Konrad Zuse#Helixturm

Konrad Zuse was born in Berlin on 22 June 1910.{{cite news|title=Konrad Zuse: First on the digital track|author=Schofield, Jack|work=The Guardian|date=20 December 1995|page= 13}} In 1912, his family moved to East Prussian Braunsberg (now Braniewo in Poland), where his father was a postal clerk. 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.{{cn|date=May 2020}}

He enrolled at Technische Hochschule Berlin (now Technische Universität Berlin) and explored both engineering and architecture, but found them boring. Zuse then pursued civil engineering, graduating in 1935.

==Career==

After graduation, Zuse worked for the Ford Motor Company, using his artistic skills in the design of advertisements.Talk given by Horst Zuse to the Computer Conservation Society at the Science Museum (London) on 18 November 2010 He started work as a design engineer at the Henschel aircraft factory in Schönefeld near Berlin. This required the performance of many routine calculations by hand, leading him to theorize and plan a way of doing them by machine.{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=J. A. N. |date=1995 |title=Konrad Zuse |url=https://history.computer.org/pioneers/zuse.html |website=computer.org |publisher=IEEE Computer Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc |access-date=14 April 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221204020840/https://history.computer.org/pioneers/zuse.html |archive-date=4 December 2022 }}

Beginning in 1935, he experimented in the construction of computers in his parents' flat on {{lang|de|italic=no|Wrangelstraße}} 38, moving with them into their new flat on {{lang|de|italic=no|Methfesselstraße}} 10, the street leading up the Kreuzberg, Berlin.{{rp|page=418}} Working in his parents' apartment in 1936, he produced his first attempt, the Z1, a floating-point binary mechanical calculator with limited programmability, reading instructions from a perforated 35 mm film.

File:Zuse Z1-2.jpg in Berlin]]

In 1937, Zuse submitted two patents that anticipated a von Neumann architecture. In 1938, he finished the Z1 which contained some 30,000 metal parts and never worked well due to insufficient mechanical precision. On 30 January 1944, the Z1 and its original blueprints were destroyed with his parents' flat and many neighbouring buildings by a British air raid in World War II.{{rp|page=426}}

Zuse completed his work entirely independently of other leading computer scientists and mathematicians of his day. Between 1936 and 1945, he was in near-total intellectual isolation.[http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Zuse.html "Konrad Zuse"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110829164932/http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Zuse.html |date=29 August 2011 }}, Gap System. Retrieved 14 March 2010.

File:2007-01-20 Gedenktafel Zuse Z3.jpg

In 1939, Zuse was called to military service, where he was given the resources to ultimately build the Z2. In September 1940 Zuse presented the Z2, covering several rooms in the parental flat, to experts of the {{lang|de|Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt}} (DVL; German Research Institute for Aviation).{{rp|page=424}} The Z2 was a revised version of the Z1 using telephone relays.

In 1940, the German government began funding him and his company through the {{lang|de|Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt}} (AVA, Aerodynamic Research Institute, forerunner of the DLR),[http://www5.in.tum.de/~huckle/mathwar.html "Mathematicians during the Third Reich and World War II"], Technical University of Munich. Retrieved 14 March 2010. which used his work for the production of glide bombs. 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. The S2 featured an integrated analog-to-digital converter under program control, making it the first process-controlled computer.{{rp|page=75}}

In 1941 Zuse started a company, {{lang|de|italic=no|Zuse Apparatebau}} (Zuse Apparatus Construction), to manufacture his machines,{{Cite book | last = Lippe | first = Wolfram-M. | title = Die Geschichte der Rechenautomaten | trans-title = The History of Computing Machines | chapter = Kapitel 14: Die ersten programmierbaren Rechner | trans-chapter = Chapter 14: The First Programmable Computer | url = http://cs.uni-muenster.de/Professoren/Lippe/lehre/skripte/geschichte/ | chapter-url = http://cs.uni-muenster.de/Professoren/Lippe/lehre/skripte/geschichte/pdf/Kap14.pdf | access-date = 21 June 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080503054847/http://cs.uni-muenster.de/Professoren/Lippe/lehre/skripte/geschichte/ | archive-date = 3 May 2008 | url-status = dead }} renting a workshop on the opposite side in {{lang|de|italic=no|Methfesselstraße}} 7 and stretching through the block to {{lang|fr|italic=no|Belle-Alliance}} {{lang|de|italic=no|Straße}} 29 (renamed and renumbered as Mehringdamm 84 in 1947).{{rp|pages=418, 425}}

