Konrad Zuse

German computer scientist and engineer (1910 - 1995)

  • Fame57.4
  • Momentum0.0
  • Wikipedia18.5K
Source-basedFalling
Lived 1910–1995, aged 85Germany
  • Wikipedia
    64 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    1910–1995
    Aged 85
  • Known for
    WDR Computernacht
    2013
Summary
Updated 2026-06-21

He built the world's first programmable computer in 1941, while the rest of the computing world didn't know it was happening. Konrad Zuse's Z3 ran in Berlin as war closed in, and by the time anyone outside Germany learned what he'd done, the revolution had already started without him.

Biography

About

Konrad Ernst Otto Zuse was a German civil engineer who began building computers in the late 1930s, funding the early machines with family money and commercial work. In May 1941, his Z3 became operational — the first functional program-controlled Turing-complete computer, though the achievement went almost entirely unnoticed outside Germany during the war. After 1939, the Nazi government supplied resources, and he kept working: the S2 became the first process control computer, and in 1941 he founded one of the earliest computer businesses, eventually producing the Z4, the world's first commerci…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Konrad Zuse

Konrad Zuse
said
Only too often the inventor is the idealist who, like Mephisto, tries to improve the world, only to be crushed by harsh realities.
Zuse, Konrad (1993). The Computer - My Life (in English) (1ed). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. p. X. Translated by Patricia McKenna
Konrad Zuse
saidundated
The rattling of the relays of the Z4 was the only interesting thing to be experienced in Zurich's night life!
Attributed to Zuse in: Ra L Rojas, Ulf Hashagen (2002) The First Computers: History and Architectures. p. 270
Where to find them

Platforms

By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Falling
57.4
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Historical24.7
Source confidence65.0
Completeness75.0
Global rank
Country rank
Category rank
Receipts

Sources

  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence