IntroductionChapter 1
Origins, childhood, and youth
A family with a bourgeois heritage – Idyllic childhood and troubled youth – School years
Chapter 2
Setting the course early on
The young lieutenant – The tragedy of Menzendorf – Separate paths for the orphans
Chapter 3
“The damned money”
Initial experiments – “Invention speculation” – Legal guardian for three brothers
Chapter 4
“Halske’s Workshop”
To bet it all – The first Siemens pointer telegraph – The founding of the company
Chapter 5
Telegraph lines for Prussia
In times of revolution and war – The first long-distance lines – Unsuccessful abroad – The “Nottebohm crisis”
Chapter 6
“Family genius”
The band of brothers – Achieving love through reason – Marriage and a move – Russia or France? – Crimean War boom
Chapter 7
In the shadows
Mathilde’s illness – In search of new fields of business – Difficult beginnings in London – Mathilde’s death
Chapter 8
“Headed for a great time”
“For a unified and powerful Germany” – A new love – The dynamo machine – To fade away or globalize
Chapter 9
Megaprojects
The Indo-European Telegraph Line – Private business and family matters – Transatlantic cables – Siemens Brothers & Co. Ltd.
Chapter 10
At the zenith
The businessman and his principles – Lobbyist for patent protection – Family life with Antonie – New times: Telephones and electric lighting – The first electric railways
Chapter 11
“To sustain the position achieved”
Challenged by the Edison system – Berlin versus London – The transition to a major enterprise
Chapter 12
The legacy
The next generation – A promoter of research – Ennobled against his will – The final years
Focused and determined in a time of change – a summary
Appendices
Notes – Primary sources and bibliography – Image credits – Index of names – Index of places