Konrad Zuse is one of the great pioneers of the computer§age. He created thefirst fully automated, program§controlled, freely programmable computer using binary§floating-point calculation. It was operational in 1941. He§built his first machines in Berlin during the Second World§War, with bombs falling all around, and after the war he§built up a company that was taken over by Siemens in 1967.§Zuse was an inventor in the traditional style, full of§phantastic ideas, but also gifted with a powerful analytical§mind. Single-handedly, he developed one of the first§programming languages, the Plan Calculus, including features§copied only decades later in other languages. He wrote§numerousbooks and articles and won many honors and awards.§This is his autobiography, written in an engagingly lively§and pleasant style, full of anecdotes, reminiscences, and§philosophical asides. It traces his life from his childhood§in East Prussia, through tense wartime experiences and hard§times building up his business after the war, to a ripe old§age andwell-earned celebrity.