Most stories in the history of computing took place in one of a small number of places. The wartime code-breaking effort in Bletchley Park led to Colossus, the first programmable electronic computer. Various university campuses in Britain and the US were home to first-generation computers like ENIAC, EDVAC and the Manchester Baby in the late 1940s. Silicon Valley then stole the limelight with the home computer revolution in the 1970s. Naturally, all of these places have their museums celebrating their local achievements, but the world’s largest computer museum is not found in Silicon Valley or on the campus of a famous university. Instead, you have to travel to a small German town called Paderborn, which houses the Heinz Nixdorf Museumsforum, or HNF.
Heinz Nixdorf might not be a household name in America like Jack Tramiel or Steve Jobs, but he was one of Europe’s great computer pioneers. Starting with vacuum tube based machines in 1952, Nixdorf gradually expanded his company into one of the largest computer manufacturers of the 1970s. His products were especially popular among large businesses in the financial sector, such as banks and insurance companies. By the late 1980s however, sales went downhill and the company was eventually acquired by Siemens. Today, the Nixdorf name lives on as part of Diebold-Nixdorf, a major producer of ATMs and checkout machines, reflecting the original company’s focus on the financial industry.
The museum’s roots lie in Heinz Nixdorf’s personal collection of typewriters and other office equipment. Although he already envisioned starting a museum dedicated to computing, his sudden death in 1986 put a stop to that. A few of his employees kept the plan alive however, and in 1996 the HNF was opened in Paderborn. Today the museum is run by a non-profit foundation that aims to provide education in information and communication technology to a wide audience.
The collection is housed in the former worldwide headquarters of Nixdorf Computer AG, a rather imposing 1970s office building covered in gold-tinted windows. Inside,]] you’re reminded of its former life as an office building through its compact layout and low ceilings. It does give the museum a bit of a cosy feel, unlike, say, the cavernous halls of London’s Science Museum, but don’t let this fool you: at 6,000 m2, the main exhibition area is about twice as large as that of Silicon Valley’s Computer History Museum.
First floor: The Basics of Communication and Calculation
The main exhibit begins with artifacts dating back 5,000 years: clay tablets from Sumeria show how ancient people recorded their thoughts, kept inventories and performed calculations. Devices like the abacus and the quipu from South America show how physical devices can help with arithmetic, which is otherwise a completely abstract science. Writing evolved through a series of different media into the printing press, making written materials available to more people than ever before.
These twin concepts of calculation and communication are carried forward throughout the exhibition. On one side of the hall, various printing techniques show the way to the invention of the typewriter, of which the museum has an impressive collection. On the other side, abacuses evolve into complex mechanical calculators.
If you’ve never laid your hands on one of these machines filled with cams, cranks and levers, then here’s your chance. A helpful computer screen explains all the various steps needed to reset the calculator, dial in the inputs and set the gears in motion to obtain the desired result. The whirr of the gears and the clacking noise of the decimal displays give an indication as to how much work really needs to be done in order to perform even a simple calculation.
The HNF has made great use of modern technologies to bring its ancient artifacts to life. For example, an interactive exhibit links an abacus to a computer display that shows the state of the beads in real time, giving the user immediate feedback on their actions. But by far the most eye-catching piece of modern tech on this floor is PETRA, a steampunk-style robotic guide: ask her about a specific exhibit and she will physically lead you there and tell the artifact’s story on her integrated display.
An extensive Hall of Fame celebrates the contributions of fifteen pioneering scientists and engineers who laid the foundations for the development of information technology. Among them are Wilhelm Schickard, Blaise Pascal and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz who invented the first calculating machines; Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace who developed these concepts further into programmable computers; and Alan Turing and John von Neumann who laid the theoretical foundations of information science.
One impressive piece of kit towards the end of the first floor is a fully-functioning relay-based telephone exchange. In front of it are several different telephone models, all connected into a local phone system. You simply pick up one receiver, dial the number of another, hear it ring, and wait for someone to pick it up and talk to you. The most interesting thing goes on right in front of you however: as your phone sends pulses down the line, you can hear the relays clicking and routing your call in real time. Even kids who grew up with smartphones love playing with these phones (“can you hear me?” “yes, I can hear you too!”), although visitors born after 1990 or so might need some instruction first on how to use that weird spinning disk to enter a number.
Second Floor: From Big Iron to Pocket-Sized Gadgets
The second floor is where items begin to appear that most people will recognize as computers. Many of the oldest devices here were made in Germany by the likes of Zuse and Siemens, and processed data using relays and vacuum tubes while storing data on punched cards. These devices often took up entire rooms; one corner houses a typical setup of the ESER 1055, an East German clone of the IBM System/360 mainframe.
Wandering along those racks full of handmade circuit boards gives you a good sense of the enormous advances that were made in the first few decades of the computer era: the processing power of all that hardware barely comes close to that of a 1990s era desktop PC.
Speaking of PCs, what was the first personal computer? While the Altair 8800 from 1974 might pop up in the minds of many, an engineer from the former East Germany who once visited the museum claims that his design, the D4a from 1962, should rightfully have that title. After all, it was a programmable calculating device that could store data, was meant for use by one person, and could fit on a (sturdy) desk. With just 200 transistors it managed to perform about 2,000 operations per second, and could store 4,096 words, each 33 bits wide, on its magnetic drum memory.
Several corners of the museum are dedicated to the social aspects of computing. The history of the office is described in detail, from medieval desks where monks copied Bibles to modern remote working via video link.
Another interesting social concept linking computing and communication is that of cryptography. The museum has two original Enigma machines, as well as several other cryptographic machines from various countries. A separate display case contains artefacts related to the hacking and phreaking scene, including an original Cap’n Crunch whistle – the one that emitted the famed 2600 Hz frequency that could be used to make free long-distance phone calls in the 1970s. Especially noteworthy are several artefacts belonging to the Chaos Computer Club, one of the oldest hacker collectives still in existence. Founded in West Berlin in 1981, the CCC became famous for breaking into banking systems in the 1980s, and for other rebellious acts like distributing modems that enabled German computer users to go online, at a time when connecting unauthorised devices to the phone network was strictly prohibited.
The world’s most famous codebreaker, Alan Turing, is also featured prominently, with one of the two Enigmas located in his booth. But he is of course also known for the Turing machine, the abstract model of a general computing device that carries his name. To illustrate its working principle, the HNF commissioned an electromechanical Turing machine model that visitors can experiment with.
The section titled “Computers for everyone” contains home computers and professional PCs from the 1970s to the 1990s. It’s a comprehensive collection of all big names from that era: the Commodore PET, the Apple Lisa, IBM’s Personal Computer, and of course the most expensive exhibit of all: a working Apple I. In fact, most of these computers are still working and are demonstrated during special events. At other times you can still try out their software in one of several emulator booths.
Where the first floor featured mechanical calculators, the second floor has electronic ones. And not just a few, either: a huge display case shows more than 700 different types dating from the 1960s to the late 1990s. If you went to school in those days, chances are good you’ll find the one you used somewhere in this collection. Again, all big names are represented: the early Canon Pocketronic, the scientific HP-35, the Sharp PC-1210 running BASIC, and the TI-84 and Casio Fx series graphing calculators that are still popular today.
Right next to the calculator wall is an exhibit that shows what a simple four-function calculator would look like if one were to build it using technology available in the 1960s. Instead of an integrated circuit it has a massive stack of circuit boards with hundreds of discrete transistors; instead of a low-power LCD screen it has a nixie tube display. It performs calculations in exactly the same way as a pocket calculator, although at much slower speed. So slow in fact, that you can track the flow of digits inside its circuitry in real time. This beautiful exhibit was made by the same egineer who also made the modern re-creation of the Elektronensaldierer ES 24.
Towards the end of the main exhibition area is a section dedicated to robotics and artificial intelligence. Fans of Claude Shannon will be pleased to find a recreation of Theseus, Shannon’s electro-mechanical maze-navigating mouse robot.
A more modern type of AI is implemented in Nadine, a human-like robot that can have a conversation with you, although on our visit she struggled to provide answers more useful than “I don’t know about that”; you’re probably going to have a more meaningful conversation with the voice assistant inside your smartphone. Then again, Nadine was built in 2013, which makes her a bit of a dinosaur in computer years.
Also present are several classic home robots from the ’80s and ’90s like Omnibot and Aibo, as well as numerous types of industrial robots. One called Beppo spends all day sweeping its enclosure with a broom, occasionally interacting with visitors. Naturally, you can also get your portrait drawn by Vincent, the one-armed pen-wielding robot artist.
