Konrad Zuse creates Z1, the world’s first program-controlled machine, between 1935 and 1938. Despite some mechanical engineering issues, it had all of the essential components of modern computers, including the binary system and today’s common storage and control separation. Zuse’s 1936 patent application (Z23139/GMD Nr. 005/021) also suggests a von Neumann architecture of software and data modifiable in storage (re-invented in 1945).

Zuse completes the world’s first fully functional programmable computer, the Z3, in 1941.

1945: Zuse describes Plankalkuel, the world’s first higher-level programming language, which contains many of today’s programming languages’ standard features. Nearly a decade later, FORTRAN arrived. Plankalkuel was also used by Zuse to create the first chess program in the world.

In 1946, Zuse establishes the Zuse-Ingenieurbüro Hopferau, the world’s first computer startup company. Zuse’s patents were optioned by IBM and venture capital was raised through ETH Zürich.

Biographical information

Konrad Zuse was a German engineer and computer pioneer who lived from June 22, 1910, in Berlin, to December 18, 1995, in Hünfeld. In 1941, he created the Z3, the world’s first functional program-controlled Turing-complete computer (the program was stored on a punched tape). In 1964, he was awarded the Werner-von-Siemens-Ring for the Z3.

Although this was a theoretical contribution, Zuse also designed the first high-level programming language, Plankalkül, which was first published in 1948. However, the language was not implemented during his lifetime and had no direct influence on early languages. “The very first attempt to devise an algorithmic language was undertaken in 1948 by K. Zuse,” wrote one of ALGOL’s creators (Rutishauser). His notation was broad, but the proposal was never given the attention it deserved.”

Zuse founded one of the first computer businesses in 1946, in addition to his technical work. This company created the Z4, which was leased to ETH Zürich as the second commercial computer in 1950. However, due to World War II, Zuse’s work went largely unnoticed in the UK and the US; IBM’s option on his patents in 1946 may have been his first documented influence on a US company. Zuse proposed the concept of a Calculating Space in the late 1960s. The Deutsches Museum in Munich has a replica of the Z3 as well as the Z4.

Zuse is the subject of an exhibition at Berlin’s Deutsches Technikmuseum, which features twelve of his machines, including a replica of the Z1, as well as original documents, including Plankalkül’s specifications and several of Zuse’s paintings.

Prizes

In the year 1965, “For his contributions to, and pioneering efforts in, automatic computing; for independently proposing the use of the binary system and floating-point arithmetic; and for designing the first program-controlled computer in Germany — one of the earliest in the world,” according to the Harry H. Goode Memorial Award.