Traditionally, Siemens’ medical engineering activities were rather secondary to the businesses of the two core companies, Siemens & Halske and Siemens-Schuckertwerke. Although Werner von Siemens conducted experiments in a wide range of healthcare-related areas nonetheless medical engineering at the company was always somewhat in the shadow of major projects like the laying of the first direct transatlantic cable and the construction of power plants.

Considered on their own, however, the activities were yet another testimony to Siemens’ strength. In 1896, shortly after X-rays were discovered, the company brought its own X-ray device onto the market to become, within the next few years, one of the major suppliers in the field. Against this backdrop, company management was in a position in 1925 to take advantage of the difficulties of a leading competitor – Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall AG (RGS) – and acquire the company. The acquisition and integration were successful: within a short time, a joint marketing company was established and the first manufacturing activities – the production of X-ray tubes, for example – were combined in Rudolstadt in the German state of Thuringia. As a result, the healthcare business reported increasing profits year after year.

The world economic crisis of 1929 brought this situation to a sudden end. In the wake of the rapid economic decline, tax revenues collapsed, leaving the government, which was one of the main customers for medical systems, unable to finance healthcare-related outlays. This led to major losses for Siemens, as the company’s report for the summer of 1932 clearly states:  The reduced purchasing power of our private customers and cuts in expenditures for medical purposes at hospitals and by local and national authorities in and outside Germany reduced both new orders and revenue.” Management had to respond.

In 1930 the head of the joint marketing company, Dr. Theodor Sehmer, had already begun to talk about a merger of the individual companies. In 1932, concrete steps were taken to this end: all the electro-medical manufacturing activities in Berlin-Siemensstadt were transferred to Erlangen, which thus became the sole production location, and a more centralized organization was created. The final decision was made by the head of Siemens, Carl Friedrich von Siemens: “Through concentration and simplified organization […] the businesses must again be in a position to produce an appropriate return on capital. […] when generating only 50-60% of their highest possible revenue. It is also particularly important that responsibility for the whole company is combined in a single managing board by contrast with the present […] unsatisfactory situation where responsibility is divided between a marketing company and three factories.” The die was thus cast; at the end of 1932 the various boards initiated the merger.

A new name for the company was soon found. In July the head of technology at RGS Max Anderlohr wrote, “Although the future name for the combined electro-medical companies has not yet been finally decided […], I believe that Dr. von Buol [the then head of S&H] will agree to the name Siemens-Reiniger-Werke (SRW), which has frequently been used in recent discussions. Both Dr. Sehmer and I myself are suggesting this name for the company.”

December 19, 2010 – Dr. Florian Kiuntke

Further reading

Florian Kiuntke, With Röntgens help – The X-ray-tubes factory of the Siemens AG in Rudolstadt 1919–1939.