The Computer - My Life

Konrad Zuse is one of the great pioneers of the computer
age. He created thefirst fully automated, program
controlled, freely programmable computer using binary
floating-point calculation. It was operational in

1. He

built his first machines in Berlin during the Second World
War, with bombs falling all around, and after the war he
built up a company that was taken over by Siemens in

1. Zuse was an inventor in the traditional style, full of

phantastic ideas, but also gifted with a powerful analytical
mind. Single-handedly, he developed one of the first
programming languages, the Plan Calculus, including features
copied only decades later in other languages. He wrote
numerousbooks and articles and won many honors and awards.
This is his autobiography, written in an engagingly lively
and pleasant style, full of anecdotes, reminiscences, and
philosophical asides. It traces his life from his childhood
in East Prussia, through tense wartime experiences and hard
times building up his business after the war, to a ripe old
age andwell-earned celebrity.