In 1941, he improved on the basic Z2 machine, and built the Z3. On 12 May 1941 Zuse presented the Z3, built in his workshop, to the public.{{rp|page=425}}Kathrin Chod, Herbert Schwenk and Hainer Weißpflug, Berliner Bezirkslexikon: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Berlin: Haude & Spener / Edition Luisenstadt, 2003, p. 52. {{ISBN|3-7759-0474-3}}. The Z3 was a binary 22-bit floating-point calculator featuring programmability with loops but without conditional jumps, with memory and a calculation unit based on telephone relays. The telephone relays used in his machines were largely collected from discarded stock. Despite the absence of conditional jumps, the Z3 was a Turing complete computer. However, Turing-completeness was never considered by Zuse (who was unaware of Turing's work and had practical applications in mind) and only demonstrated in 1998 (see History of computing hardware).

The Z3, the first fully operational electromechanical computer, was partially financed by German government-supported DVL, which wanted their extensive calculations automated. A request by his co-worker Helmut Schreyer—who had helped Zuse build the Z3 prototype in 1938St. Amant, Kirk; Still, Brian. [https://books.google.com/books?id=75KT6GdcWbYC&dq=z3%2C+nazi%2C+zuse&pg=PA62 Handbook of research on open source software] Idea Group. 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-59140-999-1}}. Retrieved 14 March 2010.—for government funding for an electronic successor to the Z3 was denied as "strategically unimportant".

File:KZuse denkmal.jpg]]

In 1937, Schreyer had advised Zuse to use vacuum tubes as switching elements; Zuse at this time considered it a "crazy idea" ({{lang|de|Schnapsidee}} in his own words). Zuse's workshop on {{lang|de|italic=no|Methfesselstraße}} 7 (along with the Z3) was destroyed in an Allied Air raid in late 1943 and the parental flat with Z1 and Z2 on 30 January the following year, whereas the successor Z4, which Zuse had begun constructing in 1942{{rp|page=75}} in new premises in the {{lang|de|Industriehof}} on {{lang|de|italic=no|Oranienstraße}} 6, remained intact.{{rp|page=428}}

On 3 February 1945, aerial bombing caused devastating destruction in the Luisenstadt, the area around {{lang|de|italic=no|Oranienstraße}}, including neighbouring houses. This event effectively brought Zuse's research and development to a complete halt. The partially finished, telephone relay-based Z4 computer was then packed and moved from Berlin on 14 February, arriving in Göttingen approximately two weeks later.{{rp|page=428}}

These machines contributed to the Henschel Werke Hs 293 and Hs 294 guided missiles developed by the German military between 1941 and 1945, which were the precursors to the modern cruise missile.{{rp|page=75}}[https://books.google.com/books?id=wx7myVYenMcC&dq=s1,+s2,+HS-293&pg=PA51 "Germany's Secret Weapons in World War II"], Roger Ford. Zenith Imprint, 2000. {{ISBN|0-7603-0847-0}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7603-0847-9}}. Retrieved 14 March 2010.[https://archive.today/20120731110116/http://www.atypon-link.com/OLD/doi/abs/10.1524/itit.2010.0566 "The S1 and S2 Computing Machines — Konrad Zuse´s Work for the German Military 1941–1945"], Atypon Link. Retrieved 14 March 2010. The circuit design of the S1 was the predecessor of Zuse's Z11.{{rp|page=75}} Zuse believed that these machines had been captured by occupying Soviet troops in 1945.{{rp|page=75}}

While working on his Z4 computer, Zuse realised that programming in machine code was too complicated. He started working on a PhD thesisKonrad Zuse: [http://herbscorner.lepete.de/upload/plankalkuel.%28pdf%29 Der Plankalkül] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512112136/http://herbscorner.lepete.de/upload/plankalkuel.%28pdf%29 |date=12 May 2015 }}. PhD thesis, 1945 detailing the first high-level programming language, {{lang|de|italic=no|Plankalkül}} ("Plan Calculus") and, as an elaborate example program, the first real computer chess engine.Knuth & Pardo: The early development of programming languages. In Nicholas Metropolis (Ed): History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, p. 203.

