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Werner von Siemens, Max Gebbert und Friedrich Dessauer
Innovation culture

Siemens Healthineers - Our company history

Published on May 8, 2023

Siemens Healthineers can trace its earliest beginnings back to the companies Siemens & Halske, Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall, and Veifa-Werke. At the beginning of the 20th century, after expanding from small workshops to become major enterprises, these three competitors embarked on a race to develop more advanced technology for the benefit of patients.

Siemens & Halske

1844 - Werner Siemens used one of his inventions in the medical field for the first time. He treated his brother Friedrich´s toothache with his Volta Inductor.

The audio play gives you an idea of how this treatment may have been for Friedrich.
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The audio play gives you an idea of how this treatment may have been for Friedrich.
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1847 – Werner Siemens and Johann Georg Halske founded the company Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske (S&H) in Berlin. A few months after the founding of the company, S&H presented an improved version of the Volta Inductor. The Slide Inductor for electrotherapy was the first medical device manufactured by S&H. It was sold successfully for decades.

Siemens und Halske

© Siemens Historical Institute 

Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall

1877 - Erwin Moritz Reiniger founded a workshop for electromedical devices on Schlossplatz in Erlangen. Around nine years later, he joined forces with Max Gebbert und Karl Schall and, in 1886, they founded the company Vereinigte physikalisch-mechanischen Werkstätten von Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall (RGS) which was headquartered in Erlangen. 


RGS-Werkstatt Schlossplatz Erlangen

1893 - With increasing success and the steadily growing workforce, the building on Schlossplatz became too small. In 1893, they were able to move into the new factory building on what were then the outskirts of Erlangen. Where machines once hummed the Medmuseum is located today.


Veifa-Werke 

1901 - Friedrich Dessauer founded the Elektrotechnische Laboratorium Aschaffenburg (ELA), which later became Veifa-Werke. Dessauer was a brilliant scientist who brought important innovations into the new field of X-ray technology. 

Dessauer was still a teenager when he built his first X-ray device. Discover the whole story.
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Dessauer was still a teenager when he built his first X-ray device. Discover the whole story.
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On November 8, 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered X-rays and changed the world! Shortly after the discovery of X-rays, our engineers started to construct our company´s first X-ray tube for medical applications.

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

Your tubes are really very good

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
Quote from a letter from Röntgen to RGS

World War I

World War I was a decisive turning point for the companies Siemens & Halske, Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall, and Veifa-Werke. Markets collapsed, many of their staff were called to the front, and more and more capacity was given over to the production of military equipment.

In the course of World War I, Veifa-Werke got into financial trouble and were taken over by RGS.

X-ray tubes made in Rudolstadt 

Belegschaft Röntgenröhrenwerk Rudolstadt ca. 1920

1919

Faced with the dire economic circumstances in the aftermath of World War I, the engineer Alfred Ungelenk and the glass-blower Otto Kiesewetter took control of their own destiny and opened a small workshop for X-ray tubes in Rudolstadt. Within a few years, this two-man business developed into a key production facility for X-ray tubes and built up a large workforce. 

Siemens & Halske takes over RGS

1925 - Following a series of failed speculative investments and poor strategic decisions during the period of high inflation, RGS had amassed debts of some 6 million gold marks. So RGS needed a financially sound investor and offered the company to Siemens & Halske. On January 1, 1925, RGS was taken over by the Berlin-based company but initially maintained its status as an independent stock corporation.

1932/33 – The merger was also completed from a structural perspective with the founding of Siemens-Reiniger-Werke (SRW). The manufacturing was concentrated in Erlangen.

Fusionsvertrag S&H und RGS

World War II

The year 1933 was a fateful one for Siemens-Reiniger-Werke and for Germany and the world as a whole. The installation of the National Socialist dictatorship had a direct impact on the company. Armament and wartime economy had a growing impact on business activities. After the outbreak of the war, forced laborers from occupied regions replaced the SRW employees who had been conscripted.

The turbulent postwar period presented Siemens-Reiniger-Werke with significant challenges – keeping production up and running, tackling social deprivation among its workforce, and rebuilding its international networks.

