The father of modern computer

Konrad Zuse, a German engineer, is often called the father of the modern computer. Back in the 1930s, Zuse was working as a civil engineer, and he got really tired of doing the same calculations over and over again. This frustration sparked a brilliant idea: why not build a machine to do the work?

n the early 1940s, during World War II, Zuse set to work in his parents' apartment in Berlin. He created the Z3, which was the world’s first fully functional and programmable computer. It was quite a setup, using old telephone equipment and punched film stock to read its programs.

Sadly, the original Z3 didn't survive long; it was destroyed in an Allied bombing raid in 1943. Despite this, Zuse's early work didn't get much attention during the war, especially since he was working mostly alone, far from other advancements in the U.S. and UK.

Zuse didn't stop with the Z3, though. He also went on to develop the first high-level programming language to help run his computers. His contributions were groundbreaking and eventually earned him recognition as a key pioneer in computing, showing just how much one person’s drive to solve a problem can change the world.