After the 1945 Luisenstadt bombing, he fled from Berlin to the rural Allgäu.{{Cite web |title=Konrad Zuse im Schloss zu Hopferau |url=https://www.hopferau.de/konrad-zuse.html |access-date=28 October 2023 |website=www.hopferau.de}} In the extreme deprivation of post-war Germany Zuse was unable to build computers.

Zuse founded one of the earliest computer companies: the {{lang|de|italic=no|Zuse-Ingenieurbüro Hopferau}}. Capital was raised in 1946 through ETH Zurich and an IBM option on Zuse's patents.{{Cite web |last=Schmidhuber |first=Jürgen |date=19 August 2021 |title=1941: Konrad Zuse completes the first working general-purpose computer, based on his 1936 patent application |url=https://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/zuse-1941-first-general-computer.html |website=Universita della Svizzera Italiana}}

In 1947, according to the memoirs of the German computer pioneer Heinz Billing from the Max Planck Institute for Physics, there was a meeting between Alan Turing and Konrad Zuse in Göttingen.{{cite web|url=http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/Images/Turing_Zuse.pdf|title=Did Alan Turing interrogate Konrad Zuse in Göttingen in 1947?|author=Bruderer, Herbert|access-date=7 February 2013|archive-date=21 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521211106/http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/Images/Turing_Zuse.pdf|url-status=dead}} The encounter had the form of a colloquium. Participants were Womersley, Turing, Porter from England and a few German researchers like Zuse, Walther, and Billing. (For more details see Herbert Bruderer, {{lang|de|Konrad Zuse und die Schweiz}}).

It was not until 1949 that Zuse was able to resume work on the Z4. He would show the computer to the mathematician Eduard Stiefel of the ETH Zurich. The two men settled a deal to lend the Z4 to the ETH.{{Cite web |title=Kapitel 14 – Die ersten programmierbaren Rechner |author-last=Lippe |author-first=Wolfram M. |date=13 April 2010 |orig-date=2007 |language=de |url=http://cs.uni-muenster.de/Professoren/Lippe/lehre/skripte/geschichte/pdf/Kap14.pdf |access-date=21 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719110029/http://cs.uni-muenster.de/Professoren/Lippe/lehre/skripte/geschichte/pdf/Kap14.pdf |archive-date=19 July 2011

|quote=[in 1949 Professor Stiefel from ETH Zürich] was not a little surprised when he found the Z4, which was already a bit battered from the outside, set up in a horse stable. Nevertheless, he dictated to Zuse a simple differential equation that Zuse could immediately program, demonstrate on the machine and solve. After that he concluded a contract with Zuse: the Z4 should be loaned to the ETH after a thorough overhaul and cleaning.}}

File:Zuse-Werkstatt-Neukirchen-Jan-2010.jpg

In November 1949, Zuse founded another company, Zuse KG, in Haunetal-Neukirchen; in 1957, the company's head office moved to Bad Hersfeld. The Z4 was finished and delivered to the ETH Zurich in July 1950, where it proved very reliable. At that time, it was the only working digital computer in Central Europe,Bruderer (2021), p. 1098 and the second computer in the world to be sold or loaned, beaten only by the BINAC, which never worked properly after it was delivered. Other computers, all numbered with a leading Z, up to Z43,{{cite web |url=http://epemag.com/zuse/part7e.htm |title=Part 7 (continued): The Zuse KG |access-date=4 July 2011 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090511021714/http://epemag.com/zuse/part7e.htm |archive-date=11 May 2009 }} Horst Zuse, EPE Online, archived on 11 May 2009 from [http://www.epemag.com/zuse/part7e.htm the original] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081228103304/http://www.epemag.com/zuse/part7e.htm |date=28 December 2008 }} were built by Zuse and his company. Notable are the Z11, which was sold to the optics industry and to universities, and the Z22, the first computer with a memory based on magnetic storage.{{cite web|url=http://www.epemag.com/zuse/ |title=The Life and Work of Konrad Zuse |access-date=18 April 2010 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090629003415/http://www.epemag.com/zuse/ |archive-date=29 June 2009 }} Horst Zuse, EPE Online, archived on 29 June 2009 from [http://www.epemag.com/zuse/ the original] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100418164050/http://www.epemag.com/zuse/ |date=18 April 2010 }}

