Zuse-Apparatebau Berlin

This is a short story of the two companies Zuse Apparatebau Berlin (1941-1945) and the Zuse KG (1949-1969). Konrad Zuse had a vision. He wanted to build computers in order to release engineers from their hard work of calculating thousands of numbers. In 1943 he formulated this vision and calculated the price of one word for a memory of thin metal sheets up to 5 RM. The size of such a memory should be one thousand words a 32 bits. The Computer Z4 was planned as the prototype of a serial machine for engineers. However, the war destroyed Konrad Zuses visions.

Left: Methfesselstraße 10 in Berlin (ca. 1990). In a house on this plot of land the Z3 and Z4 were constructed. Today, there is a vinyard. Right: Konrad Zuse at the entrance of the Methfesselstraße 7 in 1989, where he built the famous Z3 and started the development of the Z4.

Right: Methfesselstr. 7 and Konrad Zuse at the Methfesselstr. 7. Below: The plan of the architecture of the Z4 (1942).