Sustainability – one of the key concepts of Siemens AG’s corporate identity today. Yet Siemens initiated its corporate policy of responsibility toward the population and environment 50 years ago by establishing an environmental protection department. Some 25 years later, the company presented its very first Environmental Report – the forerunner of today’s Sustainability Reports.

Siemens & Halske set up a fire department at its Westend cable plant in early July 1901. Thirty-two volunteers received specialist training to prepare them for their new role. In 1921, the facility’s fire department was officially recognized as a professional fire department. For decades, its jurisdiction extended not only to Siemensstadt, but also to several nearby areas in the Spandau district of Berlin. If there was a fire in Hakenfelde or Haselhorst, for instance, the Siemens fire department was called out.

Siemens & Halske set up a Technical Bureau (TB) in Warsaw in the summer of 1896. Initially, however, this TB wasn’t part of the parent company in Berlin, but – owing to political circumstances – reported to Siemens & Halske Russian Electrotechnical Works in St. Petersburg. Both before and after 1896, the history of Siemens in Poland was very eventful. And it was not until the fall of the Iron Curtain that a period of continuous business activity could begin.