Unable to do any hardware development, he continued working on {{lang|de|italic=no|Plankalkül}}, eventually publishing some brief excerpts of his thesis in 1948 and 1959; the work in its entirety, however, remained unpublished until 1972. The PhD thesis was submitted at University of Augsburg, but it was rejected because Zuse forgot to pay the DM 400 university enrollment fee. The rejection did not bother him.{{cite web |url=https://www.get-it.tu-berlin.de/menue/werdegaenge/ursula_walk/ |title=Ursula Walk, geb. 1925 |website=www.get-it.tu-berlin.de |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116041955/https://www.get-it.tu-berlin.de/menue/werdegaenge/ursula_walk/ |archive-date=16 November 2018 }}

{{lang|de|italic=no|Plankalkül}} slightly influenced the design of ALGOL 58{{cite book |last1=Rojas|first1=Raúl|first2=Ulf|last2=Hashagen| date=2002 |title=The First Computers: History and Architectures|page=292 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nDWPW9uwZPAC&q=algol-68+konrad+zuse&pg=PA292 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-68137-7 |access-date=25 October 2013 }} but was itself implemented only in 1975 in a dissertation by Joachim Hohmann.Joachim Hohmann: Der Plankalkül im Vergleich mit algorithmischen Sprachen. Reihe Informatik und Operations Research, S. Toeche-Mittler Verlag, Darmstadt 1979, {{ISBN|3-87820-028-5}}. Heinz Rutishauser, one of the inventors of ALGOL, wrote: "The very first attempt to devise an algorithmic language was undertaken in 1948 by K. Zuse. His notation was quite general, but the proposal never attained the consideration it deserved." Further implementations followed in 1998 and then in 2000 by a team from the Free University of Berlin. Donald Knuth suggested a thought experiment: What might have happened had the bombing not taken place, and had the PhD thesis accordingly been published as planned?{{relevant|reason=A thought "experiment" is presented, but no relevant result or conclusion. This is of no greater interest than any other arbitrary "what if" question. |date=May 2025}}

File:Zuse Z64 Graphomat.jpg

In 1956, Zuse began to work on a high precision, large format plotter. It was demonstrated at the 1961 Hanover Fair,{{cite web|url=http://www.horst-zuse.homepage.t-online.de/z64.html|title=Graphomat Z64 (in German)|website=www.zuse.de}} and became well known also outside of the technical world thanks to Frieder Nake's pioneering computer art work.{{cite web|url=http://www.heikewerner.com/nake_en.html|title=Pioneer Work: Frieder Nake|website=www.heikewerner.com}} Other plotters designed by Zuse include the ZUSE Z90 and ZUSE Z9004.

File:Digitalteilchen.svg

In 1967, Zuse suggested that the universe itself is running on a cellular automaton or similar computational structure (digital physics); in 1969, he published the book {{lang|de|Rechnender Raum}} (translated into English as Calculating Space).

{{anchor|Helixturm}}Between 1989 and 1995, Zuse conceptualized and created a purely mechanical, extensible, modular tower automaton he named "helix tower" ({{lang|de|"Helixturm"}}). The structure is based on a gear drive that employs rotary motion (e.g. provided by a crank) to assemble modular components from a storage space, elevating a tube-shaped tower; the process is reversible, and inverting the input direction will deconstruct the tower and store the components. In 2009, the {{lang|de|italic=no|Deutsches Museum}} restored Zuse's original 1:30 functional model that can be extended to a height of 2.7 m. Zuse intended the full construction to reach a height of 120 m, and envisioned it for use with wind power generators and radio transmission installations.

Between 1987 and 1989, Zuse recreated the Z1, suffering a heart attack midway through the project. It cost 800,000 DM (approximately $500,000) and required four individuals (including Zuse) to assemble it. Funding for this retrocomputing project was provided by Siemens and a consortium of five companies.{{Cite web |last=Rojas |first=Paul |date=August 2015 |title=Reconstruction of the Z1 Computer |url=https://dcmlr.inf.fu-berlin.de/rojas/index.html%3Fp=567.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231015074346/https://dcmlr.inf.fu-berlin.de/rojas/index.html%3Fp=567.html |archive-date=15 October 2023 |website=Paul Rojas, Professor of Artificial Intelligence}}

File:Konrad Zuse Denkmal im Huenfelder Stadtpark.JPG, Hesse]]

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". Their son Horst, the first of five children, was born in November 1945.

