After the wartime destruction and the subsequent dismantling of industrial installations, Siemens’ postwar reconstruction began in earnest in 1946 with initial manufacturing programs for public services and utilities, such as the rail network, the postal service, and power generation. Siemens’ workforce had already grown to around 40,000 by the end of 1945. Besides cleanup and reconstruction tasks, Siemens’ employees were assigned to the makeshift manufacture of everyday objects, such as coal shovels, cooking pots, and stoves.

During the final months of the war, Siemens had set up so-called Group Directorates in the south and the west of Germany. Acting more or less independently of company headquarters in Berlin, they pressed ahead with the rebuilding of the company. Siemens & Halske in Munich and Siemens-Schuckertwerke, initially based in Hof and later headquartered in Erlangen and Mülheim/Ruhr, took care of the company’s interests.

Given the uncertainty of the political situation in Berlin, it was decided in April 1949 to relocate the Siemens companies’ headquarters. Siemens & Halske moved to Munich, and Siemens-Schuckertwerke moved to Erlangen. In both cases, secondary company headquarters were retained in Berlin.

Although domestic business gradually began to recover, sales outside Germany remained negligible. This situation only began to change in the mid-fifties, once the company had succeeded in reacquiring its expropriated foreign companies and the rights of ownership to its patents and trademarks. Siemens was then able to set up a new sales and marketing system and begin forming new companies.

Prominent examples of Siemens’ expanding export business include the 300MW San Nicolás power plant in Argentina, completed in 1956, and the installation of a nationwide telecommunication network in Saudi Arabia. The company also re-established its ties with Fusi Denki Seizo KK in Japan and with Westinghouse in the United States. By the mid-1960s, Siemens had succeeded in regaining its former standing in world markets.

In 1953, Siemens researchers at the Pretzfeld semiconductor laboratory developed the zone refining method for producing high-purity silicon, which revolutionized the whole of electrical engineering and electronics. In 1965 the company presented Europe’s first mass-produced integrated circuit – a key technology in many areas of modern engineering and a major driver of innovation.

Housing construction became an important focus of company welfare policy. The whole town of Traunreut was built in 1951. Just a few years later, Siemens built the first three high-rise residential buildings in Bavaria on the company housing estate in Munich. Also during the 1950s, the company began setting up its own apprentice workshops and vocational schools offering a core instruction program, plus master courses. Later on, from 1971 onwards, company training centers were established.