Zuse KG

Zuse-Apparatebau Zuse-Ingenieurbüro Zuse KG
legal form	Limited partnership
founding	1941 (Zuse apparatus construction in Berlin) 1946 (Zuse engineering office in Hopferau im Allgäu) 1949 (Zuse KG in Neukirchen district of Hünfeld)
resolution	1945 (Zuse Apparatebau) 1949 (Zuse engineering office) April 1, 1971 (Zuse KG)
Reason for dissolution	Takeover by Siemens AG
Seat	until 1945: Berlin , Germany since 1957: Bad Hersfeld
management	Konrad Zuse Harro Stucken Alfred Eckhard Theodor Fromme (Technical Director)
Branch	Information technology

The Zuse KG was the company of computer pioneer Konrad Zuse .

history

prehistory

Konrad Zuse founded the company Zuse Ingenieurbüro und Apparatebau in 1941 . The mediation between Zuse's company and the commissioning Reich Aviation Ministry ran through Joseph Jennissen (1905–1977) and Herbert Wagner .

Zuse KG

In 1944 Zuse converted his engineering office into a limited partnership and planned to build series with over 300 machines.

Konrad Zuse's workshop in Neukirchen , condition: January 2010

Logo of the city of Hünfeld with the emblem of Zuse KG (right)

Zuse KG was re-established in Neukirchen in what was then the Hünfeld district in 1949 by Konrad Zuse together with Harro Stucken and Alfred Eckhard. The first activity of the company was the repair of the Z4 built by Konrad Zuse in 1945 and its leasing or leasing to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich . This made the Z4 the first commercially traded computer worldwide (a few months before UNIVAC ) and the only functioning computer in Europe. Series production of computers at Zuse KG began with the Zuse Z11 , which followed the Z4 in 1956 . A year later (1957) the company headquarters was relocated to Bad Hersfeld , where the Zuse company moved into the buildings of a former textile factory. The Z22 was introduced in 1958 and a year later, the Zuse Z23, the Zuse company’s first computer based on transistors .

takeover

In 1964 Zuse KG was completely taken over by Brown, Boveri & Cie. (BBC) taken over. In 1967 Siemens AG took over 70 percent of the shares in Zuse KG from Brown, Boveri & Cie. Konrad Zuse left the company that year. Two years later, Siemens AG also took over the remaining 30 percent of the company. Zuse KG manufactured 251 computers by 1969. On April 1, 1971, the company name Zuse KG was deleted. In the mid-1970s, computer production at the Bad Hersfeld location was finally discontinued after Siemens concentrated development work for computers in Munich .

Products

Zuse Graphomat Z64

Z11 - the first mass-produced computer from Zuse KG

The Zuse Z5 and Zuse Z11 were developed on the basis of the Z4, which was implemented using relay technology , and were sold to the optical industry and universities. With the Zuse Z22 , which was largely developed by the scientific director Theodor Fromme , a switch was made to the much faster tube technology and to magnetic drum storage as storage technology for the arithmetic units . With 55 systems delivered, the Z22 was an initial market success, but was soon replaced by the less maintenance-intensive Zuse Z23 in transistor construction , which in turn was followed by the improved successor models Zuse Z25 and Zuse Z31 .

In addition to computer systems, Zuse KG also sold the Zuse Z64 Graphomat drawing table controlled with 5-channel punched tape , which, with its robust mechanics, was also used to cut cardboard and foils and was widely used.

literature

• No. 20 Peter Frieß, Andreas Fickers (eds.): Konrad Zuse and Heinz Gumin talk about the history of Zuse KG and about economic issues of early computer development in Germany (= TechnikDialog. Issue 20). Deutsches Museum / Lemmens, Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-932306-32-5 .
• Jürgen Alex: Ways and wrong ways of Konrad Zuse . In: Spectrum of Science (German edition of Scientific American ) No. 1/1997, Heidelberg 1997, ISSN  0170-2971 .
• Jürgen Alex: On the creation of the computer - from Alfred Tarski to Konrad Zuse . VDI, Düsseldorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-18-150051-4 , ISSN  0082-2361 .
• Konrad Zuse: The computer - my life's work . 4th edition, Springer, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-540-73138-2 .
• Jürgen Alex, Hermann Flessner, Wilhelm Mons, Kurt Pauli, Horst Zuse: Konrad Zuse - The Father of the Computer. Parzeller, Fulda 2000, ISBN 3-7900-0317-4 .
• Herbert Bruderer: Konrad Zuse and the ETH Zurich. On the 100th birthday of computer science pioneer Konrad Zuse (= ETH Zurich, Department of Computer Science, Technical Report. No. 705), 2nd verb. and greatly expanded edition, ETH, Professorship for Information Technology and Education, February 2011, DNB 1010672444 .

Web links

Commons : Zuse KG  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Konrad Zuse Computer Museum Hoyerswerda
• Pages about Zuse KG by Horst Zuse, the son of Konrad Zuse

Individual evidence

1. ↑ horst-zuse.homepage.t-online.de
2. ↑ horst-zuse.homepage.t-online.de
3. ↑ horst-zuse.homepage.t-online.de
4. ↑ horst-zuse.homepage.t-online.de
5. ↑ Alexander Kauther, Paul Wirtz: The lone warrior Dorner. Grin Verlag GmbH, 2013, ISBN 3-656-04860-6 . (Jennissen was a member of the RLM research leadership).
6. ↑ Herbert Bruderer, ETH Zurich (ed.): Konrad Zuse and the ETH Zurich. (PDF).
7. ↑ Hans Dieter Hellige (Ed.): Stories of Computer Science. Visions, paradigms, leitmotifs. Berlin, Springer 2004, ISBN 3-540-00217-0 . P. 93.
8. ↑ Herbert Bruderer: Konrad Zuse and the ETH Zurich - On the 100th birthday of the computer science pioneer Konrad Zuse. Festschrift of ETH Zurich, 2nd edition, February 2011, pp. 5–11.
9. ^ Zuse Z 11. In: Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum. Retrieved July 27, 2020 . 
10. ↑ computer Z23V and Z23VK - side with Professor Dr.-Ing. habil. Horst Zuse ; As of July 8, 2011
11. ^ ZKM : The Algorithmic Revolution: Konrad Zuse. ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.