While Zuse never became a member of the Nazi Party, he is not known to have expressed any doubts or qualms about working for the Nazi war effort. Much later, he suggested that in modern times, the best scientists and engineers usually have to choose between either doing their work for more or less questionable business and military interests in a Faustian bargain, or not pursuing their line of work at all.

After Zuse retired, he focused on his hobby of painting.{{cite web|url=https://history-computer.com/konrad-zuse-biography-history-and-inventions/|title=Konrad Zuse – Biography, History and Inventions|date=4 January 2021 |publisher=History Computer|access-date=4 February 2021}} He signed his paintings as "Kuno [von und zu] See".

Zuse was an atheist.{{cite book|title=The Man Who Invented the Computer: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer|date=2010|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=978-0-385-52713-2|author=Jane Smiley|quote=Like Alan Turing, Zuse was educated in a system that focused on a child's emotional and philosophical life as well as his intellectual life, and at the end of school, like Turing, Zuse found himself to be something of an outsider—to the disappointment of his very conventional parents, he no longer believed in God or religion.|url=https://archive.org/details/manwhoinventedco00smil_0}}{{rp|pages=12–13}}

Zuse died on 18 December 1995 in Hünfeld, Hesse (near Fulda) from heart failure.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-konrad-zuse-1526795.html|title=OBITUARY : Konrad Zuse|author=Martin Campbell-Kelly|date=21 December 1995|work=The Independent}}

File:Zuse Z31.jpg storage inside a Z31 (which was first displayed in 1963)]]

Zuse received several awards for his work:

• Werner von Siemens Ring in 1964 (together with Fritz Leonhardt and Walter Schottky){{cite web |url=http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Zuse.html |title=Konrad Zuse |last=Lee |first=J. A. N. |date=30 September 2004 |website=ei.cs.vt.edu |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221215061037/https://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Zuse.html |archive-date=15 December 2022 }}
• Harry H. Goode Memorial Award in 1965 (together with George Stibitz)
• Wilhelm Exner Medal in 1969.
• Bundesverdienstkreuz in 1972 – Great Cross of Merit
• Computer History Museum Fellow Award in 1999 "for his invention of the first program-controlled, electromechanical, digital computer and the first high-level programming language, Plankalkül."{{cite web |url=https://computerhistory.org/profile/konrad-zuse/ |title=Konrad Zuse: 1999 Fellow |author= |date= |website=computerhistory.org |publisher=Computer History Museum |access-date= |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120703013338/http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/bios/Konrad,Zuse/ |archive-date=3 July 2012 |quote=}}

The Zuse Institute Berlin is named in his honour.

The Konrad Zuse Medal of the Gesellschaft für Informatik, and the Konrad Zuse Medal of the Zentralverband des Deutschen Baugewerbes (Central Association of German Construction), are both named after Zuse.

A replica of the Z3, as well as the original Z4, is in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The {{lang|de|Deutsches Technikmuseum}} in Berlin has an exhibition devoted to Zuse, displaying twelve of his machines, including a replica of the Z1 and several of Zuse's paintings.

The 100th anniversary of his birth was celebrated by exhibitions, lectures and workshops.{{cite web|url=http://www.horst-zuse.homepage.t-online.de/horst-zuse-zuse-jahr-2010-html/english/index.html|title=Zuse-Jahr 2010|first=Irene|last=Zwernemann-Blech|website=www.horst-zuse.homepage.t-online.de}}[http://www.sdtb.de/Medieninfo-Zuse-Jahr-2010-zum-100-Geburtstag-d.1642.0.html Zuse-Jahr 2010 – zum 100. Geburtstag des Computerpioniers Konrad Zuse] Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin, 19 April 2010 {{in lang|de}}

• {{anl|John Vincent Atanasoff}}
• {{anl|List of German inventors and discoverers}}
• {{anl|Reverse Polish notation}}
• {{anl|Self-replicating machine}}
• {{anl|Z5 (computer)}}
• {{anl|Z23 (computer)}}
• {{anl|Z25 (computer)}}

