Theodor Fromme

Theodor Fromme (born September 11, 1908 in Lübeck ; † November 21, 1959 there ) was a German computer pioneer and was considered a friend and later a close collaborator of Konrad Zuse . The logic circuits of the Z22 go back to him and van der Poel .

Life

Fromme passed the journeyman's and master's examination as an optician . In 1930 he joined the Carl Zeiss company as a research assistant . From 1935 he studied physics and mathematics, first in Jena and then in Berlin. Fromme was drafted into the Wehrmacht, but was given a longer period of leave, especially in order to be able to work as an employee in a ballistic institute of Professor Schardin in Berlin. When the first news, essays and specialist books about electronic calculators from the USA became known after the war, he turned his particular interest to this new field and ultimately determined his future career.

In 1957 he was employed as a permanent employee after initially advising at Zuse KG . Fromme moved to Bad Hersfeld and became the company's scientific director. The Z22, which he was instrumental in developing, became particularly popular with mathematicians, who were able to perform the calculations that were then known as “the most amazing feats” on this logically versatile system. It is precisely this extraordinary versatility of the device that is to be regarded as a particular merit by Fromme. Fromme developed a description of data processing processes, which he called the equivalence calculus.

Web links

Portrait on the website of Horst Zuse

Individual evidence

^ Friedrich L. Bauer: Theodor Fromme. An almost forgotten pioneer . In: Computer Science Spectrum . tape 27 , no. 2 , April 2004, p. 181-185 , doi : 10.1007 / s00287-004-0356-2 .
^ Theodor Fromme, Wolfgang Händler: Der Äquivalenzkalkül: A formalism for the description of digital communication devices . Attached work, Die Schaltmatrizen. Vieweg, Braunschweig 1962.

personal data
SURNAME	Fromme, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German computer pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH	September 11, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lübeck
DATE OF DEATH	November 21, 1959
Place of death	Lübeck

[1] Friedrich L. Bauer: Theodor Fromme. An almost forgotten pioneer . In: Computer Science Spectrum . tape 27 , no. 2 , April 2004, p. 181-185 , doi : 10.1007 / s00287-004-0356-2 .

[2] Theodor Fromme, Wolfgang Händler: Der Äquivalenzkalkül: A formalism for the description of digital communication devices . Attached work, Die Schaltmatrizen. Vieweg, Braunschweig 1962.