Seit 170 Jahren erfindet Siemens sich ständig neu. Diesmal geht es der Belegschaft zu weit.

Siemens celebrated its 150th birthday twenty years ago. The "Telegraph Construction Company" founded in Berlin in 1847 by Werner von Siemens and Georg Halske had become a global corporation. Siemens employed almost half a million people, 190,000 of them in Germany, and managed 250 business areas, divided into 16 "areas".

Back then, the complex group was too slow and too bureaucratic for bank analysts and investors. They demanded a faster pace and higher profits.

Since then, four company heads - Heinrich von Pierer, Klaus Kleinfeld, Peter Löscher and now Joe Kaeser - have been trying to make the electric giants more profitable through new conversions and efficiency programs. Since the group management shortly after the anniversary in 1998, which separated the production of microchips (Infineon), which had previously been invested in billions of euros, from the group and sold on the stock exchange, the spin-offs have continued cheerfully. Productions were sold, made independent or discontinued. Only two years ago, Siemens sold its shares in the home appliance division to Bosch, and the last shares of Osram were sold this year.

Siemens today, that is still around 380,000 people, 115,000 of them in Germany, who are to meet high profit targets (11 to 13 percent) in eight "divisions" according to Siemens headquarters. And the group as a whole is in a better position than ever. "Outstanding results" were achieved in the 2017 financial year, CEO Joe Kaeser announced on November 9 at the annual press conference at the Munich headquarters. The turnover was 83 billion euros, in the industrial business 9.5 billion euros were achieved.

This was "a historic success", Kaeser praised his Simensians, and most of the businesses were "stronger than ever". He proposed an increase in the dividend for the shareholders and also promised their share to the employees below the top management. The announcement a week later seems almost cynical: The Siemens Executive Board announced that it would cut 6,900 jobs worldwide in the plants for gas turbines and generators, half of them in Germany; three locations are to be closed completely in Germany, another plant is for sale. Kaeser had already said in the presentation of the balance sheet that things were not going well in all of the eight divisions of the group and that "painful cuts" were to be expected, which, given the good results of the entire group, led to frustration and anger among the employee representatives.

DIE ZEIT 48/2017
This article comes from the ZEIT No. 48/2017. You can read the entire issue here.
Every Siemens division should be as good as the strongest competitor in its business
"In view of the excellent overall situation of the company", IG Metall board member and Siemens supervisory board member Jürgen Kerner described the plans as "completely unacceptable". SPD leader Martin Schulz criticized the "irresponsible manager" in the Bundestag on Tuesday. "When the going gets tough, the workforce ends up bleeding," he said.

The current conflict once again highlights the fundamental dilemma of the still widely ramified conglomerate. Siemens is seen by employees, politicians and the general public as a large tanker, a symbol of the German economy. The economy is doing well, and Siemens is making record profits as a group. This does not want to go with plant closures and possible layoffs.

The board around Joe Kaeser has a completely different picture. In order to keep up in the international competition with the respective "focused specialists", all individual Siemens businesses would have to be "at least as good as their strongest competitors". The large tanker is being converted into a flexible association of speed boats. The credo is that there should be no cross-subsidies across the divisions.