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite journal |title=Rechnender Raum |language=de |author-last=Zuse |author-first=Konrad |author-link=Konrad Zuse |location=Bad Hersfeld, Germany |date=1967 |journal=Elektronische Datenverarbeitung |volume=8 |pages=336–344 |url=ftp://ftp.idsia.ch/pub/juergen/zuse67scan.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706021756/ftp://ftp.idsia.ch/pub/juergen/zuse67scan.pdf |archive-date=2017-07-06 |url-status=dead |access-date=2 August 2022 }} (9 pages)

{{cite book |author-last=Zuse |author-first=Konrad |author-link=Konrad Zuse |date=1969 |title=Rechnender Raum |language=de |trans-title=Calculating Space |publication-place=Braunschweig, Germany |publisher=Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn |series=Schriften zur Datenverarbeitung |volume=1 |isbn=3-528-09609-8}} (70+4 pages)

{{cite web |title=Calculating Space - Translation of: Rechnender Raum |series=MIT Technical Translation |id=AZT-70-164-GEMIT (Project MAC) |author-last=Zuse |author-first=Konrad |author-link=Konrad Zuse |translator=Aztec School of Languages, Inc. |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |date=February 1970 |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |url=ftp://ftp.idsia.ch/pub/juergen/zuserechnenderraum.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706021805/ftp://ftp.idsia.ch/pub/juergen/zuserechnenderraum.pdf |archive-date=2017-07-06 |url-status=dead |access-date=25 March 2020 }} (98 pages); {{cite book |chapter=Konrad Zuse's Rechnender Raum (Calculating Space) |language=en |title=A Computable Universe: Understanding & Exploring Nature as Computation |publisher=World Scientific |author-last=Zuse |author-first=Konrad |author-link=Konrad Zuse |editor-first1=Adrian |editor-last1=German |editor-first2=Hector |editor-last2=Zenil |edition=re-edition in LaTeX with permission of MIT and Zuse's family |date=2012 |chapter-url=http://www.mathrix.org/zenil/ZuseCalculatingSpace-GermanZenil.pdf |access-date=2 August 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521084904/http://www.mathrix.org/zenil/ZuseCalculatingSpace-GermanZenil.pdf |archive-date=21 May 2022}} (69 pages)

{{cite web |title=Automata and punched card machines: Helix tower |publisher=Deutsches Museum |date=2015 |url=https://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/exhibitions/communication/computers/automata/ |access-date=13 February 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506132905/http://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/exhibitions/communication/computers/automata/ |archive-date=6 May 2021}}

{{cite book |title=Der Helixturm von Konrad Zuse – Analyse, Dokumentation und Instandsetzung eines höhenverstellbaren Turmmodells, 1989 bis 1995, im Deutschen Museum in München |language=de |author-first=Nora |author-last=Eibisch |date=2009 |type=Thesis |publisher=Lehrstuhl für Restaurierung, Kunsttechnologie und Konservierungswissenschaft, Technische Universität München (TUM) |publication-place=Munich, Germany |url=https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/1597303/m5w9urp8te3mw8fs7srye8ndy.Eibisch_Helixturm_Dipl-Arb-TUM_2009.pdf |access-date=2 August 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220802204043/https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/1597303/m5w9urp8te3mw8fs7srye8ndy.Eibisch_Helixturm_Dipl-Arb-TUM_2009.pdf |archive-date=2 August 2022}} (10+105 pages, 50+28+9 pages appendices, 2 DVDs)

{{cite conference |author-last1=Bock |author-first1=Thomas |author-link1=:de:Thomas Bock (Architekt) |author-last2=Eibisch |author-first2=Nora |date=2010 |title=The helix tower by Konrad Zuse: Automated con- and deconstruction |conference=27th International Symposion on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC) |location=Bratislava |url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas-Bock-7/publication/320405140_The_Helix-Tower_by_Konrad_Zuse_Automated_Con-_and_Deconstruction/links/5a12fcfc4585158aa3e1cb23/The-Helix-Tower-by-Konrad-Zuse-Automated-Con-and-Deconstruction.pdf |access-date=2 August 2022 }}

