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Konrad Zuse

German engineer who built the first programmable computer, the Z3.

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Konrad Zuse

Wolfgang Hunscher, Dortmund · via Wikipedia: Konrad Zuse · CC BY-SA 3.0

Konrad Zuse was a German civil engineer and inventor who built the world's first programmable computer.[1][2] His Z3 machine became operational in May 1941 and is regarded by some as the first functional program-controlled general computer.[2][3]

Last updated 2026-10-08 from the source article.

Life and work

Zuse was born in Berlin on 22 June 1910 and graduated in civil engineering in 1935.[4] He began experimenting with computer construction in his parents' Berlin flat in 1935.[5] In 1938 he finished the Z1, a mechanical calculator with limited programmability.[6] In 1941, Zuse established Zuse Apparatebau (Zuse Apparatus Construction) to produce his machines, renting a workshop on Methfesselstraße 7.[7]

The Z4 was completed and delivered to ETH Zurich in July 1950; at that time, it was the only working digital computer in Central Europe and the second computer in the world to be sold or loaned, after the BINAC.[8]

What the cited sources add

The Z3 used electromagnetic relays with visibly moving switches.[3] Schmidhuber states that Zuse's Z3 could perform roughly one elementary operation per second.[3] Schmidhuber notes that Zuse's 1936 patent application described the digital circuits required by programmable physical hardware.[3] The Graphomat Z64 drawing table was presented at the 1961 Hannovermesse in transistor technology, and its demonstration was sensational.[9]

A Graphomat ZUSE Z64-G1 was delivered in 1964 to the computing center at the research institute of the Deutsche Bundespost (Telekom) in Darmstadt.[9] Rojas reports that Zuse obtained financing from Siemens and other German sponsors to build a full replica of the Z1, which he constructed with the help of two engineering students over several years.[10][11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Konrad Zuse" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Konrad Zuse" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rojas, "Konrad Zuse's Legacy: The Architecture of the Z1 and Z3", IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 1997, p. 5–16; Flippo, "Konrad Zuse: The first programmable, digital computer", german-way.com; von Leszczynski, "Z like Zuse: German inventor of the computer", monstersandcritics.com, 27 June 2010; Bellis, "Biography of Konrad Zuse, Inventor and Programmer of Early Computers", thoughtco.com, 15 May 2019; "Who is the Father of the Computer?"; Bruderer, "Milestones in Analog and Digital Computing", Springer, 2021, p. 13, 961 (original n en.wikipedia.org
  3. Schmidhuber, "1941: Konrad Zuse completes the first working general-purpose computer, based on his 1936 patent application", Universita della Svizzera Italiana, 19 August 2021. facts only, no text reused. people.idsia.ch
  4. Wikipedia, "Konrad Zuse" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Schofield, Jack, "Konrad Zuse: First on the digital track", The Guardian, 20 December 1995, p. 13 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Konrad Zuse" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Der Computer – eine Erfindung aus Kreuzberg, Methfesselstraße 10/Oranienstraße 6", Nicolai, 1994, p. 418–429; Talk given by Horst Zuse to the Computer Conservation Society at the Science Museum (London) on 18 November 2010 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Konrad Zuse" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Der Computer – eine Erfindung aus Kreuzberg, Methfesselstraße 10/Oranienstraße 6", Nicolai, 1994, p. 418–429 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Konrad Zuse" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lippe, "Die Geschichte der Rechenautomaten"; "Der Computer – eine Erfindung aus Kreuzberg, Methfesselstraße 10/Oranienstraße 6", Nicolai, 1994, p. 418–429 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Konrad Zuse" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Talk given by Horst Zuse to the Computer Conservation Society at the Science Museum (London) on 18 November 2010; Bruderer (2021), p. 1098 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "Graphomat Z64 (in German)", www.zuse.de. facts only, no text reused. horst-zuse.homepage.t-online.de
  10. Rojas, "Reconstruction of the Z1 Computer", Paul Rojas, Professor of Artificial Intelligence, August 2015. facts only, no text reused. dcmlr.inf.fu-berlin.de
  11. Wikipedia, "Konrad Zuse" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rojas, "Reconstruction of the Z1 Computer", Paul Rojas, Professor of Artificial Intelligence, August 2015 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Konrad Zuse (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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