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The Life and Work of Konrad Zuse (by Horst Zuse) |
| Part 8 (continued): Konrad Zuse After 1964 |
| Konrad Zuse mostly painted in oil, but sometimes he painted with chalks. Very often he painted skyscrapers, cities, and bridges, visions of cities and abstract structures. The next five pictures are typical oil paintings of Konrad Zuse showing cities, bridges and skyscrapers. | ||
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Fig.95 (Upper Left), Fig.96 (Upper Middle), Fig.97 (Upper Right), |
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| In fact Fig.98 and Fig 99 above, and Fig.100 and Fig.101 below are four oil paintings (40cm x 60cm) from a series of seven, which can be viewed in the Internet at http://www.horst-zuse.homepage.t-online.de and are available in a limited edition for anyone who is interested. | |
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| Fig.100 (Left) and Fig.101 (Right). Two paintings (40cm x 60cm) from a series of seven, which can be viewed on the internet and are available in a limited edition. | |
| Finally, we show three of Konrad Zuse's self portraits, which he created in 1946 and 1993/1994. | ||
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| Fig.102 (Left). Self portrait of Konrad Zuse as a woodcut (1946). Fig.103 (Middle). Self portrait in chalk (1993). Fig.104 (Right). Self portrait in oil (1994). | ||
| The Helix-Tower Konrad Zuse was still a man of many ideas. In 1992 he started his last project, a tower for catching wind in order to produce energy in an easier way. The idea of the Helix-Tower was a height-variable construction in order to catch more or less wind to produce electrical energy. The propeller and wind generator had to be mounted on the top of the tower. The mechanism shown in Fig.106 is intended to raise or lower he tower. He used a very elegant mechanical construction and immediately received a patent for this in 1993. The height of the tower could be modified by adding or subtracting building blocks from the stock as shown in Fig.106. |
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| Fig.105 (Left). Konrad Zuse's Helix-Tower, which he designed and built from 1992- 1995. Fig.106 (Right). The material stock containing the structural components in order to raise or lower the Helix-Tower. | |
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He worked until his death at this construction, but he could not finish it. With the Helix-Tower, Konrad Zuse returned to mechanical constructions, which is where he started in 1936 with the Z1. The area in which he excelled was highly sophisticated mechanical constructions. With the Z1 he demonstrated his talent in mechanics, and with the Helix-Tower he demonstrated it again at an advanced age. From my point of view, the Helix-Tower is not a viable idea, because the static problems cannot be solved. However, it is a work of art in which the engineer and artist in Konrad Zuse are seen to be coming together once again.
Towards the end of October 1995 Konrad Zuse had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital in Hünfeld, where he received a cardiac pacemaker. Following a period of recuperation, he had a second very severe heart attack on December 16, 1995. This second attack could not be handled successfully, and Konrad Zuse died in the hospital in Hünfeld on December 18. He left his wife and four children: Horst (1945-), Monika (1947-1998), Hannelore (1957-), and Peter (1961-). His son Ernst only lived from 1950-1979. Konrad Zuse was a man driven by hundreds of ideas, he did not like small talk, he tried to ignore sicknesses, almost never visited a shopping center, liked to travel, and he had a strong kind of humor, which sometimes was misinterpreted by people. Sometimes he wished to be an artist or an actor. His strong sense of humor can best be characterized by the following two pictures: |
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| Konrad Zuse had a strong humor. Fig.107 (Left). Konrad Zuse's relationship with the PC was a strained one. Until 1985 he never had a computer in his house. In 1985 the Siemens AG made him a gift of a PC. He never touched a key of this PC, which was used only by his daughter for secretarial work. Fig.108 (Right). A picture from 1962. | |
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