Konrad Zuse - Inventor of the first freely programmable computer
| 1910 |
Born on June 22, 1910 in Berlin. |
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| 1935 |
Degree of Civil Engineering at the Polytechnical Institute of Berlin-Charlottenburg (predecessor of the Technische Universität Berlin).
First job at the German aircraft industry. Zuse left this job early to set up an "inventor´s workshop" in the living room of his parents' apartment in Berlin.
First idea to construct a "mechanical brain".
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| 1937 |
Crucial diary notes on the computer, written in German shorthand. Among these notes the sentences (translation by Peter Deuflhard): The elementary operation is: Check of two binary digits for equality. Result is a variable with two values, which is once more a binary digit." These sentences stand at the cradle of the invention of the computer! At this early stage the engineer Zuse viewed the unification of arithmetic and logic operations. |
| 1938 |
Completion of Z1, a fully mechanical programmable digital computer (test model). This test model never functioned in practice for reasons of lack of perfection of the mechanical elements. (A rebuilt model can be seen in the Berlin Museum für Verkehr und Technik.) |
| 1940 |
Completion of Z2, the first fully functioning electro-mechanical computer of the world. |
| 1941 |
Development of Z3. First realization of a program control using the binary digits. |
| 1945/46 |
Development of Plankalkül (plan calculus), perhaps the world's first programming language, a predecessor of the modern algorithmic programming languages also including concepts of logic programming. |
| 1949 |
Foundation of ZUSE KG at Neukirchen. Development of further program-controlled electro-mechanical computers, first in valve, later in transistor technology. |
| 1966 |
ZUSE KG bought by Siemens AG. |
| 1986 |
The newly founded Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum takes up work. |
| 1991 |
President and Vice President explain the model of the new ZIB building (completed in 1996) to Konrad Zuse.
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| 1966 bis 1995 |
Numerous awards and world-wide appreciation. Konrad Zuse developed new ideas about computing but devoted most of his time to painting.
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| 1995 |
Konrad Zuse passed away on the 18th December, 1995 in Hünfeld near Fulda.
Konrad Zuse alias Kuno See : ohne Titel (1976)
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Further sources
More information can be found in the book "Konrad Zuse, Der Computer: mein Lebenswerk", Springer, Berlin, 1984 or in the English translation "Konrad Zuse, The Computer - My Life", Springer, Berlin, 1993.
A tour of Konrad Zuse's computers assembled by Dr.-Ing. Horst Zuse (TU Berlin).
Konrad Zuse Elektronisches Archiv
Die Ungnade der frühen Geburt, Wolfgang K. Giloi, Vortrag, gehalten am 12.12.1996 in memoriam Konrad Zuse.
Giloi, Wolfgang K.: Konrad Zuses Plankalkül als Vorläufer moderner Programmier-Modelle, 1990, published by ZIB as Technical Report TR-90-13. This publication is available via the WWW as a facsimile.
The Computer Museum History Center in Silicon Valley, California has the largest collection of computers and peripherals of any Museum in the world, ranging from the pioneer machines of Konrad Zuse in Germany to early Fujitsu machines from Japan.
The Life and Work of Konrad Zuse by Prof. Horst Zuse.
Konrad Zuse - The man who built the world's first computer (RT-Distribution)
Kurt-Pauli-Stiftung zum Leben und Werk von Konrad Zuse, enthält u.a. einen Bericht des Zeitzeugen P. Deuflhard, Präsident des ZIB
