Abstract
Carl Friedrich von Siemens (1872–1941) was the youngest son of
inventor and businessman Werner von Siemens. He headed the family firm,
Siemens & Halske AG, from 1919 until his death in 1941. The Siemens
corporation became the Third Reich’s most important producer of
electrotechnical weapons components. From 1940 on, the corporation used
foreign forced laborers and prisoners of war in industrial production;
and from 1942 on, it used Jewish forced laborers and concentration camp
inmates as well. (A separate “Siemens camp” was set up in the
Ravensbrück concentration camp.) Below, we see Siemens (at left) talking
with the respected Jewish jurist and banker Franz von Mendelssohn
(1865–1935) (middle). Mendelssohn came from a well-known Berlin family
of intellectuals, businessmen, and artists, and was co-owner of the
Mendelssohn private banking firm. He was also president of the Berlin
Chamber of Industry and Commerce as well as the German Chamber of
Industry and Commerce [Deutscher
Industrie- und Handelstag]. In 1939, six years after this
photograph was taken, the Mendelssohn banking firm was taken over by
Deutsche Bank as part of the “Aryanization” process.