Georg Wilhelm von Siemens (30 July 1855,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

– 14 October 1919, Arosa, Switzerland) was a German

telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

s 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 ...

. Known as Wilhelm von Siemens, he was the second 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 ...

by first wife Mathilde Drumann, and was a general partner of the family company Siemens. Then under the name ''Siemens & Halske'' (S & H), the company was incorporated in 1897, with Wilhelm's uncle

Carl Heinrich von Siemens Carl Heinrich von Siemens (often just Carl von Siemens) (3 March 1829 – 21 March 1906) was a German entrepreneur. He was born in Menzendorf, Mecklenburg, one of the fourteen children of a tenant farmer of the Siemens family, an old family of ...

as its first chairman of the

Supervisory Board In corporate governance, a governance board also known as council of delegates are chosen by the stockholders of a company to promote their interests through the governance of the company and to hire and fire the board of directors. In civil s ...

. Wilhelm's elder brother

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 ...

succeeded his uncle as chairman of the board from 1904 until his death in 1918, while Wilhelm served as chairman of the board of the sister company,

Siemens-Schuckert Siemens-Schuckert (or Siemens-Schuckertwerke) was a German electrical engineering company headquartered in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg that was incorporated into the Siemens AG in 1966. Siemens Schuckert was founded in 1903 when Siemens & H ...

werke AG, from 1903 until 1918. After his brother Arnold's death in 1918, he succeeded him as chairman of Siemens & Halske AG until his own death the following year. His successor in both chairmanships became his younger (half-)brother,

Carl Friedrich von Siemens Carl Friedrich von Siemens (5 September 1872, in Berlin – 9 September 1941, in Heinendorf, near Potsdam) was a German Entrepreneur and politician. A member of the Siemens family, he became associated with Siemens & Halske AG in 1899, his family ...

. Married in 1882 to Eleonore Siemens (2 March 1860 – 26 July 1919), a first cousin, they were parents of: * Wilhelm Ferdinand von Siemens (1885–1937), who after World War I shortly served as CEO of Siemens & Halske AG * Mathilde Eleonore Eveline von Siemens (1888–1945) He is credited with championing the Berlin to Iraq railway system that was to be completed about 1915. The direct competition such a railway system posed to British imperial domination could have been one of the causes of WW I. Beginning in 1899, he founded

Siemensstadt Siemensstadt () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the district (''Bezirk'') of Spandau. History The locality emerged when the company Siemens & Halske (S & H), one of the predecessors of today's Siemens, bought land in the area, ...

, a locality of

, in order to expand production by building new factories and worker's accommodation.

References

* August Rotth: ''Wilhelm von Siemens. Ein Lebensbild. Gedenkblätter zum 75jährigen Bestehen des Hauses Siemens & Halske.'' Berlin und Leipzig, 1922. * Herbert Goetzler, Lothar Schoen: ''Wilhelm und Carl Friedrich von Siemens. Die zweite Unternehmergeneration.'' (hrsg. von Wilhelm Treueund Hans Pohl im Auftrag der Gesellschaft für Unternehmensgeschichte) Stuttgart, 1986. *Wilhelm von Siemens. – in: Wilfried Feldenkirchen / Eberhard Posner: ''The Siemens Entrepreneurs. Continuity and Change 1847–2005. Ten Portraits.'' Munich 2005, p. 58–83. *''

Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels The ''Almanach de Gotha'' (german: Gothaischer Hofkalender) is a directory of Europe's royalty and higher nobility, also including the major governmental, military and diplomatic corps, as well as statistical data by country. First published ...

, Adelige Häuser B Band XIII.'' Seite 388, Band 73 der Gesamtreihe, C. A. Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1980, * Neue Deutsche Biographie, Band 22, Seite 143

External links

Biography, Siemens Corporate ArchivesThe Versailles Thesis: The Roots of WWI, and WWII
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Siemens, Wilhelm Von 1855 births 1919 deaths Businesspeople from Berlin German industrialists People from the Province of Brandenburg Siemens Wilhelm, Georg