Today would have been Konrad Zuse’s 100th birthday who built the world’s first freely programmable computer Z1 in 1936 and the first turing-complete computer Z3 in 1941. He didn’t declare it magic, nor did it fit in a pocket. But it served (not only) Zuse very well who claimed he only invented the computer because he was too lazy to calculate himself. Being of Kreuzberg roots this type of pragmatism can easily be imagined. Today, McDonalds hosts the site where Zuse originally put together his Z1 before the war. They use computers, too, yes. But there is a more competent place to find about Zuse these days.
When Konrad Zuse met Bill Gates in 1995 to portrait the software tycoon he told Gates he never thought one could make money by creating software. Zuse was a creative engineer, not a sales pioneer.
A more complete feature on Zuse can be found at FAZ (German only though).
