Zuse, Konrad (1910-1995)

German inventor of the world's first binary digital computer. Zuse worked on building computers in Berlin, Germany, from 1935 onwards, starting in his parents' living room. He built the first binary digital computer, the Z1, in 1938, and in 1941 completed the world's first program-controlled electromechanical digital computer, the Z3.

Zuse performed astonishing feats considering that he was working almost alone during a world war. (Unlike the American military, which backed ENIAC, Germany's Nazi regime was not interested in computing.) The Z3 was destroyed in a bombing raid and the Z4 had to be moved around to protect it. After the war, the Z4 was set up as a scientific computer at the Technical University in Zürich, and, in 1949, Zuse founded a successful computer company, which was eventually taken over by Siemens.