Siemens AG (German pronunciation: [zimns]) is a German multinational engineering and electronics conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany.

It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company.[2] Siemens' principal activities are in the fields of industry, energy, transportation and healthcare. It is organized into five main divisions: Industry, Energy, Healthcare, Infrastructure & Cities, and Siemens Financial Services (SFS). Siemens and its subsidiaries employ approximately 360,000 people across nearly 190 countries and reported global revenue of approx 73.5 billion euros for the year of 2011.[3] The company has been the subject of considerable controversy in recent years.
Contents [hide]

1 History

o o o o o o

1.1 1847 to 1901 1.2 1901 to 1933 1.3 1933 to 1945 1.4 1945 to 2001 1.5 2001 to 2011 1.6 2011 to present

2 Products and services 3 Operations

o o

3.1 Sectors and divisions 3.2 Research and development

4 Joint ventures 5 Senior management 6 Controversies

o o o o o

6.1 Nazi Germany 6.2 2007 price fixing fine 6.3 Bribery case 6.4 Iran telecoms controversy 6.5 Greek bribes, Greek metro and traffic lights controversy

7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

History [edit]

Werner von Siemens

1847 to 1901 [edit]

Siemens & Halske was founded by Werner von Siemens on 12 October 1847. Based on the telegraph, his invention used a needle to point to the sequence of letters, instead of using Morse code. The company, then called Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske, opened its first workshop on October 12. In 1848, the company built the first long-distance telegraph line in Europe; 500 km from Berlin to Frankfurt am Main. In 1850, the founder's younger brother, Carl Wilhelm Siemens started to represent the company in London. In the 1850s, the company was involved in building long distance telegraph networks in Russia. In 1855, a company branch headed by another brother, Carl Heinrich von Siemens, opened in St Petersburg, Russia. In 1867, Siemens completed the monumental Indo-European (Calcutta to London) telegraph line.[4] In 1881, a Siemens AC Alternator driven by a watermill was used to power the world's first electric street lighting in the town ofGodalming, United Kingdom. The company continued to grow and diversified into electric trains and light bulbs. In 1890, the founder retired and left the company to his brother Carl and sons Arnold and Wilhelm.

1901 to 1933 [edit]

Siemens & Halske (S & H) was incorporated in 1897, and then merged parts of its activities with Schuckert & Co., Nuremberg in 1903 to become Siemens-Schuckert. In 1907 Siemens (Siemens & Halske and Siemens-Schuckert) had 34,324 employees and was the seventhlargest company in the German empire by number of employees.[5] (see List of German companies by employees in 1907) In 1919, S & H and two other companies jointly formed the Osram lightbulb company. A Japanese subsidiary was established in 1923.

During the 1920s and 1930s, S & H started to manufacture radios, television sets, and electron microscopes. In 1932, Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall (Erlangen), Phnix AG (Rudolstadt) and Siemens-Reiniger-Veifa mbH (Berlin) merged to form the Siemens-Reiniger-Werke AG (SRW), the third of the so-called parent companies that merged in 1966 to form the present-day Siemens AG.[6] In the 1920s, Siemens constructed the Ardnacrusha Hydro Power station on the River Shannon in the then Irish Free State, and it was a world first for its design. The company is remembered for its desire to raise the wages of its under-paid workers only to be overruled by the Cumann na nGaedheal government.[7]

1933 to 1945 [edit]

