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Electrotechnical
conglomerate Siemens and consumer electronics giant Philips
expanded into computing and semiconductors, albeit without
great success, before hiving off their hardware and software
operations.
origins
Siemens traces its origins to establishment in 1847 of
Telegraphenbauanstalt von Siemens & Halske, which
leveraged invention of gutta percha insulation of copper
wire to develop Prussia's first major telegraph line.
In 1853 Siemens & Halske built a 10,000 kilometre-long
telegraph network in Russia, establishing a subsidiary
in St Petersburg in 1855 and in the UK in 1858 (initially
centred on production and laying of submarine cables).
Research by Werner Siemens (enobled as Werner von Siemens
in 1888) was reflected in installation of Berlin's first
electric railway (1879), first electric streetlights and
electric elevator (1880) and electric tramcar (1881).
Siemens established an alliance with Westinghouse - a
departure from its emphasis on inhouse development rather
than licencing - and became a public company in 1897.
In 1903 acquired competitor Elektrizitäts-Aktiengesellschaft
vorm. Schuckert & Co to establish Siemens-Schuckertwerke
power engineering and joined AEG in founding Gesellschaft
für drahtlose Telegraphie System Telefunken, concerned
with radio equipment manufacturing and operation. At the
outbreak of war in 1914 it had a global workforce of 82,000
people. By the end of the war Siemens had lost 40% of
its capital, with expropriation of most foreign operations
and patents.
Integration downstream during the 1920s into steel and
coalmining was disappointing. However, research, manufacturing,
sales development and network construction meant that
by 1933 Siemens was again one of the four dominant global
electrotechnical groups, with interests extending from
domestic appliance manufacture to construction of major
power plants. Siemens, like IG Farben, was an integral
part of the Third Reich, despite the liberal stance of
some directors and executives and the Nazi Party's anti-corporate
rhetoric. AEG and Siemens had formed the Klangfilm joint
venture in 1929 to compete with AT&T's Western Electric
film interests. In 1941 Siemens acquired AEG's stakes
in Deutsche Grammophon, Klangfilm and other interests.
AEG gained Siemens' stake in Telefunken, including the
Telefunken-Schallplatte record company. In 1944 the Siemens
workforce had grown to some 244,000, including 50,000
forced labourers (eg from concentration camps). Losses
at the end of hostilities were identified as equivalent
to 80% of the group's assets.
Siemens rode the post-45 Wirtschaftswunder, rebuilding
its international operations, renewing its alliance with
Westinghouse and acquiring competitors. In 1962 it formed
the Gramophon-Philips Group (GPG) joint venture with Philips,
replaced by jointly-owned Polygram in 1972.
In 1969 - with over 270,000 employees worldwide - Siemens
consolidated its operations into six groups (comparable
in spread to that of GE and Westinghouse): Components,
Data Systems, Power Engineering, Electrical Installations,
Medical Engineering and Telecommunications. Autonomous
units included the Bosch-Siemens Hausgeräte joint
venture (formed with Robert Bosch in 1967) and the Kraftwerk
Union power plant construction joint venture with AEG.
Siemens bought out AEG as that group headed towards bankruptcy
in the late 1970s.
In 1983 Siemens began to dispose of its interest in Polygram.
During 1990, with support from the European Commission
it sought to build on itsd semiconductor interests by
acquiring Nixdorf to form the largest EU computer group,
going on to acquire the UK Plessey in 1991 and US Rolm
(from IBM) in 1992). Lack of success saw Siemens spin
off most computing operations to Fujitsu in 1999, a year
after it acquired Westinghouse's fossil fuel power plant
arm.
Nixdorf was founded in Germany by Heinz Nixdorf during
1952. It was absorbed by Siemens in 1990 but hived off
in 1999 in conjunction with Siemens' move out of mainframes
(sold to Fujitsu) and midrange
hardware/software.
studies
There is no major English-language study of Siemens of
the quality and breadth of Feldman & Gall's history
of Deutsche Bank, Feldman's study of Allianz or Hayes'
work on IG Farben and Degussa.
An introduction is provided by The Siemens Company:
Its Historical Role in the Progress of Elecrical Engineering,
1847-1980 (Berlin: Publicis 1987) by Sigfrid von
Weiher & Herbert Goetzler, Jürgen Kocka's Unternehmensverwaltung
und Angestelltenschaft am Beispiel Siemens, 1847-1914
(Stuttgart: 1969) and Industrial Culture & Bourgeois
Society in Modern Germany (Oxford: Berghahn 1999)
and by Wilfred Feldkirchen's Werner Von Siemens: Inventor
& International Entrepreneur (Columbus: Ohio
State Uni Press 1994) and Siemens: 1918-1945
(Columbus: Ohio State Uni Press 1999).
The latter volume and History of the House of Siemens
(New York: Arno Press 1977) by Georg Siemens, first published
1957, might ideally be read in conjunction with a study
such as West German Industry and the Challenge of
the Nazi Past, 1945-1955 (Chapel Hill: Uni of North
Carolina Press 2001) by Jonathan Wiesen and Hitler's
Foreign Workers: Enforced Foreign Labor in Germany Under
the Third Reich (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 1997)
by Ulrich Herbert.
For more recent activity insights are offered in Sources
of Industrial Leadership: Studies of Seven Industries
(Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 1999) edited by David
Mowery & Richard Nelson. Context is provided by Alfred
Chandler's outstanding Scale & Scope: The Dynamics
of Industrial Capitalism (Cambridge: Harvard Uni
Press 1999)
and essays in The International Computer Software Industry:
A Comparative Study of Industry Evolution & Structure
(Oxford: Oxford Uni Press 1995) edited by David Mowery.
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