The HNF does not disappoint when it calls itself the world’s largest computer museum: even spending a full day inside isn’t enough to fully appreciate its vast collection. But calling it simply a computer museum does not fully do it justice, as its collection covers way more than just computers. Whether you’re into telecoms gear, cryptography, the social aspects of information technology or the fundamentals of programming, there’s bound to be some corner of the museum that will have you hooked.
Knowledge of German is not required to appreciate the museum as most exhibits have bilingual German and English descriptions. For the few that don’t, any mobile translation app should be able to help; if you’re still confused, the museum’s human and robot staff are always on hand. In short, the HNF is definitely worth visiting if you’re in the area, and at just eight euros per adult it’s an absolute bargain as well.
Oh, nice. I went to th HNCM in 2016. Made some large scale picse (206) and uppd the material into the archive. Pics are Public Domain, so feel free to use them for projects or research.
https://archive.org/details/IMG2963
LoL, site down.
https://www.hnf.de/en/home.html
isn’t down…
Can recommend it.
And I may be misremembering this (=confusing with another museum) but I the HNF has on display not only the ancient telephone gear but the evolution(s) in mobile phones too.
From the 1960s (A-Netz) over the 1990s (C-Netz) to the first GSM net.
> as your phone sends pulses down the line, you can hear the relays clicking and routing your call in real time <
Are you sure those are "normal" relays? I may be mistaken again but I think the telephone exchange there is "Hebdrehwähler"[1] based.
[1] lift-turn-dialer – call it what it is and not https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strowger_switch :-P
From the picture in the article it looks to be a crossbar exchange. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbar_switch
Maybe some parts or they replaced Hebdrehwähler some time in the past.
The last time I was there (>10years ago) I was in the company of someone who went through vocational education (I think that’s the most fitting translation for “(Berufs)ausbidlung”) at the “POST” in the 70s I think.
He had hands on experience with Hebdrehwählern and pointed them out in the setup at HNF.
And https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebdrehw%C3%A4hler#Sonstiges says there’s a Hebdrehwähler setup at HNF (thou there is not citation…).
One man’s treasure another’s junk :D
All I can think of with the name is “Curse you, Perry the Platypus!”
I remember going to the Science museum in Munich back in the late 80’s. They had a small room with computers from the 70’s through the late 80’s. Next time I’m over in Germany, I plan to make the trip to Paderborn, and hopefully the Hamfest in Friedrichshafen. Hey, they have a working Apple-1, that counts…literally. ;)
Good luck! By the way, there’s also the German Museum in Munich or ZKM in Karlsruhe, among others. Both have Zuses, too.
I hope they mention the Z1 and Conrad Zeus, something always left out in the English speaking world (kinda typical, it precedes Bletchley) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z1_(computer)
There’s a permanent exhibition (or part of on) on him: https://www.hnf.de/en/permanent-exhibition/exhibition-areas/hall-of-fame/konrad-zuse-1910-1995.html
But I’m not sure if there are any Z1 Z2 or Z3 actually there.
Fantastic museum and the visit of the beautiful town is a nice combination.
I can recommend it! A lovely afternoon. If you are in the area also visit the museum in Hamein as it has a great theatrical animatronics telling the story of the Pied Piper.
I have been here! Awesome place. Here’s an article from my 2019 visit:
https://entrex480.blogspot.com/2019/10/my-visit-to-nixdorf-museum-in-paderborn.html
ENIAC is also included! The Heinz Nixdorf contributed to our celebration of ENIAC’s 75th Birthday party in 2021. This video gives a guided tour of the room, the size of ENIAC, some pieces of it, and a unique hands-on simulator. https://youtu.be/I3zESjAgfgc
Your last name is recognized by me as one half of a famous pair relating to ENIAC. Am I correct?
While I was working for Siemens in the 90’s (Montreal,Canada), the head-office in Germany purchased the Nixdorf company. Everyone was issued a Nixdorf desktop PC which we all hated! It was high quality but soo non standard, they even had their own keyboard keys & layout. I still have many parts from these machines.
While I was working for Siemens in the 90’s, they purchased the Nixdorf company. Everyone was issued a Nixdorf desktop PC which we all hated! It was high quality but soo non standard, they even had their own keyboard keys & layout. I still have many parts from these machines.
