Hermann Von Siemens
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Hermann von Siemens (9 August 1885 in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
– 13 October 1986 in
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
) was a German industrialist of the
Siemens family ''Siemens'' is the name of a family of German technology and telecommunications industrialists, founders and to the present day largest shareholders of Siemens AG. The family have a wealth of over €8 billion, making them the 5th richest family in ...
.


Life

He was the eldest son of
Arnold von Siemens Arnold von Siemens (13 November 1853 in Berlin – 29 April 1918 in Berlin) was a German telecommunications industrialist of the Siemens family, one of the successors on his family's company Siemens. Life The eldest son of Werner von Siemens, i ...
who himself was the eldest son of
Werner von Siemens Ernst Werner Siemens (von Siemens from 1888; ; ; 13 December 1816 – 6 December 1892) was a German electrical engineer, inventor and industrialist. Siemens's name has been adopted as the SI unit of electrical conductance, the siemens. He foun ...
, the famous inventor and founder of ''Siemens & Halske'', later to become the present-day Siemens AG. Hermann's mother Ellen, née von Helmholtz, was a daughter of Werner's close friend
Hermann von Helmholtz Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (31 August 1821 – 8 September 1894) was a German physicist and physician who made significant contributions in several scientific fields, particularly hydrodynamic stability. The Helmholtz Association, ...
, after whom his grandson was named. He was the eldest of five children. After studying
physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mecha ...
at
Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
and becoming PhD, Hermann von Siemens started his career as an employee of the physical-chemical laboratory of Siemens & Halske, Berlin. In Heidelberg Siemens joined the student fraternity Leonensia. In 1928 he became a member of the management board of Siemens & Halske. In 1929 he took over responsibility for the central laboratory of the company. He significantly contributed to the development of teleprinters. In 1935 he became member of the management board of a sister company, Siemens-Schuckertwerke AG. He also became a member of the supervisory boards of Vereinigte Stahlwerke, Mannesmann, Krupp and Deutsche Bank. Before 1933 he was a member of the German National People's Party, a rival and opponent of Hitler's National Socialist German Workers' Party. From 1941 until 1946 he succeeded his uncle Carl Friedrich von Siemens as chairman of the Supervisory Boards of Siemens & Halske AG and Siemens-Schuckertwerke AG and thus became head of the German electrical and electronics company. As head of a company important for the production of war materials, the German government enqueued him among the "Wehrwirtschaftsführer". Siemens-Schuckert had to employ some skilled labor among deported people inside and outside of concentration camps. During the final years of World War II, numerous plants and factories in Berlin and other major cities were destroyed by Allied air raids. To prevent further losses, manufacturing was moved to alternative places and regions not affected by the air war. The goal was to secure continued production of important war-related and everyday goods. According to records, Siemens was operating almost 400 alternative or relocated manufacturing plants at the end of 1944 and in early 1945. Arrested on 5 December 1945 by Allied Forces, he temporarily ceded the chairmanships to his father's first cousin Friedrich Carl Siemens (1877-1952). He was brought to the Nuremberg trials as a prisoner to deal with war crime charges, but finally no prosecution was filed, as there were no personal misdeeds traceable. The charges were dropped, so he could return as head of company in 1948. He again served as chairman of the supervisory boards of ''Siemens & Halske AG'' and ''Siemens-Schuckertwerke AG'' until his retirement in 1956. All factories in the Soviet occupation zone as well as most factories abroad were lost and had to be replaced. During this period of time, his first cousin Ernst von Siemens was CEO of Siemens & Halske AG from 1949 until 1956 and eventually succeeded Hermann as chairman of both companies in 1956. Because of the Berlin Blockade, Hermann and Ernst shifted the headquarters of Siemens from sieged Berlin to Erlangen, the production site of Siemens-Schuckert, in 1947 and to
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
in 1949. There they rented the Palais Ludwig Ferdinand from the former House of Wittelsbach, Bavarian Royal Family and eventually bought it in 1957. The palace still today continues to house the Siemens headquarters. In 1950, Hermann von Siemens donated his parents' sumptuous residence at Wannsee in Berlin to the Baptists, Baptist Church which converted it to a hospital. Hermann von Siemens significantly contributed to the company's reconstruction and development after World War II. Himself rather a silent, introverted and technical-oriented person, he took special interest in all matters of scientific research and enhanced it in many ways. In the 1950s and from their new base in Bavaria, S&H started to manufacture computers, semiconductor devices, washing machines, and Artificial pacemaker, pacemakers. From 1955 until 1964 Hermann von Siemens also served as president of the scientific Fraunhofer Society. After Ernst von Siemens merged the three ''parent companies'' Siemens & Halske, Siemens-Schuckert and Siemens-Reiniger to form the present-day Siemens AG in 1966, Hermann continued to be an ordinary member, later an honorary member of the supervisory board until his death in 1986 at the age of 101. In 1917, he married Charlotte von Maltzahn, Maltzan, Baroness zu Wartenberg und Penzlin; they had six children and 12 grandchildren, among them the granddaughter Nathalie von Siemens (b. 1971), formerly chairperson of the Siemens Foundation and since 2015 a member of the supervisory board of Siemens AG.


References

*


Literature

* ''Shaping the Future. The Siemens Entrepreneurs 1847–2018.'' Ed. Siemens Historical Institute, Hamburg 2018, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Siemens, Hermann Von 1885 births 1986 deaths German centenarians Men centenarians German industrialists Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Businesspeople from Berlin 20th-century German businesspeople People from the Province of Brandenburg Siemens Siemens family, Hermann