The imposing façade of Siemens’ raspberry-coloured Munich headquarters, dubbed the “pink palace”, was repainted last summer. But it took Peter Löscher a while to realise how much had changed at the almost 185-year-old building on the city’s Wittelsbacher Platz.

“I passed by, while on a walk with my wife recently, and discovered how beautiful it has become,” the chief executive smiles.