{{cite book |title=Der Computer – eine Erfindung aus Kreuzberg, Methfesselstraße 10/Oranienstraße 6 |language=de |author-first=Hasso |author-last=Spode |author-link=Hasso Spode |series=Geschichtslandschaft Berlin: Orte und Ereignisse (5 volumes) |editor-first1=Helmut |editor-last1=Engel |editor-first2=Stefi |editor-last2=Jersch-Wenzel |editor-first3=Wilhelm |editor-last3=Treue |volume=5: Kreuzberg |location=Berlin, Germany |publisher=Nicolai |date=1994 |pages=418–429 |isbn=3-87584-474-2}}

{{cite web |title=Bomber über Kreuzberg |language=de |author-first=Bernd |author-last=Selig |work=Kreuzberger Chronik |date=October 2011 |issue=131 |publisher=Außenseiter Verlag |location=Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany |url=http://www.kreuzberger-chronik.de/chroniken/2011/oktober/geschichten.html |access-date=3 August 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803203927/https://www.kreuzberger-chronik.de/chroniken/2011/oktober/geschichten.html |archive-date=3 August 2022}}

{{cite book |title=Der Computer – Mein Lebenswerk |language=de |trans-title=The Computer, My Life's Work |author-first=Konrad |author-last=Zuse |author-link=Konrad Zuse |date=1984 |edition=1 |publisher=Springer-Verlag |location=Berlin, Germany |isbn=3-540-56292-3 |page=X}}

{{cite book |title=The Computer, My Life |author-first=Konrad |author-last=Zuse |author-link=Konrad Zuse |editor-last=Wössner |editor-first=Hans |date=1993 |publisher=Springer-Verlag |publication-place=Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany |isbn=978-3-540-56453-9 |pages=12–13, 75 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ro5JOskbChAC&q=konrad+zuse,+z4&pg=PA75 |quote-pages=12–13 |quote=The only problem was that the progressive spirit at our school did not always correspond to my parents' ideas. This was particularly true for religious instruction, which now and again seemed even to us pupils to be rather too enlightened. After the 'Abitur' my parents wanted to go to communion with me; it was a terrible disappointment to them when I wouldn't go. They had lived under the illusion that I was a good student when it came to religion, too, which wasn't the case. […] I remember a poem presented by a student, which made a great impression on me. The essence of the poem read, "Basically, you are always alone". I have forgotten the name of the poet, but have often experienced the truth of these words in later life.}}

{{cite book |title=Selbstreproduzierende Maschinen: Konrad Zuses Montagestraße SRS 72 und ihr Kontext |language=de |location=Mountain View, California, USA |publication-place=Wiesbaden, Germany |author-first=Nora |author-last=Eibisch |publisher=Springer Vieweg / Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH |series=Research |date=2016 |type=Thesis |isbn=978-3-658-12941-5 |doi=10.1007/978-3-658-12942-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nluhCwAAQBAJ}} (272+4 pages)

{{cite book |title=Konrad Zuse: Erfinder, Unternehmer, Philosoph und Künstler |language=de |chapter=Der Philosoph - Die technische Keimzelle |author-first=Helmut |author-last=Böttiger |author-link=:de:Helmut Böttiger (Autor, 1940) |editor-first=Adolf |editor-last=Rabenseifner |date=26 October 2011 |edition=1 |isbn=978-3-86568-743-2 |publisher=Michael Imhof Verlag |location=Petersberg, Germany |pages=69–75 [70–71]}} (128 pages)