My name is Cedric D’sa and I worked for Nixdorf Computer from 1978 – 1998 as a field service engineer based in England.
Almost all of my training was done in Paderborn, Germany and I used to drive to Paderborn from where I used to live in Hounslow, in west London very near to Heathrow airport.
When I had begun my career working for Nixdorf Computer the company had a head office in Hounslow and seven customer support branches based across England and all the way up to Scotland.
The engineering team was not very big in the United Kingdom and consisted of around 7 or 8 field service engineers based from each of the branches apart from Newcastle which had only two engineers and in Scotland where there was only one engineer also on the Channel Islands which had only one engineer.
I worked for the commercial business systems division which supported the mid range systems in all commercial organisations across our area from west London and across south east to the west country.
The systems I worked on were from the very beginning in late seventies were 820/15 which were hard wired program plates which were installed in ROM’s (read only memory) boards and all hardware was modular on the system at the time.
OMR’s, cassette drives, floppy drives, in systems like the 8820, and on the larger systems like the main business based system the 8870 and the 8890 both had BASF hard disk drives with fixed and removable disk packs.
I certainly enjoyed all my training in Paderborn and went to Paderborn about 3 or 4 times a year on various hardware and software training courses and always drove myself in my company car to Germany from England.
The channel tunnel was still under construction construction, so it was the sealing cross channel ferry from Dover to Cala in France then the long drive from France, Holland, and onwards to Germany.
It was so very wonderful to see all the Nixdorf offices as I drove through the country’s and city’s to Paderborn.
Nixdorf computer had a company policy to keep all of its hard offices looking precisely the same and used the same construction team to build the same buildings in all the European countries including the large new head office that was built in bracknell Berkshire in England during the 80’s.
On one of my training courses in Paderborn one afternoon after lunch when we got back into the classroom to continue with our training course Mr Heinze Nixdorf walked into the classroom with a number of other people who were customers visiting the facility to meet each of the students and chatted to each of us asking about where we came from and how we were enjoying the course.
It was a great pleasure and experience to meet and talk to the owner.
I cannot believe how truly wonderful and especially lucky I was to have been an employee of such an amazing organization.
Cedric D’sa
Hampshire, England, U.K
My name is Cedric D’sa and I worked for Nixdorf Computer from 1978 – 1998 as a field service engineer based in England.
Almost all of my training was done in Paderborn, Germany and I used to drive to Paderborn from where I used to live in Hounslow, in west London very near to Heathrow airport.
When I had begun my career working for Nixdorf Computer the company had a head office in Hounslow and seven customer support branches based across England and all the way up to Scotland.
The engineering team was not very big in the United Kingdom and consisted of around 7 or 8 field service engineers based from each of the branches apart from Newcastle which had only two engineers and in Scotland where there was only one engineer also on the Channel Islands which had only one engineer.
I worked for the commercial business systems division which supported the mid range systems in all commercial organisations across our area from west London and across south east to the west country.
The systems I worked on were from the very beginning in late seventies were 820/15 which were hard wired program plates which were installed in ROM’s (read only memory) boards and all hardware was modular on the system at the time.
OMR’s, cassette drives, floppy drives, in systems like the 8820, and on the larger systems like the main business based system the 8870 and the 8890 both had BASF hard disk drives with fixed and removable disk packs.
I certainly enjoyed all my training in Paderborn and went to Paderborn about 3 or 4 times a year on various hardware and software training courses and always drove myself in my company car to Germany from England.
The channel tunnel was still under construction construction, so it was the sealing cross channel ferry from Dover to Cala in France then the long drive from France, Holland, and onwards to Germany.
It was so very wonderful to see all the Nixdorf offices as I drove through the country’s and city’s to Paderborn.
Nixdorf computer had a company policy to keep all of its hard offices looking precisely the same and used the same construction team to build the same buildings in all the European countries including the large new head office that was built in bracknell Berkshire in England during the 80’s.
On one of my training courses in Paderborn one afternoon after lunch when we got back into the classroom to continue with our training course Mr Heinze Nixdorf walked into the classroom with a number of other people who were customers visiting the facility to meet each of the students and chatted to each of us asking about where we came from and how we were enjoying the course.
It was a great pleasure and experience to meet and talk to the owner.
I cannot believe how truly wonderful and especially lucky I was to have been an employee of such an amazing organization.
Cedric D’sa
Hampshire, England, U.K