Wvs satz final indd

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tion.

49

 But Werner had a deep aversion to the capital market, 

banks and the stock exchange. Siemens & Halske, he felt, should 

remain a family-run business, not subject to the infl uence of any 

banker, not even his relative Georg von Siemens. 

AEG

’s strategy of 

relying on new fi nancing concepts and making do without inven-

tions of its own was alien to Werner von Siemens. To his way of 

thinking, an industrialist was a maker – not a merchant. That was 

the only way he could achieve the goal that he had set himself 

as an entrepreneur: to create things that were useful and lasting. 

He professed his loyalty to that principle for action especially im-

pressively in a letter to Carl dated December 25, 1887 – the most 

signifi cant of his many letters: 

“I see the business only secondarily as a financial asset. For me, 

what I’ve found is more an empire and something I’d like to leave 

undiminished to my descendants so that they can continue to 

work within it.” 

50

A patron of research 

Werner von Siemens was not one of those entrepreneurs who 

donate large amounts on charitable causes. But once he pos-

sessed wealth and infl uence, he was a consistent advocate of sci-

entifi c research. He was certain that the “Age of Natural Science” 

had dawned, with his era’s rapid advances in physics, chemistry 

and medicine.

51

 He was one of the fi rst to recognize that the natu-

ral sciences had become a key resource for industrial develop-

ment. In an opinion paper of April 1883, he noted that a country’s 

industry could “never achieve a leading international position” if 

the country was not “simultaneously in the lead of scientifi c pro-

gress.”

52

At that time he conceived the idea of establishing a non-aca-

demic research institute for physics and technology. Such sugges-

tions had already been in the air for ten years, always with his 

participation. But by then the institute had never been realized 

because of diverging ideas about its scientifi c orientation. Now, 

working with his friend Hermann von Helmholtz, he began push-

ing the project ahead consistently with his own ideas. 

In July 1883, Werner von Siemens made an offer to the Prussian 

Minister of Culture to donate a plot of land worth about 200,000 

marks for the founding of a “state institute for experimental phys-

ics”.

53

 Half a year later, he increased the offer by 300,000 marks 

for the construction of an institute building on the property, 

which was in the immediate vicinity of his villa in Charlottenburg. 

Since the Prussian government vacillated, he directed the offer 

1887  

 of the  largest German industrial companies are stock 

corporations. The growing need for capitalization causes the number of 

partnerships to shrink. 

1879  

Charlottenburg Technical University is formed by merging the Berlin 

Bauakademie and the Königliche Gewerbeakademie (Royal Trade Academy). 

The new buildings, dedicated in , are located near the Siemens villa.

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62

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to the Minister of the Interior of the German Empire. In a memo-

randum, he gave assurance that with the donation, he had 

Werner von Siemens and Hermann von Helmholtz still had to over-

come numerous obstacles before March 1887, when the Reichs tag 

adopted the fi rst budget for the Physikalisch-Technische Reichs-

anstalt (Imperial Physical and Technical Institute, today the Feder-

al Physical Technical Institute).

55

 Helmholtz now assumed the 

directorship of this, the world’s fi rst major research institution, 

which became a role model for later research institutes.

It was most probably this achievement that led Kaiser Fried-

rich III to raise Werner von Siemens to the hereditary nobility on 

May 5, 1888. Werner was by no means delighted at the honor, es-

pecially because nobody had asked him in advance – and he only 

learned of his elevation to the nobility from the newspaper.

56

 But 

as the title had already been conferred, it would have been diffi -

cult to refuse. That would have essentially represented an insult 

to the Kaiser, who was fatally ill at the time.

“in mind only the purpose of doing a service for my native 

land and demonstrating my love for science, to which alone 

I owe my rise in life.” 

54

Buildings of the Physikalisch-Techni-

sche Reichsanstalt, ca. 1894

1887–1914  

The Imperial Physical and Technical Institute is already recording 

outstanding scientifi c achievements in its fi rst decades in existence. Its Board 

of Trustees includes luminaries like physicists Max Planck and Albert Einstein. 

1946  

The building of the Imperial Physical and Technical Institute is 

severely damaged in the Second World War. After the war ends, the institute’s 

headquarters are moved to Braunschweig.

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65

Successors and memoirs 

Werner von Siemens’ concept of a “Gebr. Siemens” family-run 

company that the next generation would transform into an “enter-

prise of world standing comparable to the Rothschilds’” already 

fell apart during his lifetime. In London, his brother William died 

in 1883, without children. Carl, who was again running the busi-

ness in St. Petersburg, had only one son left, who had no talent 

for business. The other brothers had gone their own ways, or had 

died young. Friedrich was a successful businessman in Dresden, 

where he owned a company building industrial furnaces and a 

glass factory. Hans, who had built up the glass factory in Dresden, 

had died back in 1867. Ferdinand lived on an estate in East Prussia. 

Otto, the youngest brother, had taken over the management of 

the Tbilisi branch after Walter’s death in 1868, and had himself 

died young there three years later. 

At any rate, the future of Siemens & Halske as a family-run 

business was secure. But Werner von Siemens found it diffi cult to 

hand over the management to his elder sons Arnold and Wilhelm, 

who had already been working for the company for a considerable 

time. After Werner’s 65th birthday, Arnold at last became a part-

ner, in 1882, followed two years later by Wilhelm. Of course, their 

father still held the reins. Since both sons repeatedly suffered 

from lung illnesses, and sometimes were under medical treatment 

for months, he also had few other alternatives. Meantime, the 

boom in heavy-current technology caused Siemens & Halske to 

grow as never before. New plants were built in Charlottenburg to 

The Siemens brothers Friedrich, Werner, 

Ferdinand and Carl (left to right), ca. 1889

1884  

Arnold von Siemens marries Ellen von Helmholtz, daughter of the era’s 

most famous German physicist, who is a close friend of Werner von Siemens.

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