2. Konrad Zuse The inventor of the first programmable computer

3. Konrad’s Beginning Zuse was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1910. He studied civil engineering at Technische Hochschule Berlin-Charlottenburg and began his working career as a design engineer in the aircraft industry. After graduating, he began working for an aircraft company.

4. Konrad’s Inventions Zuse made computer models called Z1, Z2, Z3, Z4. The Z1 was destroyed in a bomb attack during World War I. No one is quite sure what happen to the Z2, but the Z3 was used in World War II. Zuse managed to rescue the Z4 which is currently housed in the Deutsches Museum. Also he spent his afternoons and weekends building the computers in his parents' living-room during the world wars and not in the industry where he worked. The Z1 The Z3

5. The Z4 The Z4 weighed more than two tons and could do about four calculations a minute. That may sound like a dinosaur in terms of today's technology, but it was the world's first programmable computer, and it still works to this day.

6. The Settle Life After the wars, Konrad decided to settle down. He got married to a woman named Gisela Brandes on January 6, 1945, in Berlin. The couple had five children. Still, his inventions did not stop there. Zuse continued to make computer models. Zuse ended up with over eleven new computer models. In the end, Konrad Zuse stopped making computers and retired to painting. He died in 1995. This is one of his paintings.

7. The End of Zuse But Not His Work Even though he died in 1995, his research did not. Thanks to the findings of Konrad Zuse, there is so much technology that it is hard to keep track of what is new or old. There is the common ipad, iphone, ipod, with the internet access. It does not stop there either; they still find new ways to make these things even better. Memorial that was made of him in the school he went to