Left to Right: APDSP members Lisa Tipps, Ed Avis and Tony Militano meet with Horst Zuse during the 2018 motio convention in Mainz, Germany.
Editor's Note: Three years ago a group of APDSP members visited the annual meeting of motio, the German reprographics association, in Mainz, Germany. During the event they met with Horst Zuse, the son of Konrad Zuse, who invented the computer. In recognition of the 80th anniversary of Zuse's invention, motio Managing Director Achim Carius recalls the life's work of the Berlin inventor.
“The Americans weren't the first. Google credits the Americans with the invention in 1946, but this is not true," Achim Carius says. "Google is reinterpreting computer history here." In fact, it was the German engineer Konrad Zuse who put the first functional computer into operation on May 12, 1941, and in the same year founded the world's first computer company without any government support.
Prof. Horst Zuse, the son of Konrad Zuse, reported at “motio-Netzwerktage” in Mainz in 2018 how his father got his first computer running in the Kreuzberg family apartment on May 12, 1941. Zuse even showed an original historical film by his father at the motio event. The lost world war later prevented Germany from offering the necessary state support. In contrast, the US government pumped billions of dollars into arms development after the war.
Zuse's computer invention 80 years ago not only helped switch the blueprinting industry from analog to digital. Zuse also developed the world's first plotter. He presented his innovation for the first time at the Hanover Fair in 1961.
"This makes him an outstanding example of German and European inventiveness and entrepreneurship in our industry," says Carius. Almost all members of the motio network have been equipped with plotters since the late 1980s. Zuse originally started his developments in Berlin, but after World War II he moved to Bad Hersfeld in Hesse. He lived in nearby Hünfeld near Fulda, where there is now a Zuse Museum with original computer and plotter exhibits.
“On the 80th anniversary of the computer invention by Konrad Zuse, we as a nationwide association are honoring this great engineer, inventor, developer and entrepreneur. We would like to thank his 76-year-old son Prof. Horst Zuse for setting up a Zuse department in the German Museum of Technology in Berlin, which puts his father's work in historically appropriate dimensions. His appearance at motio will remain unforgettable. Germany must continue to be a strong innovator and entrepreneur,” Carius says.