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of these risks in 1859, when he participated in a cable expedition 

to the Red Sea, where R. S. Newall & Co., acting for the Red Sea and 

India Telegraph Company, made the fi rst attempt to lay an under-

sea cable to India. On the way back, Werner was shipwrecked and 

stranded for days on a coral island. The telegraph connection to 

India failed, because the cable suffered irreparable damage. The 

clients lost around one million pound sterling on the project.

But that did not deter Werner and William from carrying out 

comparable projects, including out of their own pockets. So that 

the company would no longer be tied to a third-party cable maker, 

Siemens, Halske & Co. built its own cable factory in the London 

suburb of Woolwich. The two brothers planned to use cables from 

this plant in January 1864 to lay a new telegraph line across the 

Mediterranean, from Cartagena in Spain to Oran in what is now 

Algeria, under a contract from the French government. They set 

out in a ship that was unfi t for the high seas, with inadequate 

equipment, were then caught up in the outskirts of a hurricane, 

and barely escaped with their lives.

19

 This cable project too ended 

with a severe fi nancial loss; the British branch of Siemens lost half 

its capital. 

Johann Georg Halske had severe doubts about this business 

policy. He was no longer willing to share such serious risks, and 

decided to take leave of his fellow partners as of January 1, 1867. 

He had withdrawn from the British company even earlier. That 

branch was now wholly owned by the Siemens brothers, and 

would be known as “Siemens Brothers” from then on. Halske was 

a cautious man, who balked at taking potentially unforeseeable 

risks. In contrast, Werner von Siemens was able to take such risks 

in stride, as long as they carried him closer to a goal that he abso-

lutely wanted to achieve. He summarized the contrast a few years 

later in a letter to his brother Carl: “Meyer and Halske judged 

too much on the basis of results, not of the future.”

20

 Werner had 

realized that the future of telegraphy lay in global networking by 

way of submarine cables, and he wanted a share of that future. He 

owed the eventual success of this vision to a considerable dose of 

luck – with just a little less good fortune, he would have lost his 

life on one of the cable expeditions.

The Siemens Brothers cable factory in Woolwich, 1866

1847–1867  

Precision mechanic Johann Georg Halske has been a joint owner 

of Siemens & Halske for nearly  years. After leaving the fi rm, he becomes 

involved as a local politician and a patron of the applied arts in Berlin.

1851  

The fi rst permanent submarine cable is laid between England and 

France. Submarine cable telegraphy will soon become a pacemaker for 

globalization. 

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“An enterprise of world standing comparable 

to the Rothschilds’”

Halske was the last partner who was not a member of the Siemens 

family. After he had announced his withdrawal, Werner von 

Siemens suggested to brothers Carl and William that they should 

bring the businesses in Berlin, London and St. Petersburg to-

gether in a multinational family-run company, named “Gebr. 

Siemens”. In November 1863 he wrote to Carl:

It was entirely characteristic of Werner von Siemens, who always 

pursued ambitious goals, to develop visions. This was something 

alien to his brothers; they were unable to rouse much enthusiasm 

for dynastic considerations or a future Rothschild-style “enter-

prise of world standing”. Consequently the new articles of incor-

poration signed on August 24, 1867, agreed only to establish an 

overall business in the form of a fi xed profi t-sharing arrangement 

among the brothers. Henceforth Werner would receive 40 percent 

of all profi ts of Siemens & Halske and Siemens Brothers, William 

would get 35 percent, and Carl would get 25 percent.

22

“My guiding idea behind these suggestions was to found a perma-

nent company which might later, under our boys’ management, 

become an enterprise of world standing comparable to the Roth-

schilds’ and others, and earn our name respect in the world.” 

21

A shadow cast over family life

A little more than one year after Werner and Mathilde’s wedding, 

on November 13, 1853, their fi rst child was born: a son named 

Arnold Wilhelm. A second son came on July 30, 1855, baptized 

Georg Wilhelm but generally known just as Wilhelm. Now Werner 

von Siemens no longer had to worry about an heir to take over the 

fi rm. He loved his children, and family life was very important to 

him, even if he could spare little time for his brood during these 

years as he built up the international business. Mathilde Siemens 

had suffered since Wilhelm’s birth from a cough that developed 

into a “serious chest ailment”.

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 No doubt this was tuberculosis, 

The Siemens couple with their children Wilhelm, 

Anna and Arnold (from the left), ca. 1860

19th century   

The fi ve sons of bank founder Mayer Amschel Rothschild 

rise to become Europe’s leading fi nanciers. The bank maintains branches in 

Frankfurt, Vienna, London, Paris and Naples. 

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