}}

• Zuse, Konrad. Direction-bound engraving tool with program control. U.S. Patent 3163936
• U.S. Patents 3234819; 3306128; 3408483; 3356852; 3316442
• Jürgen Alex, Hermann Flessner, Wilhelm Mons, Horst Zuse: Konrad Zuse: Der Vater des Computers. Parzeller, Fulda 2000, {{ISBN|3-7900-0317-4}}
• Raul Rojas (ed.): Die Rechenmaschinen von Konrad Zuse. Springer, Berlin 1998, {{ISBN|3-540-63461-4}}.
• Wilhelm Füßl (ed.): 100 Jahre Konrad Zuse. Einblicke in den Nachlass, München 2010, {{ISBN|978-3-940396-14-3}}.
• Jürgen Alex: "Wege und Irrwege des Konrad Zuse." In: Spektrum der Wissenschaft (German edition of Scientific American) 1/1997, {{ISSN|0170-2971}}.
• Hadwig Dorsch: Der erste Computer. Konrad Zuses Z1 – Berlin 1936. Beginn und Entwicklung einer technischen Revolution. Mit Beiträgen von Konrad Zuse und Otto Lührs. Museum für Verkehr und Technik, Berlin 1989.
• Clemens Kieser: "'Ich bin zu faul zum Rechnen': Konrad Zuses Computer Z22 im Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe." In: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg, 4/34/2005, Esslingen am Neckar, S. 180–184, {{ISSN|0342-0027}}.
• Mario G. Losano (ed.), Zuse. L'elaboratore nasce in Europa. Un secolo di calcolo automatico, Etas Libri, Milano 1975, pp. XVIII–184.
• Arno Peters: Was ist und wie verwirklicht sich Computer-Sozialismus: Gespräche mit Konrad Zuse. Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 2000, {{ISBN|3-355-01510-5}}.
• Paul Janositz: Informatik und Konrad Zuse: "Der Pionier des Computerbaus in Europa – Das verkannte Genie aus Adlershof." In: Der Tagesspiegel Nr. 19127, Berlin, 9. März 2006, Beilage Seite B3.
• Jürgen Alex: Zum Einfluß elementarer Sätze der mathematischen Logik bei Alfred Tarski auf die drei Computerkonzepte des Konrad Zuse. TU Chemnitz 2006.
• {{cite book |author-first=Jürgen |author-last=Alex |title=Zur Entstehung des Computers – Von Alfred Tarski zu Konrad Zuse […] – Tertium non datur |publisher=VDI-Verlag |location=Düsseldorf, Germany |date=2007 |isbn=978-3-18-150051-4 |issn=0082-2361}}
• Herbert Bruderer: [http://www.oldenbourg-verlag.de/wissenschaftsverlag/konrad-zuse-und-schweiz/9783486713664 Konrad Zuse und die Schweiz. Wer hat den Computer erfunden? Charles Babbage, Alan Turing und John von Neumann] Oldenbourg Verlag, München 2012, XXVI, 224 Seiten, {{ISBN|978-3-486-71366-4}}

{{Commons}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130209080726/http://zuse.zib.de/ Konrad Zuse Internet Archive]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070610131817/http://irb.cs.tu-berlin.de/~zuse/Konrad_Zuse/en/index.html Konrad Zuse and his computers, from Technische Universität Berlin]
• [http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Zuse.html Konrad Zuse]
• [http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/zuse.html Konrad Zuse, inventor of first working programmable computer]
• [http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/digitalphysics.html Zuse's thesis of digital physics and the computable universe]
• [http://www.dtmb.de/Aktuelles/Sonderausstellungen/Zuse_Ausstellung/index.html Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200601085131/https://technikmuseum.berlin/ |date=1 June 2020 }}
• [http://www.konrad-zuse-computermuseum.de/ Konrad Zuse Museum Hoyerswerda] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200601085129/http://www.konrad-zuse-computermuseum.de/ |date=1 June 2020}}
• Computermuseum Kiel [https://web.archive.org/web/20110725133821/http://www.museen-sh.de/ml/pi_485_0489AB_s2.html Z11]
• Computermuseum Kiel [https://web.archive.org/web/20110725133829/http://www.museen-sh.de/ml/pi_485_0488ABCDEF_s2.html Z22]
• Computermuseum Kiel {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725133850/http://www.museen-sh.de/ml/pi_485_0490ABCDEF_s2.html |date=25 July 2011 |title=Z25}}
• [http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/first-steps-lectures-from-the-dawn-of-computing/ Video lecture by Zuse discussing the history of Z1 to 4]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20210308051719/https://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/exhibitions/communication/computers/films/#c31605 Video showing the model of the helix tower in action]
• {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100418164050/http://www.epemag.com/zuse/ |date=18 April 2010 |title=The Life and Work of Konrad Zuse }} – By Horst Zuse (Konrad Zuse's son); an extensive and well-written historical account
• {{MacTutor Biography|id=Zuse}}

{{Konrad zuse computer}}

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Category:1910 births

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Category:20th-century atheists

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Category:Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Category:Programming language designers

Category:Technische Universität Berlin alumni

Category:Werner von Siemens Ring laureates

Category:Engineers from Berlin

Category:Recipients of the Cothenius Medal