Siemens: From the telegraph to the internet

In 1846 and 1847 Werner Siemens developed his electric pointer telegraph. It worked reliably and was superior to earlier devices. This innovation was the basis for "Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske," which he founded in Berlin on October 1, 1847, together with precision mechanic Johann Georg Halske. Ten craftsmen built the instruments in a Berlin workshop.

In the following decades, Siemens & Halske transformed from a workshop to a company with standardized mass production. It built steam engines and developed the first dynamo. Electrical generation was key to Siemens' further development, making not only dynamos, but arc lights and power engineering products.

Siemens undertook ambitious projects. An attempt to lay a cross-Mediterranean telegraph cable failed in 1864, causing heavy losses. But the Siemens brothers, Werner, William and Carl, learned their lessons. In 1874-75 they successfully connected Europe with North America by telegraph, using the specially designed cable ship "Faraday." It was the first of 16 telegraph cables under the Atlantic.

In 1879 Siemens & Halske demonstrated the first remotely powered electric train on a 300-meter circular test track in Berlin. They put this into regular service in 1881 in Lichterfelde, now part of Berlin, with the first electric tram, where they continued to develop the technology. Power was originally supplied through the rails, but later this was replaced by overhead cable.

Werner Siemens (who in 1888 became the more noble "von Siemens") also made a name for himself with social initiatives. In 1872 he established a social insurance system for his company that provided widows, orphans and retirees with a pension. He officially left the company in 1890. Two years later, he died of pneumonia, aged 75.

The company grew and grew. To allow it to expand, Siemens & Halske purchased a nearly uninhabited area north of what were then Berlin's boundaries in 1897. It began to concentrate its operations here, building new factories and residences. By 1914 an entirely new district had emerged - the "Siemenssstadt" or "Siemens City."

During World War II, Siemens employed forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners in its factories. At Ravensbrück concentration camp, north of Berlin, the company put thousands of women to work wrapping coils and building telephones. After the war, most of these facilities were destroyed and company property confiscated.

Anticipating the Red Army's advance on Berlin, parts of the company's management moved to Munich, Mülheim and Hof in February 1945. In 1949, following the Soviet blockade of Berlin, Siemens & Halske transferred its headquarters to Munich, while West Berlin remained a secondary site. Siemens & Halske and its sister companies merged to form Siemens AG in October 1966.

Turbines, automation systems, railways, power plants, private communication systems, medical technology, washing machines - there's not much that Siemens doesn't make. By the early 1980s, it had plants in 37 countries. A decade later, two-thirds of sales were outside Germany.

Between 2006 and 2008, Siemens was the focus of the biggest bribery and corruption scandal in German industrial history. A court found it had paid around 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in bribes to secure lucrative foreign contracts. The affair cost Siemens 2.5 billion euros. Many of those involved were fired, and Siemens' top management was replaced.

In May 2014, new CEO Joe Kaeser put forward his plans to shake up Siemens. Industry sectors within Siemens were abolished with the aim of streamlining the company and making it more competitive. The company said it would focus on electrification, automation and digitization. The restructuring cost thousands of jobs.

Germany's main railway Deutsche Bahn paid Siemens more than 6 billion euros to build its new fleet of ICE high-speed trains. It was the biggest contract in its history. Egypt paid Siemens a similar sum to build the world's largest gas-fired power plant. In 2014, Siemens hoped to take over French competitor Alstom, but it chose instead to enter a partnership with US-based General Electric.

Industry 4.0 and the "internet of things" promise more intelligent, global networking of machines, storage systems and means of production. Growing digitalization and interconnection are transforming the entire industrial production process - a new challenge for Siemens.