A Siemens truck being used as a Nazipublic address vehicle in 1932

In the 1930s, prior to the Second World War, Siemens was involved in funding the rise of the Nazi Party and the secret rearmament of Germany.[citation needed][disputed discuss] During the second World War, Siemens supported the Hitler regime[citation needed], contributed to the war effort and participated in the "Nazification" of the economy[8].[citation needed][disputed discuss] Siemens had many factories in and around notoriousconcentration camps[9][10][not in citation given] to build electric switches for military uses.[11] In one example, almost 100,000 men and women[citation needed]from Auschwitz worked in a Siemens factory inside the camp, supplying the electricity to the camp. During the final years of the war, numerous plants and factories in Berlin and other major cities were destroyed by Allied air raids. To prevent further losses, manufacturing was therefore 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 In 1972, Siemens sued German satirist F.C. Delius for his satirical history of the company, Unsere Siemenswelt, and it was determined much of the book contained false claims although the trial itself publicized Siemens' history in Nazi Germany.[12] Contemporary scholars have been uncovering some of the atrocities of Siemens during this time, including forced and slave labor at Ravensbrck and in the Auschwitz subcamp of Bobrek, among others[citation needed]. Additionally, the company supplied electrical parts to concentration camps and death camps. The factories had poor working conditions, where malnutrition and death were common. Also, the scholarship has shown that the camp factories were created, run, and supplied by the SS, in conjunction with company officials, sometimes high-level officials.[13][14][15][16]

However, Siemens businessman and Nazi Party member John Rabe is credited with saving many Chinese lives during the Nanking Massacre. He later toured Germany lecturing on the atrocities committed in Nanking.[17]

1945 to 2001 [edit]

A 1973 Siemens electron microscope on display at theMuse des Arts et Mtiers in Paris

In the 1950s and from their new base in Bavaria, S&H started to manufacture computers, semiconductor devices, washing machines, andpacemakers. In 1966, Siemens & Halske (S&H, founded in 1847), Siemens-Schuckertwerke (SSW, founded in 1903) and Siemens-Reiniger-Werke (SRW, founded in 1932) merged to form Siemens AG.[6] In 1969, Siemens formed Kraftwerk Union with AEG by pooling their nuclear power businesses.[18] The company's first digital telephone exchange was produced in 1980. In 1988 Siemens and GEC acquired the UK defence and technology company Plessey. Plessey's holdings were split, and Siemens took over the avionics, radar and traffic control businesses as Siemens Plessey. In 1985, Siemens bought Allis-Chalmers' interest in the partnership company Siemens-Allis (formed 1978) which supplied electrical control equipment. It was incorporated into Siemens' Energy and Automation division.[19] In 1987, Siemens reintegrated Kraftwerk Union, the unit overseeing nuclear power business.[18] In 1991, Siemens acquired Nixdorf Computer AG and renamed it Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, in order to produce personal computers. In October 1991, Siemens acquired the Industrial Systems Division of Texas Instruments, Inc, based in Johnson City, Tennessee. This division was organized as Siemens Industrial Automation, Inc., and was later absorbed by Siemens Energy and Automation, Inc. In 1997, Siemens agreed to sell the defence arm of Siemens Plessey to British Aerospace (BAe) and a German aerospace company, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace. BAe and DASA acquired the British and German divisions of the operation respectively.[20]

In October 1997, Siemens Financial Services (SFS) was founded to act as competence center for financing issues and as a manager of financial risks within Siemens. In 1998, Siemens acquired Westinghouse Power Generation for more than $1.5 billion from CBS corp and moving Siemens from third to second the world power generation market.[21] In 1999, Siemens' semiconductor operations were spun off into a new company known as Infineon Technologies. Also, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG formed part of Fujitsu Siemens Computers AG in that year. The retail banking technology group became Wincor Nixdorf. In 2000, Shared Medical Systems Corporation[22] was acquired by the Siemens' Medical Engineering Group,[23] eventually becoming part of Siemens Medical Solutions. Also in 2000 Atecs-Mannesman was acquired by Siemens,[24] The sale was finalised in April 2001 with 50% of the shares acquired, acquisition, Mannesmann VDO AGmerged into Siemens Automotive forming Siemens VDO Automotive AG, Atecs Mannesmann Dematic Systems merged into Siemens Production and Logistics forming Siemens Dematic AG, Mannesmann Demag Delaval merged into the Power Generation division of Siemens AG.[25] Other parts of the company were acquired by Robert Bosch GmbH at the same time.[26]