Konrad Zuse

Konrad Zuse (June 22, 1910 - December 18, 1995) was a German engineer and computer pioneer. His greatest achievement was the completion of the first functional tape-stored-program-controlled computer, the Z3, in 1941.

Zuse the entrepreneur

In 1946 Zuse founded world's first computer startup company: the Zuse-Ingenieurbüro Hopferau. Venture capital was raised through ETH Zürich and an IBM option on Zuse's patents.

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Zuse founded another company, Zuse KG, in 1949. The Z4 was finished and delivered to the ETH Zürich, Switzerland in September, 1950. At that time, it was the only working computer in continental Europe, and the first computer in the world to be sold, beating the Ferranti Mark I by five months and the UNIVAC I by ten months. Other computers, all numbered with a leading Z, 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.

Related Topics:
1949 - Z4 - ETH Zürich - Switzerland - 1950 - Ferranti Mark I - UNIVAC I - Z11 - Z22

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By 1967, the Zuse KG had built a total of 251 computers. Due to financial problems, it was then sold to the Siemens AG company.

Related Topics:
1967 - Siemens AG

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