Carl von Siemens
(1829-1906)
Carl von Siemens (1829-1906), was born on March 3, 1829, the eighth of 14 children,
in Menzendorf in Mecklenburg. Both his parents died when he was 11. His brother
Werner von Siemens, who was 13 years his senior and then a lieutenant in the
Prussian army, took over the education and training of his younger siblings. For a time
Carl lived with Werner in Berlin and enthusiastically participated in his technical
activities. After finishing school in 1846, Carl worked for a time in a cement factory,
before becoming involved in London and Paris in the Telegraph Construction Company
of Siemens & Halske founded by his brother Werner in 1847. In 1853 he traveled to
Russia, to supervise the construction of the Russian telegraph network being built for
the Russian government by Siemens & Halske.
Werner von Siemens had already established contact with the influential chief of the
Russian state telegraph administration, Count Kleinmichel, which had proved useful for
obtaining orders. In 1852 Siemens & Halske thus installed a line from Riga to Bolderaa
and an underground line from St. Petersburg to Oranienbaum. This was followed in
1853 by the first submarine telegraph cable in the world linking Oranienbaum with
Kronstadt. In his management of the telegraph installations, Carl soon proved to be a
competent entrepreneur who was unafraid to make decisions, and in 1853 he was
accorded power of attorney for the Russian side of the business. In 1855 the business
was turned into a subsidiary, directed independently by Carl Siemens on the basis of
his own capital assets.
From 1853 to 1855 the Russian orders ensured full capacity utilization of the Berlin
workshop and were an important mainstay of the Berlin parent company. After the
Crimean War, however, business declined as the impoverished Russian government
was no longer in a position to give new orders. In addition, Count Kleinmichel was
relieved of his office, which meant the loss of direct personal access to the
management of the Russian state telegraph administration. A continuous income was
however guaranteed until well into the 1860s by the maintenance contracts for the lines
already constructed by Siemens and Halske, which were concluded in 1855 for a term
of 12 years. For the maintenance work, the Russian subsidiary set up a small
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workshop in St. Petersburg and three engineering offices in Petersburg, Kiev and
Odessa. The respect in which Siemens & Halske was held in Russia was reflected in
particular by its official title of “Contractor for the Construction and Maintenance of the
Imperial Russian Telegraph Lines.” To give them authority for the maintenance of the
telegraph lines, the “officials” employed by Siemens & Halske were granted the right to
wear uniforms with badges of rank.
The year 1867 marked a turning point in the Russian business, as the Russian
government took over the maintenance of the telegraph lines when the contracts with
Siemens & Halske ran out. In addition, Carl Siemens left St. Petersburg out of
consideration for the health of his wife and moved to Tiflis, where he took over the
management of the Kedabeg copper mine in the Caucasus jointly acquired with his
brothers Werner and Walter in 1864. After initial difficulties, Kedabeg’s profits
increased in 1877 and it became a viable business. This was in marked contrast with a
further private undertaking, the Gorodok glass foundry built by Carl von Siemens in
1861 on the Chmelevo estate on Lake Ilmen: this operated at a constant loss, so that
Carl was obliged to liquidate the business and close the factory down.
In 1869 Carl went to London after the death of his wife Marie (née Kapherr), the
daughter of a St. Petersburg banker and merchant, and spent the next ten years
helping in his brother William’s business. A further reason for his departure was almost
certainly the decline in business in Russia, which made staying on there a less
attractive proposition. The English subsidiary was now concentrating on the highly risky
business of laying submarine cables and Carl headed the first major transatlantic
submarine cable expedition with the cable steamer “Faraday” built by William.
Preparations began in 1874 for the laying of the first submarine cable from Balinskelligs
Bay in Ireland to Torbay on the coast of Nova Scotia in Canada. From here the cable
manufactured in Woolwich was to be continued to Rye Beach in New Hampshire, and
there connected up with the American land lines. The enterprise, for which Carl was
primarily responsible as project leader, with the personal support of his brothers
Werner and William, became a test of nerves due to periods of bad weather, sabotage
by the competition and misleading announcements. In spite of this, however, the cable
was successfully laid and operated extremely reliably.
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In 1881 Carl Siemens, who was no longer comfortable in London in the shadow of his
older brother William, returned to St. Petersburg and again improved the performance
of the Russian business. The “All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition” of 1882 in
Moscow provided a good opportunity for repositioning the company: Siemens built an
electrically powered railroad specifically for this exhibition, which was designed to
demonstrate “the use of electricity for operating trains”. For this achievement, the
company was awarded a high distinction: the right to bear the imperial double eagle in
its letterhead.
In the 1880s, Siemens & Halske manufactured telegraph equipment and railway signal
systems as well as accessories for electric lighting. The manufacture of cables was
expanded with the company’s own cable factory, which had been planned since 1878
and was built on a plot of land acquired in 1879 on the Neva estuary in St. Petersburg.
In addition, the Russian Siemens company increasingly concentrated on lighting. Carl
von Siemens attempted to gain entry into the Russian market by obtaining
concessions, and for this purpose founded the “Company for Electrical Lighting”
together with other St. Petersburg firms in 1886. This so-called “Lighting Company”,
which had substantial headquarters in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Lodz, acquired a
monopoly and received the right to lay cables and establish power plants.
When Werner von Siemens withdrew from company management in 1890, Carl
returned to Berlin to take over the role of senior partner at Siemens & Halske, in which
he was supported by Werner’s sons Arnold and Wilhelm. When Siemens & Halske
became a stock corporation in 1897, Carl became Chairman of the Supervisory Board,
remaining in this position until 1904, when he withdrew from the company for health
reasons. He died on March 21, 1906.
Carl von Siemens made a name for himself primarily through his entrepreneurial
activities in Russia. In 1895 he was granted a hereditary title for his services by Czar
Nicholas II.
© Siemens Archives 2002