In this English translation of this great computer pioneer’s second autobiography [1], Zuse traces his life from his childhood in East Prussia, through his engineering education, his wartime experiences, his hard times, and his business success, to his current old age and celebrity. He tells how by 1941, with almost no outside help, he had created and put into operation in wartime Berlin what F. L. Bauer in the foreword calls the world’s first “fully automated, program-controlled, freely programmable computer using binary floating-point calculation.” Zuse continues the story of his subsequent machines, which went from relays to tubes to transistors; of his development of the programming language Plankalkül (Plan Calculus); and of how he built up his German computer firm until it was taken over by Siemens in 1967. Throughout the book, he asserts that his situation in Germany before, during, and after the war was totally different from anything experienced by the American and British computer pioneers who were his contemporaries, and implies that this must be taken into account in evaluating his contributions. In the last chapter, he summarizes his activities in retirement, lists his honors, and, at the age of 83, looks to the future.

Zuse writes in a lively but somewhat wandering anecdotal style with many reminiscences and philosophical asides. He includes diagrams, sketches, photographs, and reproductions of his paintings. A mutual friend has assured me that the translation is all right and has preserved Zuse’s particularly dry style, which is both personal and typical of a Berliner. In spite of the author’s well-told, interesting story and the deliberate and unintentional revelations of his personality, this book is disappointing.

As might be expected of an inexperienced writer, proud of his lifetime of accomplishments in the face of great obstacles and determined to include everything of importance to him, the story is extremely rambling and diffuse. The book should have been subjected to careful and extensive editing and reshaping by editors who understood the technology and significance of his creations, who were not in awe of the eminent author, and who knew how to persuade a great man to tell a coherent and unified story. It is said that Zuse selected the publisher of his first autobiography [2] because the firm was willing to print what he wrote without editing. Many of the flaws of this volume may have resulted from the author’s stubborn insistence on the preservation of his own writings and his unwillingness to accept editorial advice.

The descriptions of Zuse’s pioneering creations are too detailed for laypersons, while the more technical descriptions in the appendices are inadequate for the computer literate; descriptions written by others are superior [3–5]. This book is not a complete revision of Zuse’s first autobiography but an extension of it by the addition of the last chapter and some appendices plus a few textual revisions. This new material tells a little more about the political situation that he experienced, and tones down some of his earlier strongly nationalistic statements.

We are fortunate that the author is alive, healthy, and articulate, so that we can read his version of his story, but we must look elsewhere for a more complete, unified, coherent, and less self-serving account with proper emphasis. We may hope that this work helps some future historian to create a better commemoration of the life and deeds of Konrad Zuse.