, built in 1692
Origin The Siemens family was first documented in 1384 with
Henning Symons, a farmer of the
Free imperial city of
Goslar in
Lower Saxony,
Germany. The family tree begins with
Ananias Siemens ( – 1591), a citizen, brewer and owner of an
oil mill in Goslar, belonging to the
Shoemaker's Guild, as his ancestors were shoemakers. His grandson Hans (1628–94), speaker of the Merchant's Guild and commander of the town's vigilance committee, built the Siemens House in Goslar in 1692. It is still owned by the family and houses their private archives and an exhibition on the family history. The Siemens family provided numerous members to Goslar city council as well as four mayors, the last being Johann Georg (1748–1807).
Development Cable factory in Berlin-
Siemensstadt around 1900 The most important branches of the Goslar family - there are also other families with the same surname in Northern Germany - go back to the farmer Christian Ferdinand Siemens (1787–1840). His sons
Werner Siemens (since 1888
von Siemens),
(Carl) Wilhelm Siemens (known as
Sir William Siemens), Hans Siemens,
Friedrich Siemens and
Carl (Heinrich) von Siemens became engineers and entrepreneurs. Werner Siemens, a former artillery and engineering officer in the Prussian army, 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 taking occupation of its workshop on 12 October. His business partner
Johann Georg Halske, a master mechanic, was particularly involved in the construction and design of electrical equipment such as the press which enabled wires to be insulated with a seamless coat of
gutta-percha, the pointer telegraph, the
morse telegraph and measuring instruments. The company was internationalised soon after its founding. One of Werner’s brothers represented him in England (
Sir William Siemens) and another in
St Petersburg,
Russia (
Carl von Siemens), each earning recognition. In 1867 Mr Halske withdrew from the company because his more conservative views on company policy diverged from those of the rather venturous Siemens brothers. In 1848 the company built the first long-distance telegraph line in Europe, 500 km from Berlin to
Frankfurt am Main. In the 1850s the company was involved in building long-distance telegraph networks in Russia. In 1867 Siemens completed the monumental Indo-European (
Calcutta to
London) telegraph line and in 1870 a
transatlantic communications cable. In 1857, Werner von Siemens described the
countercurrent exchange and in 1867 a
dynamo without permanent magnets. A similar system was also independently invented by
Charles Wheatstone, but Siemens became the first company to build such devices. In 1881, a Siemens
AC Alternator driven by a
watermill was used to power the world's first electric street lighting in the town of
Godalming, United Kingdom. The company continued to grow and diversified into
electric trains and
light bulbs. In 1887 it opened its first office in Japan. In 1890, the founder retired and left running the company to his brother Carl and sons Arnold and Wilhelm. In 1888 Werner Siemens received hereditary
ennoblement as
von Siemens by
Frederick III, German Emperor. His brother
William had been
knighted – becoming Sir William – by
Queen Victoria a few months before his death in 1883. The brother
Carl in St Petersburg was ennobled by
Tsar Nicholas II in 1895. Werner's cousin and father-in-law, Carl Georg Siemens (1809–1885), a professor of technology at the
University of Hohenheim, received personal ennoblement from the
King of Württemberg. Werner's nephew
Georg, co-founder of
Deutsche Bank, was ennobled by
Wilhelm II, German Emperor, in 1899. Siemens & Halske (S & H) was incorporated in 1897 and then merged parts of its activities with Schuckert & Co., Nuremberg, in 1903 to become
Siemens-Schuckert. In 1919 S & H and two other companies jointly formed the
Osram lightbulb company. During the 1920s and 1930s S & H started to manufacture
radios,
television sets and
electron microscopes. In 1932
Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall (Erlangen),
Phönix AG (Rudolstadt) and
Siemens-Reiniger-Veifa mbH (Berlin) merged to form the
Siemens-Reiniger-Werke AG (SRW), a producer of medical technology and the third of the so-called
parent companies that
Ernst von Siemens decided in 1966 to merge to form the present-day
Siemens AG, which is one of the largest electro-technological firms in the world. The company, during all its stages from Siemens & Halske AG, Siemens-Schuckertwerke AG and Siemens-Reiniger-Werke AG until its merger to
Siemens AG in 1966, has always been led by subsequent generations of the founder's family, at first by Werner's brother
Carl, then by Werner's sons
Arnold,
Wilhelm and
Carl Friedrich, later by his grandsons
Hermann and
Ernst, and until 1981 by his great-grandson
Peter von Siemens. Today the descendants of Werner and Carl von Siemens have a minority ownership of 6.9% (by comparison: the
Ford family controls the Ford Motor Company with a share of 2%), thus still being the largest single shareholder. Based on a market cap of €112 billion, the Siemens family holds €7.7 billion worth of common stock in the company and received €201 million in dividends in 2016. Considerable parts of this share have been endowed to
charitable trusts controlled by family members. The family keeps a seat in the Siemens
Supervisory Board and is said to take influence in the background. Until 1981, the chairman of the Supervisory Board has always been a member of the family. The
von Siemens are said to return to the chairmanship in the future should necessity require it or an eligible candidate be ready to run. The clan's principal aim has always been to guarantee its 169 years old company independence, stability and solid growth. == Family members ==