When the traditional German company Siemens is celebrating its 175th anniversary these days, many hands are being shaken and the speeches are reminiscent of the long history of the ten-man company “Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske” founded in Berlin in October 1847. remembered – visionary Werner von Siemens had teamed up with the precision engineer Johann Georg Halske to build an improved pointer telegraph. After all, countless groundbreaking inventions were to follow.
You can get a better picture of this a few hundred kilometers away in the so-called Siemens depot, in an unadorned hall at the Siemens site in Munich-Neuperlach. The smell, a mixture of old leather, oil, something metallic and stuffy air, is reminiscent of a museum in the approximately 1,500 square meter hall. However, the glaring ceiling lighting does not present a staged exhibition, but shelves and shelves full of old treasures, some almost stacked: more than 10,000 exhibits from the past decades are housed there – including curiosities such as the wooden, portable heating screen “Siemens Heizschirm HSD”. from the 1950s, intended for living rooms and offices, but also for doctors’ examination rooms.
