H. Zemanek

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 1941. 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 1967. 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.

Der erste funktionsfähige Computer wurde von Konrad Zuse gebaut. Er war 1941 betriebsbereit. Der Erfinder dieser ersten vollautomatischen, programmgesteuerten, frei programmierbaren, in binärer Gleitpunktzahlrechnung arbeitenden Rechenanlage wäre am 22. Juni 2010 hundert Jahre alt geworden. In diesem Buch erzählt er die Geschichte seines Lebens, das wie kaum ein anderes mit der Geschichte der bedeutendsten technischen Entwicklung seines Jahrhunderts verbunden ist - einer Entwicklung, die mit der "Abneigung" des Bauingenieurstudenten Zuse gegen die statischen Rechnungen begonnen hat... "Von der ersten bis zur letzten Seite ist diese Autobiographie eine faszinierende Lektüre, weil aus jeder Zeile das persönliche Erleben des Autors spricht. Diese Unmittelbarkeit macht Buch und Autor sympathisch." (ntz Nachrichtentechnische Zeitschrift) "... Für entspannende und erholsame Stunden, informativ und allgemeinbildend, eigentlich genau das, was im Zusammenhang mit dem Thema Computer sehr oft gefragt und verlangt wird... Unser Tipp: Sehr empfehlenswert!“ (PASCAL)

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 1941. 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 1967. 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.