Early years Ernst Werner Siemens was born in Lenthe, today part of
Gehrden, near
Hannover, in the
Kingdom of Hanover in the
German Confederation, the third child (of fourteen) of Christian Ferdinand Siemens (31 July 1787 – 16 January 1840) and wife Eleonore Deichmann (1792 – 8 July 1839). His father was a
tenant farmer of the
Siemens family, an old family of
Goslar, documented since 1384.
Carl Heinrich von Siemens and
Carl Wilhelm Siemens were his brothers.
Middle years After finishing school, Siemens intended to study at the
Bauakademie Berlin. However, since his family was highly indebted and thus could not afford to pay the tuition fees, he chose to join the
Prussian Military Academy's School of Artillery and Engineering, between the years 1835–1838, instead, where he received his officers training. Siemens was thought of as a good soldier, receiving various medals, and contributing to the invention of electrically-charged
sea mines, which were used to combat a Danish blockade of
Kiel during the
First Schleswig War. Upon returning home from war, he chose to work on perfecting technologies that had already been established and eventually became known worldwide for his advances in various technologies. In 1843 he sold the rights to his first invention to
Elkington of Birmingham. Siemens invented a
telegraph that used a needle to point to the right letter, instead of using
Morse code. Based on this invention, he founded the company
Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske on 1 October 1847, with the company opening a workshop on 12 October. The company was internationalised soon after its founding. One brother of Werner represented him in England (
Sir William Siemens) and another in
St. Petersburg,
Russia (
Carl von Siemens), each earning recognition. Following his industrial career, he was ennobled in 1888, becoming Werner von Siemens. He retired from his company in 1890 and died in 1892 in Berlin. The company, reorganized as
Siemens & Halske,
Siemens-Schuckertwerke and – since 1966 –
Siemens was later led by his brother Carl, his sons
Arnold,
Wilhelm, and
Carl Friedrich, his grandsons
Hermann and
Ernst and his great-grandson
Peter von Siemens. Siemens AG is one of the largest electrotechnological firms in the world. The von Siemens family still owns 6% of the company shares (as of 2013) and holds a seat on the supervisory board, being the largest shareholder.
Later years Apart from the pointer telegraph, Siemens made sufficient contributions to the development of
electrical engineering that he became known as the founding father of the discipline in Germany. He built the world's
first electric passenger train in 1879, and the first electric
elevator in 1880. His company produced the tubes with which
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen investigated x-rays. He claimed invention of the
dynamo although others invented theirs
around the same time. On 14 December 1877 he received German patent No. 2355 for an electromechanical "dynamic" or moving-coil transducer, which was adapted by A. L. Thuras and E. C. Wente for the
Bell System in the late 1920s for use as a
loudspeaker. Wente's adaptation was issued in 1929. In May 1881, Siemens & Halske inaugurated the world's first electric
tram service, in the
Berlin suburb of Groß-Lichterfelde. Siemens is also the father of the
trolleybus, which he initially tried and tested on 29 April 1882, using his "
Elektromote".
Personal life He was married twice: first in 1852 to Mathilde Drumann (died 1 July 1867), the daughter of the historian
Wilhelm Drumann; second in 1869 to his relative Antonie Siemens (1840–1900). His children from first marriage were
Arnold von Siemens and
Georg Wilhelm von Siemens, and his children from second marriage were Hertha von Siemens (1870 – 5 January 1939), married in 1899 to
Carl Dietrich Harries, and
Carl Friedrich von Siemens. Siemens was an advocate of
social democracy, and he hoped that
industrial development would not be used in favour of
capitalism, stating: He also rejected the claim that science leads to
materialism, stating instead:
Commemoration Werner von Siemens' portrait appeared on the banknote issued by the
Reichsbank from 1929 until 1939. Printing ceased in 1939 but the note remained in circulation until the issue of the
Deutsche Mark on 21 June 1948. In 1923, German botanist
Ignatz Urban published
Siemensia, which is a
monotypic genus of
flowering plant from
Cuba belonging to the family
Rubiaceae and was named in honor of Werner von Siemens. ==U.S. patents==