66
67
produce dynamos and cables. Within a decade, the workforce
grew from 876 employees (1880) to 3,950 (1890).
Only at the beginning of 1890, at age 74, did Werner von Siemens
step aside as a partner. The company was converted from a com-
mercial partnership into a limited partnership. The head of the
family continued to reject the idea of forming a stock corporation.
Werner von Siemens would now have three years to enjoy his retire-
Werner and Antonie von Siemens on the terrace of the
country house in Bad Harzburg, with friends and their child-
ren Carl Friedrich and Hertha (lower right), ca. 1892
ment. He traveled to the Caucasus with Antonie, Carl and his
youngest daughter Hertha, went bear hunting there, spent a win-
ter on Corfu and a spring in Italy. His four children from his fi rst
marriage had married between 1882 and 1887, and a total of eleven
grandchildren were born during Werner’s lifetime.
He now began working hard on his memoirs. For that purpose,
he repeatedly retired for extended periods to the country house in
Bad Harzburg that he had bought back in 1882. The autobiography
became an outstandingly well-written work in which Werner von
Siemens presented his principles and made his points between
colorful descriptions of cable expeditions and journeys to the
Caucasus. His comments ended with the fi nding:
Werner von Siemens was spared a lengthy illness. After the Julius
Springer publishing house had issued the fi rst copies of his Recol-
lections on November 29, 1892, his strength suddenly abandoned
him. He fell ill, and pneumonia set in. On December 6, 1892, a few
days before his 76th birthday, Werner von Siemens died peaceful-
ly at his home in Charlottenburg, surrounded by his family.
“For my life was beautiful, because it essentially consisted of
successful labor and useful work, and if I finally give expression to
the regret that it is approaching its end, I am only urged thereto
by the pain that I must be parted from my dear ones, and that it is
not permitted me to continue to labor for the full development
of the Age of Natural Science.”
57
Starting 1883
Step by step, the development and production of dynamos,
arc lamp fabrication, and the production of all other heavy-current products
are relocated to the Charlottenburger Werk (charlottenburg plant).
2008
The th edition of Werner von Siemens’ Recollections is released.
The autobiography has been translated into many different languages. There
has also been an iPad app on the electrical pioneer’s life since .
68
69
Notes
1 Sigfrid von Weiher,
Werner von Sie-
mens, Göttingen 1975; Wilfried
Feldenkirchen, Werner von Siemens,
Columbus, Ohio 1994.
2 Siemens Corporate Archives [herein-
after: SAA] W7236, Werner to Carl,
Charlottenburg, December 25, 1887.
3 Werner von Siemens, Recollections,
ed. Wilfried Feldenkirchen,
Munich 2005, 33.
4 Prussian patent for a process for
dissolving gold by means of the
galvanic current for gilding by the
wet method (1884), in: Siemens,
Werner von: Scientific and Technical
Papers, vol. 2: Technical Papers,
London 1895, 1.
5 Siemens,
Recollections, 48–49.
6 SAA 2.Ls 903, Bemerkung des Briga-
diers über Werner Siemens 1846,
extracts from the “Conduitenliste
von den Offizieren der 3. Artillerie-
Brigade” of December 1, 1836–Decem-
ber 1, 1847.
7 SAA F1276, Werner to Mathilde, Berlin,
November 26, 1856.
8 SAA W1594,
Werner to William, n. p.,
December 14, 1846.
9 For Halske’s biography, see Ewald
Blocher, Johann Georg Halske,
Munich 2014.
10 SAA 21.Li 53, Gesellschaftsvertrag
zwischen 1. dem Mechanikus Herrn
Halske 2. dem Artillerieleutnant Wer-
ner Siemens 3. dem Justizrath Georg
Siemens, October 1, 1847.
11 Cf. Werner Siemens, Kurze Darstellung
der an den preussischen Teleg-
raphen-Linien mit unterirdischen Lei-
tungen bis jetzt gemachten Erfahrun-
gen, Berlin 1851.
12 SAA W17, Werner to William, Berlin,
October 11, 1851.
13 On this point, see Martin Lutz,
Carl
von Siemens 1829–1906, Munich 2013,
59–97.
14 SAA F1156, Werner von Siemens to
Mathilde Drumann, Berlin, June 22,
1852.
15 SAA 3.Li 509, Mathilde to Wilhelm,
Berlin, March 1875.
16 Cf SAA W8539, Werner to William,
Berlin, September 25, 1845.
17 On this point, see David Warren
Sabean, “German International
Families in the Nineteenth Century.
The Siemens Family as a Thought
Experiment,” in Transregional and
Transnational Families in Europe
and Beyond. Experiences Since the
Middle Ages, ed. Christopher H.
Johnson et al. New York / Oxford 2011,
229–252.
18 SAA W1343, Werner to William, St.
Petersburg, April 1, 1852.
