News
Siemens active in Greece for 110 years
Siemens worked successfully with Zachariou for decades. In 1926, for example, the German electrical company played a decisive role in the founding of Greece’s Telefon AG, which installed the country’s first automatic telephone exchange the following year. Finally, in 1939, Siemens established its own Regional Company in Greece, Siemens Hellenische Elektrotechnische AG, with headquarters in Athens. Interrupted by World War II, Siemens’ presence in the country was reestablished at the beginning of the 1950s. Today, Siemens Greece is responsible for the company’s business activities in the neighboring states of Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Cyprus.
To celebrate this year’s anniversary, we’ve put together a picture gallery from the Corporate Archives illustrating key milestones in the history of Siemens in Greece:
From 1908 to 1910, Siemens-Schuckertwerke delivered electrical equipment for the electric light rail system in Kalamata in the Peloponnesus.
From 1908 to 1911, Siemens-Schuckertwerke also supplied, via its Austrian subsidiary, the equipment used to construct the light rail line linking Athens and Piraeus.
In the mid-1920s, work began on the expansion of the subway system in Athens. Built in only three years, the line linking Omonia Square to Attiki was opened in 1930.
As part of a concession contract with the Greek government, Siemens & Halske was commissioned to build telephone cable networks and power lines in a number of Greek cities. The project was implemented between 1930 and 1934.
In 1952, Siemens in Greece landed one of its first major orders of the post-war period: to supply the electrical equipment for 12 railcars on the Piraeus-to-Athens light rail line. In the following years, the number of trains equipped with Siemens electrical devices rose to over 35.
In 1956, the Greek Regional Company was renamed Siemens Hellas, Elektrotechnische AG.
Siemens household appliances have been extremely popular in Greece for decades. Its acquisition of Greek refrigerator producer Pitsos in 1976 made Bosch-Siemens-Hausgeräte GmbH (BSH) the undisputed leader in the country’s household appliance market.
In 1967, Hellenic Railways began using five 2,000 horsepower diesel-electric locomotives from Siemens. The electrical equipment on the trains, which ran between Athens and Salonika, was supplied by Siemens’ Dynamowerk in Berlin.
With the financial backing of the National Bank, Siemens established Tele Industrie AG in 1963. The telecommunications factory in Salonika was Siemens’ most advanced production facility in Greece at the time.
At the beginning of the 1970s, the Greek Public Power Corporation commissioned an international consortium under the leadership of Siemens’ KWU subsidiary to expand the Megalopolis brown coal power plant. The plant was continuously expanded in the following years.
In July 1983, a solar power plant went into operation on the Cycladic island of Kynthos. Part of an international research program sponsored by the European Union, the project provided first experiences in directly converting sunlight into electrical energy.
In 1982, Siemens supplied lighting for the Olympic stadium built in northern Athens for the European Athletics Championships. In the same year, the German electrical company received an order to equip 70 new railcars for the Athens-Piraeus light rail line.
In the 1990s, Siemens successfully expanded sales of medical products and equipment for major hospitals and private diagnostic centers. Somatom Plus CT scanners were installed in the YGIA Polyclinic on Cyprus and in the ENCEPHALOS Institute in Greece.
With the expansion of its responsibilities to include the coordination of business operations in Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Cyprus, the Greek Regional Company established a subsidiary in Bulgaria in 1998 and offices in Macedonia and Cyprus two years later.
February 16, 2010 | Christoph Frank and Alexandra Kinter
Link