Konrad Zuse was born in 1910. He was a German civil engineer, a pioneer of computer science, an inventor and a businessman.
His greatest discovery was the programmed computer. The functional controlled program Turing-complete Z3 became operational in May 1941.
Thanks to this invention, Zuse is considered to be the inventor of the modern computer. He also founded one of the first computer businesses in 1941,
with the production of Z4 (the first digital commercial computer).
From 1943 to 1945, he designed the Plankalkul programming language.
He financed all his earlier works alone with his family, but after 1939. resources were given to him by the German Nazi government.It was not noticed at all in England and America. Probably the first documented influence on American companies was the IBM option on his patents in 1946.
Konrad Zuse was born in Berlin on June 22, 1910. In 1912, his family moved to Poland, where his father became a postal clerk.
Zuse then graduated in civil engineering in 1935. After school, he worked for the Ford Motor Company, using his skills to design and advertise.
In 1935, he began experimenting with computer construction. Then he made the Z1 (a mechanical computer with a motor).
In 1939, he was drafted into the army, which gave him all the necessary resources, and he built the Z2 (electro-mechanical computer).
In 1941, he upgraded the Z2 machine and made the Z3.
Only in 1949, due to the consequences of the war and the bombing, he continue working on the Z4 computer.
Due to the lack of resources for making computers, he returned to work in the Plankalkul programming language.
His work on Plankalkul was rejected at the university because Zuse forgot to pay the 400 mark subscription,but that did not worry him at all. It was published in 1972. After that, the influence of Plankalkul was noticed in the programming language Algol 58.
As Zuse never became a member of the NAZI party, he never expressed doubt about them.
He later stated that the best scientists usually have to choose between whether they want to work on their inventions or they will simply stop.
When he retired, he returned to his hobby, painting. Zuse was an atheist.
He founded one of the earliest computer companies in 1946. After that, in 1949, he founded another company.
He made a lot more computers, all with the prefix Z, and he even reached Z43.
Until 1967. Zuse made 251 computers. After financial problems, he sold the company to Siemens.
He died in December 1995 in Hunfeld of a heart attack.
