Siemens
European engineering giant with roots in telegraphy and industrial automation.
Siemens AG is a German multinational corporation based in Munich and Berlin. Its work centers on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport, and health technology. The company is Europe's largest engineering firm and leads the global market in industrial AI, automation, and industrial software.
The business began in 1847 as the Telegraphen-Bau-Anstalt von Siemens & Halske, founded in Berlin by Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske. The modern Siemens AG was created in 1966 through the merger of three companies: Siemens & Halske, Siemens-Schuckert, and Siemens-Reiniger-Werke. Today, Siemens and its subsidiaries employ about 320,000 people worldwide and reported roughly €78 billion in global revenue for 2023. It is listed on the DAX and Euro Stoxx 50 stock indices, and as of December 2023, it was the second-largest German company by market capitalization.
As of 2023, Siemens’ main divisions are Digital Industries, Smart Infrastructure, Mobility, and Financial Services, with Siemens Mobility operating as a separate entity. Former major divisions that were spun off include Infineon Technologies (1999), Siemens Mobile (2005), Gigaset Communications (2008), Osram (2013), Siemens Healthineers (2017), and Siemens Energy (2020).
The company’s history starts in 1847, when its founders invented a telegraph that used a needle to point to letters instead of Morse code. Their first workshop opened on 12 October. In 1848, Siemens built Europe’s first long-distance telegraph line, stretching 500 km from Berlin to Frankfurt am Main. In 1850, Werner’s younger brother, Carl Wilhelm Siemens (later Sir William Siemens), began representing the company in London, which became a branch office in 1858. During the 1850s, the firm built long-distance telegraph networks in Russia, and in 1855, another brother, Carl Heinrich von Siemens, opened a branch in St. Petersburg. In 1867, Siemens completed the Indo-European telegraph line, spanning over 11,000 km from London to Calcutta.
Also in 1867, Werner von Siemens described a dynamo without permanent magnets. While similar systems were independently invented by Ányos Jedlik and Charles Wheatstone, Siemens was the first company to build such devices. In 1881, a Siemens AC alternator driven by a watermill powered the world’s second electric street lighting system, in Godalming, United Kingdom.
Quick Facts
- Traded As
- SIE · DAX component
- Predecessors
- Siemens & Halske · Siemens-Schuckert · Siemens-Reiniger-Werke
- Founder
- Werner von Siemens
- Founded
- 1 October 1847 / Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia
- Hq Location
- Munich, Germany
- Area Served
- Worldwide
- Key People
- Roland Busch (CEO) · Jim Hagemann Snabe (chairman)
- Owners
- Siemens family (6.9%) / Other shareholders (93.1%)
- Industry
- Conglomerate · Industrial engineering · Automation · Electrical engineering · Medical technology
- Products
- Industrial automation systems · Industrial software · Drive technology · Building automation systems · Medical imaging equipment · Rolling stock and railway signalling · Power distribution equipment
- Services
- Financial services · Mobility services and fleet management · Digital enterprise and IT services · Industrial maintenance and lifecycle services
- Revenue
- €78.91 billion (2025)
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Siemens & Halske was founded on 1 October 1847, based on a telegraph invention that used a needle to point to letters instead of Morse code. The company built the first long-distance telegraph line in Europe in 1848, stretching 500 km from Berlin to Frankfurt am Main. In the 1850s, it built long-distance telegraph networks in Russia, and in 1867 completed the Indo-European telegraph line from London to Calcutta, spanning over 11,000 km. In 1881, a Siemens AC alternator driven by a watermill powered the world's second to first electric street lighting in Godalming, United Kingdom. The company diversified into electric trains and light bulbs, and in 1885 sold a generator to George Westinghouse, enabling his AC experiments in Pittsburgh. During the 1920s and 1930s, Siemens & Halske began manufacturing radios, television sets, and electron microscopes. In the 1950s, it started manufacturing computers, semiconductor devices, washing machines, and pacemakers. The company's first digital telephone exchange was produced in 1980. In 1988, Siemens and GEC acquired the UK defence company Plessey, with Siemens taking over avionics, radar, and traffic control businesses as Siemens Plessey.
Reader's Guide
Siemens's significance lies in its long history of technological innovation and its evolution from a telegraph workshop into a global industrial conglomerate. The company was a pioneer in long-distance telegraphy, electric lighting, and electric traction, building the first complete electric tram network in the Southern Hemisphere in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1893. Its involvement in the Ardnacrusha hydroelectric power station in the Irish Free State in the 1920s was a world first for its design. During the Nazi era, Siemens exploited forced labor in concentration camps, including a plant in Auschwitz and a factory at Ravensbrück, a history that became the subject of a 1972 lawsuit against satirist F.C. Delius. After World War II, the company rebuilt and expanded into computers, semiconductors, and medical technology. The 1966 merger created Siemens AG, which later spun off major divisions including Infineon Technologies (1999), Siemens Mobile (2005), Gigaset Communications (2008), Osram (2013), Siemens Healthineers (2017), and Siemens Energy (2020). As of 2023, Siemens remains a component of the DAX and Euro Stoxx 50, with principal divisions in digital industries, smart infrastructure, mobility, and financial services.
