, including start-ups that later became insolvent. Known direct holdings include a residential portfolio in Berlin, a loan facility to Arena Hospitality Group spanning Berlin and Croatia. The fund also entered a joint venture with Engel & Völkers targeting real estate and fintech investments. By mid-2026, the firm publicly stated that more than half of its prior 2.2 billion euro asset base had been destroyed, with further write-downs possible. Interim director and Verwaltungsausschuss chairman Thomas Schieritz now leads a systematic remediation, having filed a sweeping 2,000-page damages suit at the Berlin regional court in May 2026 naming twelve defendants: the state of Berlin, former board members, auditor Forvis Mazars, and Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank. A separate labor-court action against a former director seeks at least 50 million euros in preliminary restitution. Criminal investigations into suspected corruption and breach of trust are proceeding in parallel. On the operational side, the fund maintains a signatory commitment to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and has digitized its member-enrollment portal as of January 2023. The affiliated Stiftung Hilfswerk Deutscher Zahnärzte handles charitable activities. What distinguishes the VZB today is the weaponization of its supervisory architecture: the fund is simultaneously defendant to its own distressed member base and plaintiff against the oversight bodies that were supposed to prevent the collapse. No other German professional pension scheme has pursued the state, its auditor, and its banking partners in a single coordinated recovery action, making the VZB a live laboratory for institutional accountability.