Konrad Zuse, the novel

[ukimiku]

Dear Runrev forum members and visitors,

for all of you who might be interested in the history of computers, their inventor, and his venturesome life...

The computer was invented in 1933 by Konrad Zuse, in Berlin, Germany. The story of his life is quite intriguing. He built the first working computer, the "Z1" (Zuse 1) in the living room of his parents, using only metal sheets, glass panes, and parts from his childhood tool box. The machine, when finished, weighed roughly a ton and could basically perform any number of basic calculations as long as the programmer didn't use more than 64 long-term storage registers (with a length of 22 bits each) and two special-purpose registers for calculations. The programmed commands, punched in groups of six bits each into a strip of paper, were read off the tape and executed purely mechanically. Several years later, while he was working on another, improved, successor, the "Z4", the British and American bomber pilots covered Berlin with firebombs and fragmentation bombs, forcing Zuse to evacuate his coworkers, his machine, and himself, in a breakneck flight, to Bavaria, Germany. There he met the rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, General Dornberger, and 30 SS men with a secret assignment.

For those of you who read German, a novel about his life, his dreams, his entanglement with the Nazi regime, and his obsessions has just been published by the Hamburg-based artislife publishing company: "Konrad Zuse - Roman eines Lebens" (Konrad Zuse - the novel of a life) by me, Michael Kuyumcu.

Kind regards,
ukimiku

[Mark]

Congratulations with the book publication and with your 100th post on this forum, Michael

Mark

[ukimiku]

Hi Mark,

how kind of you to notice! Thanks a lot! I hadn't even noticed that this was my 100th post; it's been quite a while since I posted my last one... due to the work on the novel, I found hardly any time for anything else... but now, back to RunRev!

Regards,