Konrad Ernst Otto Zuse was a German civil engineer, pioneering computer scientist, inventor and businessman. His greatest achievement was the world's first programmable computer; the functional program-controlled Turing-complete Z3 became operational in May 1941. Thanks to this machine and its predecessors, Zuse is regarded by some as the inventor and father of the modern computer.
Konrad Zuse in 1992
Zuse Z1 replica in the German Museum of Technology in Berlin
Plaque commemorating Zuse's work, attached to the ruin of Methfesselstraße 7, Berlin
Statue of Zuse in Bad Hersfeld
The Z3 was a German electromechanical computer designed by Konrad Zuse in 1938, and completed in 1941. It was the world's first working programmable, fully automatic digital computer. The Z3 was built with 2,600 relays, implementing a 22-bit word length that operated at a clock frequency of about 5–10 Hz. Program code was stored on punched film. Initial values were entered manually.
Zuse Z3 replica on display at Deutsches Museum in Munich
Electromagnetic memory (relays) included in the Z3, Z5 and Z11
Drawing of the Z3 computer from Zuse's 1941 patent.
Z3 reconstruction in 2010 by Horst Zuse