Siemens und die Sowjetunion nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg

The Siemens company, founded in Berlin in 1847, began its business activities in Russia as early as 1853. On the eve of World War I Siemens was the largest German electrotechnical company. Together with AEG, another German company, Siemens dominated the market for electrotechnical products in Russia.Siemens lost its Russian subsidiaries due to Soviet nationalization of industrial property after the October Revolution. However, even after nationalization there was a common ground for business between Soviet Russia and Siemens. According to Lenin, the development of an electrotechnical industry was a cornerstone of Soviet economic planning: Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country (Lenin in 1920). But Soviet Russia was largely dependent on foreign assistance in pursuing the electrification plan (GOELRO). Based on contacts with its former Russian employees, Siemens was able to establish links of communication with Soviet officials with 1918. These links provided an excellent basis to resume business relations after World War I, especially after German-Soviet relations had been given an institutional framework in the treaty of Rapallo in 1922.This Master's thesis examines the development of communication and business relations between Siemens and Soviet Russia in the years after World War I. The first chapter gives an overview of the background of Siemens in Russia prior to 1914. In chapter 2 the institutional framework of German-Soviet relations is shown. Based on this overall framework, the Siemens corporate policy towards Soviet Russia is analyzed in chapter 3. This analysis is based on primary sources from the Siemens corporate archive.The main conclusion of the study is that Siemens was not involved in the revisionist strategy of German foreign policy. Nowhere in the sources is any evidence found that at Siemens a drive towards the east (as a major axiom of German expansionist policy during the war, temporarily realized in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk) prevailed after the end of World War I. Rather, the outcome of the study shows that Siemens' corporate strategy was dominated by economic issues: the company closely analyzed the risk of business relations with Soviet Russia. Political interests did not have any significant influence on corporate strategy