27 Facts About Zuse KG

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

Thanks to this machine and its predecessors, Zuse KG has often been regarded as the inventor and father of the modern computer.

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

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

Zuse KG 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zuse KG 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 Zuse KG presented the Z3, built in his workshop, to the public.

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

Zuse KG 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.

Zuse KG would show the computer to the mathematician Eduard Stiefel of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich who then ordered one in 1950.

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

The PhD thesis was submitted at University of Augsburg, but rejected for formal reasons, because Zuse KG forgot to pay the 400 mark university enrollment fee.

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

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

In 1967, Zuse KG 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, Zuse KG conceptualized and created a purely mechanical, extensible, modular tower automaton he named "helix tower".

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

Konrad Zuse KG 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 KG attached importance to a "noble ceremony".

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

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

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