Carl Peter von Siemens was born on 26 May 1967 to German industrialist Peter C. von Siemens and Bettina Schicht. His father worked for Siemens AG, which had been founded by Carl great-great-great grandfather. Carl grew up in Erlangen, Mexico City, Istanbul and Munich where he studied at classicist Wilhelmsgymnasium. 1986 he got his German Abitur and Swiss Matura at Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz in Switzerland. Carl studied philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at Trinity College, Oxford, and economics at the London School of Economics. In 1992, after the end of his undergraduate years, he traveled overland from Helsinki to Bombay. In 1996, Carl received a Ph.D. in business economics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich. He served his time as a management consultant, worked as a corporate strategist and was co-founder of a web-agency in Hamburg.

Since 1995, Carl has been publishing in German-language media; his contributions appeared, among others, in Rolling Stone, Lettre International, DER FREUND, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Das Magazin (Switzerland), DIE WELT and DIE ZEIT.  Most of his work explores the confrontation with the perceived "other“. It understands itself in the context of autofiction, narrative journalism and the personal essay.

In his debut novel „Kleine Herren“, published in 2010, Carl re-creates his autobiographical experiences as an anglophile alien at Oxford University. The writer Christian Kracht wrote about the book: „Is it possible to conjure the spirits of Evelyn Waugh and Kingsley Amis? Carl von Siemens succeeds with verve, spirit, wonderful humor and a subtle instinct for poignant dialogues.“ Carl reached a wider audience in 2015 when he publicly denounced Siemens for the company’s contribution to the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Brazilian Amazon. In his second book, „Der Tempel der magischen Tiere“, Carl evokes three transformational journeys to aboriginal people, shamen and ghosts. They constitute the source of his environmental position.

Carl lives and writes in Berlin.

(Foto: Copyright Andreas Hornoff)