German industrialist of the Siemens family, who significantly contributed to the development of teleprinters.
He was the eldest son of Arnold von Siemens who himself was the eldest son of Werner von Siemens, the famous inventor and founder of Siemens & Halske, later to become the present-day Siemens AG. Hermann’s mother Ellen, née von Helmholtz, was a daughter of Werner’s close friend Hermann von Helmholtz, after whom his grandson was named. He was the eldest of five children.
Before 1933 he was a member of the German National People’s Party, a rival and opponent of Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party. From 1941 until 1946 he succeeded his uncle Carl Friedrich von Siemens as chairman of the Supervisory Boards of Siemens & Halske AG and Siemens-Schuckertwerke AG and thus became head of the German electrical and electronics company.
Arrested on 5 December 1945 by Allied Forces, he temporarily ceded the chairmanships to his father’s first cousin Friedrich Carl Siemens (1877-1952). He was brought to the Nuremberg trials as a prisoner to deal with war crime charges, but finally no prosecution was filed, as there were no personal misdeeds traceable. The charges were dropped, so he could return as head of company in 1948.
He again served as chairman of the supervisory boards of Siemens & Halske AG and Siemens-Schuckertwerke AG until his retirement in 1956.
In 1917, he married Charlotte von Maltzan, Baroness zu Wartenberg und Penzlin; they had six children and 12 grandchildren. He died on 13 October 1986 in Munich, aged 101.
Link to Wikipedia biography