19 Siemens,
Recollections, 169–178.
20 SAA W5502, Werner to Carl, Charlotten-
burg, December 7, 1869.
21 SAA W4208, Werner to Carl, n. p.,
November 4, 1863.
22 SAA 21.Li 53, Gesellschaftsvertrag of
August 24, 1867.
23 SAA W2253, Werner to Carl, London,
November 10, 1856.
24 This is also confirmed by the memoirs
of his daughter Käthe Pietschker, Aus
meinem Leben, Hamburg n. d.
25 At the time, Werner von Siemens
anonymously published a proposal
for a compromise on the army reform:
Zur Militairfrage. Ein Vorschlag,
Berlin 1862.
26 Werner Siemens, ed.,
Positive Vor-
schläge zu einem Patent-Gesetz. Denk-
schrift der Aeltesten der Kaufmann-
schaft zu Berlin an den Königlichen
Staats- und Minister für Handel,
Gewerbe und öffentliche Arbeiten,
Herrn Grafen von Itzenplitz
(Berlin 1869).
27 Memoir on the necessity of a patent
law for the German Empire (1876), in:
id.: Scientific and Technical Papers,
vol. 2, 576-582.
28 On the prior history and the terms
of the Patent Act of 1877 see Ludwig
Fischer, Werner von Siemens und der
Schutz der Erfindungen, Berlin 1922;
Alfred Heggen, Erfindungsschutz
und Industrialisierung in Preußen
1793–1877, Göttingen 1975; Margrit
Seckelmann, Industrialisierung, Insti-
tutionalisierung und Patentrecht im
Deutschen Reich, 1871–1914, Frankfurt
am Main 2006.
29 SAA W2315, Werner to William,
Berlin, April 29, 1856.
30 SAA F84, Werner to Arnold, Degerloch,
October 5, 1891. Concerning the Ked-
abeg copper mine and the oil business
in the Caucasus, see Lutz, Carl von
Siemens, 153–157 and 161–166.
31 Concerning the Indo-European
telegraph line, see, e. g., Jorma
Ahvenainen, The History of the Near
Eastern Telegraphs before the First
World War, Helsinki 2011, 107–149;
Richard Ehrenberg, Die Unternehmun-
gen der Brüder Siemens, vol. 1:
Bis
zum Jahre 1870, Jena 1906, 174–268;
Museum für Kommunikation, ed., In
28 Minuten von London nach Kalkutta.
Aufsätze zur Telegrafiegeschichte
aus der Sammlung Dr. Hans Pieper
im Museum für Kommunikation,
Bern, Zürich 2000.
32 For the biography of Georg von
Siemens see Karl Helfferich, Georg
von Siemens, 2 volumes, Berlin 1921.
33 Ibid., vol. 1, 98–161; Dirk Schaal,
Ernst Höltzer, Munich 2015.
34 Concerning the Direct United States
Cable Co. Ltd. and laying the trans-
atlantic cable in 1874/75, see Lutz,
Carl von Siemens, 181–188; SAA 38/8/2,
Richard Ehrenberg, Seekabel-Unter-
nehmungen, manuscript, n. d.
35 SAA 14.Lh 622, Gewinne der Berliner
Firma 1850–1896; converted at the
rate of 1 taler to 3 marks and accord-
ing to buying-power equivalent in:
Deutsche Bundesbank, Kaufkraft-
vergleiche historischer Geldbeträge/
Kaufkraftäquivalente historischer
Beträge in deutschen Währungen,
version of January 15, 2015.
URL
: http://www.bundesbank.de/
Redaktion/DE/Standardartikel/
Statistiken/kaufkraftvergleiche_
historischer_geldbetraege.htm
[consulted March 14, 2016].
36 Jürgen Kocka,
Unternehmensverwal-
tung und Angestelltenschaft am Bei-
spiel Siemens 1847–1914, Stuttgart
1969, 233.
37 See Christoph Conrad,
Erfolgsbeteili-
gung und Vermögensbildung der
Arbeitnehmer bei Siemens (1847–1945),
Stuttgart 1986, 98 et seq.; Karl
Burhenne, Werner Siemens als Sozial-
politiker, Munich 1932, 71–86; Jacob
Kastl / Lyndon Moore, “Wily welfare
capitalist: Werner von Siemens and
the pension plan,” In Cliometrica 4
(2010), 321–348.
38 SAA
F2120, Werner to Marie, Berlin,
May 23, 1869.
39 Siemens, Recollections, 271.
40 Bois-Reymond, Emil du: Erwiderung
auf die Antrittsrede von Werner von
Siemens, URL: http://leibnizsozietaet.
de/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/08_du_
bois_reymond.pdf [consulted May 6,
2016].
