Konrad Zuse

Konrad Zuse was a German civil engineer, computer scientist, inventor and businessman. He is widely regarded as the creator of the world's first programmable computer, the Z3, which he built in 1941. He also designed the Z4, which became the world's first commercial computer in 1941. He founded one of the earliest computer companies, Zuse KG, and produced the Z-series of computers until 1958. He also developed Plankalkül, the first high-level programming language, and proposed the idea of a computation-based universe in his book Rechnender Raum (Calculating Space) in 1969. Zuse was born in Berlin on June 22, 1910. He attended the Technical University of Berlin and graduated with a degree in civil engineering in 1935. He worked as a design engineer at the Henschel aircraft factory, where he had to perform many tedious calculations by hand. This motivated him to build a mechanical calculator, the Z1, in his parents' apartment in 1936. The Z1 was the first binary computer and used floating-point arithmetic, high-capacity memory and relays. However, it was not very reliable and could not be programmed. Zuse improved his design and built the Z2 in 1939, which was the first fully functioning electro-mechanical computer. It used over 2000 vacuum tubes and could perform 10 operations per second. He then built the Z3 in 1941, which was the first electronic and fully programmable digital computer. It used binary arithmetic and a punched tape for storing programs and data. It was also Turing-complete, meaning that it could theoretically perform any computation that a modern computer can. The Z3 was destroyed by an Allied bombing raid in 1943. Zuse also worked on the Z4, which was completed in 1945. It was similar to the Z3 but had more memory and features. It was moved to various locations to avoid the war and eventually ended up in Switzerland in 1950. It became the world's first commercial computer when it was rented by ETH Zurich from 1950 to 1955. It was later sold to the German Federal Institute of Physics and Technology in 1956. Zuse also developed Plankalkül, the first high-level programming language, between 1943 and 1945. It was intended to be used for engineering applications and had features such as variables, arrays, conditional statements and loops. However, it was not published until 1972 and never implemented on a computer. Zuse founded his own company, Zuse KG, in 1946 and continued to produce computers until 1958. He designed and built several models of the Z-series, such as the Z5, Z11 and Z22. He also invented the graphical programming language SRS (Symbolic Representation System) in 1949. He sold his company to Siemens AG in 1964. Zuse also had interests in philosophy and art. He wrote a book called Rechnender Raum (Calculating Space) in 1969, where he suggested that the universe is a giant digital computer that computes its own evolution according to physical laws. He also created several paintings and sculptures using geometric shapes and patterns. Zuse married Gisela Ruth Brandes in 1945 and had five children with her. He died of a heart attack on December 18, 1995 in Hünfeld, Germany. He received many honors and awards for his contributions to computer science and engineering, such as the Werner von Siemens Ring in 1964, the Harry H. Goode Memorial Award in 1965, the Wilhelm Exner Medal in 1969, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1972 and the Computer History Museum Fellow Award in 1999. He is widely recognized as one of the pioneers and fathers of the modern computer.