5Mutual Attraction
Siemens Activities in Italy 1855–1968
Introduction
‘It is better to be enemies than allies’. This could be the paradoxical slogan for Siemens investments in Italy and particularly the impact on them of the First and the Second World War. This chapter will outline the evolution of the strategies of the German electromechanical firm between the end of the 19th century and the early 1960s, when the consequences of the new strategies established as the result of the Second World War became evident. It will consider how the company reacted to political risk, and especially the extreme political risk presented by war.1 However, in the case of the post-war period, the chapter will show that some of the decisions ...