Back on the world stage 

1950 - SRW presented itself on the world stage again for the first time at the 6th International Congress of Radiology (ICR) in London. The exhibition showcased new developments in X-ray technology and electromedicine.

ICR 1950

In the 1950s, SRW once again began welcoming visitors from around the world to Erlangen. On factory tours, customers received insights into the manufacturing process and familiarized themselves with the latest products. 

The founding of Siemens AG

1964 – The SRW headquarters got a new look! For the next 50 years, the central administration of SRW was located in this impressive high-rise building with adjacent showroom.

1966 - Rapid technological progress in the expanding global market called for regular restructuring measures. The founding of Siemens AG in 1966 brought together S&H, Siemens-Schuckertwerke, and SRW as a single legal entity. Within Siemens AG SRW was known as Wernerwerk für Medizinische Technik from then on. In 1969, this became the Medical Technology Division (UB Med).

Verwaltungshochhaus der SRW in Erlangen

Production around the globe 

After the years of postwar reconstruction, the company intensified its global outlook. Production sites were added all around the world.

Made in India

The first X-ray devices ”Made in India”. In 1959, the plant in Worli was opened, which was the predecessor of the modern production site in Bengaluru.

In the Middle Kingdom

1983 - Medical technology from Siemens has been used in China since the beginning of the 20th century. In 1983, Siemens set up an overseas branch in China. Increasingly close business relations between Siemens and China led to the publication of the first Chinese edition of Electromedica, Siemens’ medical customer journal, in 1985.

1992
In Shanghai Siemens founded the first Chinese production site for Siemens medical technology. Today, they produce CT scanners, ultrasound systems, X-ray devices and medical components.  
2002
After several years of collacoration, the high-tech location Siemens Shenzhen Magnetic Resonance Ltd. (SSMR) was founded, where MRI systems are still developed and produced today.


    A new look 

    At the beginning of the 1990s: To get fit for the future complete modernization and renovation of the production facility was required. The decision was made to expand Forchheim further and to build a new factory in Erlangen.

    Eröffnung Fabrik in Forchheim, 1986

    1986 – The construction of the location in Forchheim started. In the new factory sheet metal claddings for the equipment were produced. At the opening of the production hall our factory orchestra played!

    ©Roswitha Götz, Nordbayerische Nachrichten - Forchheim

    Siemens Labordiagnostik

    Everything under one roof

    In 2006 and 2007, Siemens took over the three long-standing laboratory diagnostics companies Dade Behring, Diagnostic Products Corporation, and Bayer Diagnostics. Siemens thus became the first supplier to combine diagnostic imaging, laboratory diagnostics, and medical information technology under one roof. 

    Forging a new path

    At the financial statement press conference in May 2014, the president and CEO of Siemens AG, Joe Kaeser, announced plans to establish the medical technology division as an independent company. The aim was to achieve greater flexibility. Siemens Healthcare GmbH was founded on May 1, 2015, and the new “Siemens Healthineers” brand was presented a year later.

    Siemens Healthineers Hauptversammlung

    Welcome to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange!

    The listing of Siemens Healthineers AG on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on March 16, 2018, finally ushered in a new chapter in the company’s history.

    Siemens Healthineers Börsengang, 2018

    In February 2019, the first Annual Shareholders’ Meeting took place and around three and a half years after the IPO, in September 2021, Siemens Healthineers was included in the German benchmark index (DAX).

    Siemens Healthineers Hauptversammlung 2019

    Siemens Healthineers and Varian

    Following a long-standing collaboration, Siemens Healthineers and Varian Medical Systems merged in April 2021.

    By bringing together our unique and highly complementary portfolios and capabilities, we will support oncology clinicians and patients in achieving better outcomes and move even closer to achieving our vision of a world without fear of cancer.

    Chris Toth
    Former CEO of Varian

    If you want to have a deeper dive into the company history discover our new book about the history of Siemens Healthineers. .

    Book Siemens Healthineers Company History