Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Siemens Town
Erlangen is Siemens town. If you ain't a student at the university here then odds are that you work for Siemens. Or that your job relies on Siemens workers (the ice cream guy outside the office for example). There are offices here for Siemens Industrial Services (my division), Siemens Power Generation, Siemens Transport Systems and Siemens Medical to name just a few. Siemens moved here after the war
At this point I would like to clarify that there is no Siemens Telecommunications department here or anywhere else as it was sold to BENQ in 2005. I just wanted to mention this as I am of the belief that most of you think I work with mobile phones. This is not the case.
The site here is a bit like an ant farm. If I want to get to the canteen (several streets away) I can actually do it without going outside thanks to the network of underground tunnels running between buildings. It's a bit like being in some kind of big nuclear bunker down there, it's pretty creepy.
Above ground there are also special features, on the roof of my building (pictured), for example, there is an ornate garden which is used only by the executive mangement for meetings with rich customers.
Siemens is a massive, diverse and extremely interesting company. You can find out more about the firm, including its roots in London, collaboration with the Nazis and recent corruption scandals by clicking here.
