27 Facts About Konrad Zuse

Konrad Ernst Otto Zuse was a German civil engineer, pioneering computer scientist, inventor and businessman.

Thanks to this machine and its predecessors, Zuse is regarded by some as the inventor and father of the modern computer.

Konrad Zuse was noted for the S2 computing machine, considered the first process control computer.

In 1969, Konrad Zuse suggested the concept of a computation-based universe in his book.

Konrad Zuse attended the Collegium Hosianum in Braunsberg, and in 1923, the family moved to Hoyerswerda, where he passed his Abitur in 1928, qualifying him to enter university.

Konrad Zuse enrolled in the Technical University of Berlin and explored both engineering and architecture, but found them boring.

Konrad Zuse started work as a design engineer at the Henschel aircraft factory in Schonefeld near Berlin.

In 1937, Konrad Zuse submitted two patents that anticipated a von Neumann architecture.

Konrad Zuse completed his work entirely independently of other leading computer scientists and mathematicians of his day.

In 1939, Konrad Zuse was called to military service, where he was given the resources to ultimately build the Z2.

In September 1940 Konrad Zuse presented the Z2, covering several rooms in the parental flat, to experts of the.

Konrad Zuse built the S1 and S2 computing machines, which were special purpose devices which computed aerodynamic corrections to the wings of radio-controlled flying bombs.

On 12 May 1941 Konrad Zuse presented the Z3, built in his workshop, to the public.

Konrad Zuse believed that these machines had been captured by occupying Soviet troops in 1945.

Konrad Zuse started working on a PhD thesis, containing groundbreaking research years ahead of its time, mainly the first high-level programming language, and, as an elaborate example program, the first real computer chess engine.

Konrad Zuse would show the computer to the mathematician Eduard Stiefel of the ETH Zurich.

In November 1949, Konrad Zuse KG was founded and the Z4 was delivered to ETH Zurich in July 1950, where it proved very reliable.

In 1949, Konrad Zuse founded another company, Konrad Zuse KG, in Haunetal-Neukirchen; in 1957, the company's head office moved to Bad Hersfeld.

Konrad Zuse's notation was quite general, but the proposal never attained the consideration it deserved.

In 1956, Konrad Zuse began to work on a high precision, large format plotter.

In 1967, Konrad Zuse suggested that the universe itself is running on a cellular automaton or similar computational structure ; in 1969, he published the book.

Between 1989 and 1995, Konrad Zuse conceptualized and created a purely mechanical, extensible, modular tower automaton he named "helix tower".

Between 1987 and 1989, Konrad Zuse recreated the Z1, suffering a heart attack midway through the project.

Konrad Zuse married Gisela Brandes in January 1945, employing a carriage, himself dressed in tailcoat and top hat and with Gisela in a wedding veil, for Zuse attached importance to a "noble ceremony".

Konrad Zuse signed his paintings as "Kuno [von und zu] See".

Konrad Zuse died on 18 December 1995 in Hunfeld, Hesse from heart failure.

The Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin has an exhibition devoted to Konrad Zuse, displaying twelve of his machines, including a replica of the Z1 and several of Konrad Zuse's paintings.