41 Concerning the dynamo machine,
see Siemens, Lebenserinnerungen, 250
et seq.; Otto Mahr, Die Entstehung der
Dynamomaschine, Berlin 1941; Georg
Siemens, History of the House of
Siemens, vol. 1:
The era of free enter-
prise 1847–1910, Freiburg im Breisgau
1957; http://www.deutsches-museum.
de/sammlungen/meisterwerke/meis-
terwerke-iii/dynamomaschine
[consulted May 19, 2016].
42 Siemens, Werner von: On the conver-
sion of mechianical energy into elec-
tric current without the use of perma-
nent magnets (1867), in: id.: Scientific
and Technical Papers, vol. 2, 255–258,
quotation on 258.
43 Werner von Siemens to Heinrich
Stephan, February 5, 1879, cf Helmut
Lindner, Strom, Reinbek 1985, 168.
44 SAA
W6466, Werner to William, Paris,
March 4, 1879.
45 “Dr. Werner Siemens über die
neue Edison’sche Lampe,” Zeitschrift
für Angewandte Elektricitätslehre,
2 (1880), sub-vol. 2, 83.
46 SAA W6361, Werner to Carl, Berlin,
December 28, 1878.
70
71
47 See Manfred Pohl,
Emil Rathenau
und die AEG
, Berlin / Frankfurt am
Main 1988.
48 Jürgen Kocka, “Siemens und der auf-
haltsame Aufstieg der AEG,” Tradition
17, 3/4 (1972), 125–142.
49 SAA W7368, Carl to Werner, St. Peters-
burg, January 20, 1889. On this point,
see Lutz: Carl von Siemens, 270.
50 SAA W7236, Werner to Carl, Berlin,
December 25, 1887.
51 Werner von Siemens,
Das naturwissen-
schaftliche Zeitalter. Vortrag, gehalten
in der 59. Versammlung Deutscher
Naturforscher und Aerzte am 18. Sep-
tember 1886, Berlin 1886.
52 Siemens, Werner von: Offer concern-
ing the foundation of an institute
for the experimental promotion of
the exact sciences and of higher
engineering (1883), in: id.: Scientific
and Technical Papers, vol. 2, 582–588.
53 SAA 61.Lc 973, Werner von Siemens to
Gustav von Gossler, Berlin, July 7,
1883.
54 SAA 61.Lc 973, Denkschrift betreffend
die Errichtung einer „physikalisch-
technischen Reichsanstalt” für die
experimentelle Förderung der exak-
ten Naturforschung und der Präzi-
sionstechnik, March 20, 1884.
55 On the founding of the Physikalisch-
Technische Reichsanstalt, see David
Cahan, An Institute for an Empire,
Cambridge 1989; Dieter Hoffmann,
“Werner Siemens und die Physika-
lisch-Technische Reichsanstalt,“ in
Werner von Siemens (1816–1892), ed.
Dieter Hoffmann and Wolfgang
Schreier, Braunschweig 1995, 35–47.
56 SAA
W7343, Werner to Carl, Berlin,
May 8, 1888.
57 Siemens, Recollections, 288.
Publications by Werner von Siemens
(selection)
Kurze Darstellung der an den preussischen
Telegraphen-Linien mit unterirdischen
Leitungen bis jetzt gemachten Erfahrungen,
Berlin 1851.
[Anonymously] Zur Militairfrage. Ein Vor-
schlag, Berlin 1862.
Gesammelte Abhandlungen und Vorträge,
Berlin 1881.
Das naturwissenschaftliche Zeitalter. Vor-
trag, gehalten in der 59. Versammlung
Deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte am
18. September 1886, Berlin 1886.
Scientific and Technical Papers. Vol. 1 Scien-
tific Papers and Adresses. Vol. 2 Technical
Papers, London 1892/1895.
Recollections, 19th ed., ed. Wilfried
Feldenkirchen, Munich 2005 (first edition,
Berlin 1892).
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und Vermögensbildung der Arbeitnehmer
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Ehrenberg, Richard. Die Unternehmungen
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Publisher
Siemens Historical Institute, Berlin
Concept
Sabine Dittler, Christoph Wegener
Author Johannes Bähr
Editing
Ewald Blocher, Sabine Dittler
Translation
Wordshop Translations, San Francisco
Book design Lisa Neuhalfen, Berlin
Printing PH.
Reinheimer GmbH, Darmstadt
Binding
Josef Spinner Großbuchbinderei GmbH, Ottersweier
© 2016 Siemens Historical Institute, Berlin
Picture acknowledgements
All images are taken from the archives of the
Siemens Historical Institute; the image copyrights
belong to Siemens AG Berlin/Munich.
The History of Siemens on the Internet:
www.siemens.com/history
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geschäft in der zweiten Hälfte des
19. Jahrhunderts. Berlin 1990.
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Wenzlhuemer, Roland. Connecting the
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