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Werner

 

von Siemens

L I F E L I N E S


Werner von Siemens was born in  in the 

village of Lenthe near Hannover, Germany. 

December ,  marks the th anniversary 

of his birth. To commemorate this occasion, the 

Siemens Historical Institute commissioned 

a biographical portrait of this entrepreneur and 

inventor who started life as the son of a tenant 

farmer and rose to become one of the outstand-

ing figures of the th century.

The brochure is the fi fth volume in the LIFE-

LINES series, which is dedicated to introducing 

the men and women who have done the 

most to shape the history and development of 

Siemens. This group includes businessmen 

who led the company, members of the Manag-

ing Board, engineers, inventors and creative 

thinkers. A conscious effort has been made to 

include the lives and contributions of those 

individuals who are not always counted among 

the company’s most prominent fi gures.




Werner von Siemens


2

L

IF

E

L

IN

ES

Werner von

Siemens

. .  – . . 


5

Introduction

Few business personalities have remained as well-known over the 

years as Werner von Siemens, the “Father of Electrical Engineer-

ing”. Yet even two centuries after his birth, much still remains to 

be discovered about the man’s biography. Even more, there is a 

genuine need to develop a picture of Werner von Siemens appro-

priate for our times. For research of that nature, the correspond-

ence between Werner von Siemens and his siblings – comprising 

some 6,500 letters preserved at the Siemens Historical Institute – 

offers a virtually inexhaustible resource.   

Werner von Siemens was born in 1816 on a farm estate in what 

is now Lower Saxony. He grew up in a period when incipient indus-

trialization was changing the world as never before. While still a 

schoolboy, he discovered an interest in mathematics and technol-

ogy. As university study was beyond his fi nancial reach, he served 

for many years in the military to acquire a background in technol-

ogy and science. Then came the discovery of his life’s mission: the 

application of electricity. In October 1847, Werner von Siemens 

joined forces with precision mechanic Johann Georg Halske and 

his own cousin Johann Georg Siemens to found a telegraph con-

struction company – the forerunner of today’s Siemens 

AG



Business and family were always inseparable for Werner von 

Siemens; several of his brothers were working for the company. 

The close relationship among three Siemens brothers – Werner, 

William and Carl, working respectively in Berlin, London and 

St. Petersburg – gave rise to a multinational family-run company 

that well understood what to do with the opportunities offered by 

the age’s fi rst wave of globalization. Werner von Siemens’ inven-

tion of the dynamo machine in 1866 made him one of the pioneers 

of a new era in the history of electrical engineering. The dynamo 

made it possible to put electricity to work generating energy, light-

ing streets and homes, and driving machines and vehicles. 

Werner von Siemens, ca. 1864




6

7

Posterity came to associate the name “Werner von Siemens” 

primarily with inventions. Within just a few years after his death, 

he had already been idealized as a hero of German technology. 

Schools and streets were named not for the businessman, but for 

the inventor. That perspective began to dim in later decades – and 

with it, our image of Werner von Siemens. Over the past 70 years, 

the only noteworthy biographies to appear have been produced 

by directors of the Siemens Archive or SiemensForum.

1

 



Yet researching Werner von Siemens is certainly still worth-

while today, especially when one looks at the man as a whole, free 

from idealization. It becomes clear what a wide range of talents it 

took to be both a highly successful businessman, a gifted techni-

cian, and an important inventor. Above and beyond those qualities, 

Werner von Siemens also stood out as the father-fi gure who held 

a large family together. And he was notable as one of the fi rst indus-

trialists to recognize the connection between scientifi c research 

and economic development. Most of all, what made Werner von 

Siemens so special was his versatility.

The present biography shows us a man of fi rm principles, who 

always pursued his goals with the greatest persistence and stami-

na, overcoming both calamities and dry spells in the process. He 

was able to do all this because he focused not on short-term gain, 

but on creating something that would last. The ultimate currency 

that counted for him was “receiving recognition of the rightness 

of my actions and the usefulness of my work”.

2

Origins and education 



Childhood in the country

Werner von Siemens was not a businessman straight out of the 

cradle. His father was a middle-class tenant farmer managing the 

Obergut farm estate in Lenthe, a village around ten kilometers 

west of Hanover. This is where Werner von Siemens was born on 

December 13, 1816, the fourth child of the family. He was baptized 

Ernst Werner Siemens; the “von” indicating nobility was conferred 

on him only late in life. His parents, Christian Ferdinand Siemens 

and Eleonore, née Deichmann, were not wealthy, but educated. 

They raised their children lovingly and taught the bourgeois val-

ues of their era. Both came from families with a long history in 

the middle class; for generations, his fathers’ ancestors had been 

respected craftsmen, merchants and city councilors in the city of 

Goslar. 


Growing up among a large number of children left a lifelong 

impression on the young Werner. His two surviving elder siblings, 

Ludwig and Mathilde, were subsequently joined by three younger 

brothers: Hans, Ferdinand and Wilhelm (who changed his name 

to William in 1844). Two other children died in infancy. Werner 

soon had to take responsibility for his younger brothers. The world 

in which the Siemens children grew up consisted at fi rst of family 

members, the farmstead, and the village. The Siemenses had an ex-

tensive network of relatives, with whom they communicated large-

ly by letter. There were no railroads yet; industrialization, which 



2016  

The house in Lenthe where Werner von Siemens was born is still stand-

ing today, a protected historical monument. A permanent exhibition about 

the electrical pioneer’s life opened there to commemorate his th birthday. 




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