From Consortium Win to Fleet Family
The Siemens Vectouro family—earlier known under the trade names Viaggio Comfort and Viaggio Next Level—emerged from a pair of landmark contract victories in the spring and summer of 2021. On 12 April, a joint bid between Siemens Mobility and Škoda Transportation secured a framework agreement with České dráhy for 180 new express wagons, of which twenty sets would comprise nine Viaggio Comfort coaches each. Just weeks later, in July, Austrian Federal Railways named Siemens Mobility the winning bidder for twenty-one day-and-night long-distance train sets valued at roughly 375 million euros. Built by Siemens Mobility from 2023 onward, the Vectouro platform is deliberately modular: operators can order fixed formations of daytime or overnight carriages, all designed to reach 230 kilometres per hour and to be hauled by a separate locomotive rather than carrying their own traction equipment. This architecture positions the family as a flexible, cross-border workhorse for European intercity and sleeper routes.
A Bumpy First Season on the Nightjet Network
The Vectouro family's public debut was both triumphant and complicated. On the final night of the 2023 timetable, 10 December, a Viaggio Next Level formation rolled onto the ÖBB Nightjet network, covering the Innsbruck-to-Hamburg and Vienna-to-Hamburg corridors. However, the locomotives doing the hauling were not the Siemens Vectrons the coaches were originally engineered to pair with. The Class 1293 Vectrons that had just reached ÖBB were freight-spec variants, still lacking passenger-service certification and capped at 160 kilometres per hour, so ÖBB turned to its Taurus fleet instead. The following spring brought incremental milestones: in March 2024 the first fully authorised nine-car set began domestic Austrian testing runs, and on 5 April a special Railjet NG presentation journey linked Munich Central with Verona Porta Nuova for officials and press. Regular international service followed three days later on 8 April, when RJ 87 commenced its Munich-to-Bologna run, marking the Vectouro's first sustained cross-border revenue operation.
Sleeping at 230: The Nightjet New Generation Interior
The Nightjet New Generation coaches, marketed by Siemens as Viaggio Next Level, were conceived around a simple premise: make overnight rail travel feel closer to a hotel stay. Every sleeping compartment includes a private wet room combining shower and toilet, while one designated Comfort Plus berth per carriage upgrades the passenger to a fully separate shower and bathroom. Shared couchette space is offered in two formats—traditional four-bed compartments or individual mini-suite capsules modelled on the capsule-hotel concept. A fire-sprinkler system runs throughout each carriage. Operationally, the lead car doubles as a seating coach and houses a Vectron-style control cab so the set can be pushed as well as pulled, simplifying shunting and reversals. Although the platform was engineered for 250 kilometres per hour, service speed is held at 230. A single seven-coach set accommodates 254 passengers; two coupled sets reach 508, fitting within Europe's standard 400-metre platform envelope. By late 2025 the ERA had certified the control car for push-and-pull duty in Germany and Austria, with Italy and the Netherlands still awaiting approval.
One Platform, Many Partners: The Variant Ecosystem
The Vectouro name now covers a surprisingly diverse family of locomotive-hauled sets, each tailored to a specific operator's network. The original ÖBB Railjet, introduced in 2008, pairs seven single-level coaches with EuroSprinter or Vectron locomotives; its first batch was fitted with Swiss and Hungarian signalling systems for cross-border running. České dráhy's Railjet, launched commercially in December 2014, mirrors the Austrian coaches but with a distinct cabin layout and livery, and its traction is provided by EuroSprinter locomotives leased from ÖBB and repainted in ČD colours. The shorter ČD Interjet, in service since December 2021, trims the formation to five cars, drops the control cab car, and limits top speed to 200 kilometres per hour while retaining UIC couplings for flexible re-coupling. Production plans have also shifted over time: the Nightjet order grew from thirteen to thirty-three sets in 2021, yet by mid-2025 the split was rebalanced, reducing Nightjet units to twenty-four and expanding the Railjet allocation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Siemens?
Siemens AG is a German multinational corporation headquartered in both Munich and Berlin. It stands as Europe's largest engineering firm and operates across industrial automation, building automation, rail transport, and health technology.
What is Siemens's role in industrial manufacturing?
The company leads the global market in industrial AI, automation, and industrial software. Its core operations span industrial automation, building automation, rail transport systems, and health technology.
How did Siemens originate?
The business began on 1 October 1847 in Berlin as the Telegraphen-Bau-Anstalt von Siemens & Halske, founded by Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske. The modern Siemens AG was later formed in 1966 through the merger of Siemens & Halske, Siemens-Schuckert, and Siemens-Reiniger-Werke.
Why is Siemens significant in the engineering world?
As Europe's largest engineering firm, Siemens holds a dominant position in industrial AI and automation software globally. The company is listed on both the DAX and Euro Stoxx 50 indices, underscoring its financial weight.
What is Siemens's current scale?
In 2023 the company reported revenue of approximately €78 billion and employs roughly 320,000 people worldwide. It operates across multiple continents with a strong presence in industrial and health-technology sectors.
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