From Cuneiform to Computers       (1st floor plan)

Numbers, symbols & signals   Writing and numbers - The beginnings in Mesopotamia   Writing, printing, duplicating - From cave drawings to Linotype   Arithmetic - History of a cultural technique The mechanization of information technology   Calculating machines - Ideas, inventors, entrepreneurs   Type writers - From the idea to a standard   Cash registers - Posting, calculating, deposits   Telephones and teleprinters - Direct communications   Punched card systems - Early days of data processing   Mechanical musical instruments - Early examples of programming   The world of codes and cipher – From classical antiquity up to 1975   Typewriters - Mass products for the office   Calculating machines - Mass products in engineering and administration   Office mechanic's workshop in the 1950s/1960s   Accounting machines - Debit and credit   Automatic telephone exchange - Electromechanical switching replaces the operator The invention of the computer   The first computers - Ideas, concepts and machines   ENIAC - Life-size model of the forefather of the computer Office work through the eges   Counting-house around 1500   Prussian government office around 1880   American Office 1900   Typing pool in the 1920s Hall of Fame   Wilhelm Schickard (1592-1635); Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)   Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)   Charles Babbage (1791-1871)   Werner von Siemens (1816-1892)   Herman Hollerith (1860-1929)   Thomas J. Watson sr. (1874-1956), Thomas J. Watson jr. (1914-1993)   Alan Turing (1912-1954)   Konrad Zuse (1910-1995)   Howard H. Aiken (1900-1973), J. Presper Eckert (1919-1995), John W. Mauchly (1907-1980)   John von Neumann (1903-1957)   Heinz Nixdorf (1925-1986)

Computers Conquer the World       (2nd floor plan)

How does a computer work Computers for specialist only - 1950 to 1970   Computers in post-war Germany - Companies and inventors   Computers in the USA - A new tool for science, the military and space research   Datev - A classic example of central data processing   Methods, languages, algorithms - Software pioneers   Data storage - Pacemakers of early computer technology Computer in business and professions - 1970 to 1980   ESER 1055 - A computer centre from Dresden   Software houses and standard software - From programs to products   Word processing - Systems to make writing easy   Minicomputers - The advent of computers in workshops and laboratories   Data processing careers - Operators, programmers, analysts   Desk and pocket calculators - Electronic mass products Computers for everyone - 1980 to 1990   Silicon Valley - A Californian dream   The birth of the PC - Whiz kids, freaks and entrepreneurs   Microelectronics - Ever smaller, ever faster   Personal computers - The front-runners   Hackers - Reaching out for forbidden knowledge   Icons, windows and mice - The computer's new face   Computer sound - From synthesizers to sound cards   Computer art - Pictures out of bits and bytes Everything goes digital - 1990 to 2000   Software Theatre - Programs from virtual reality   Press, radio, television - The beginning of the information society   Supercomputers - Modelling reality   Internet - A new world in the network of networks   Digital workbench - State of the art Nixdorf - Pionier of decentralized data processing   The corporate history of Nixdorf Computer AG   The products of Nixdorf Computer AG