Curt Herzstark was born in July 26, 1902 in Vienna, and died October 27, 1988 in Nendeln, Liechtenstein. During World War II, Curt Herzstark's plans for a mechanical pocket calculator (the Curta) literally saved his life. is the 207th day of the year (208th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... “Wien” redirects here. ... is the 300th day of the year (301st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... This article is about devices that perform tasks. ... A basic arithmetic calculator. ... Curta mechanical calculator on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. ...

In 1938, while he was technical manager of his father's company Rechenmaschinenwerk AUSTRIA Herzstark & Co., Herzstark had already completed the design, but could not manufacture it due to the Nazi German annexation of Austria. Instead, the company was ordered to make measuring devices for the German army. In 1943, perhaps influenced by the fact that his father was a liberal Jew, the Nazis arrested him for "helping Jews and subversive elements" and "indecent contacts with Aryan women" and sent him to the Buchenwald concentration camp. However, the reports of the army about the precision-production of the firm AUSTRIA and especially about the technical expertise of Herzstark lead the Nazis to treat him as an "intelligence-slave". Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... German troops march into Austria on 12 March 1938. ... The German Army (German: Deutsches Heer, [IPA: heɐ]  ) is the land component of the Bundeswehr (Federal Defence Forces) of the Federal Republic of Germany. ... Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Aryan race is a concept in European culture that was influential in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ... Gate with the words Jedem das Seine (literally, “to each his own”, but figuratively “everyone gets what he deserves”) Buchenwald concentration camp was a Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg (Etter Mountain) near Weimar, Thuringia, Germany, in July 1937, and one of the largest such camps on German soil. ...

His stay at Buchenwald seriously threatened his health, but his condition improved when he was called to work in the factory linked to the camp, which was named after Wilhelm Gustloff. There he was ordered to make a drawing of the construction of his calculator, so that the Nazis could ultimately give the machine to the Führer as a gift after the successful end of the war. The preferential treatment this allowed him ensured that he survived his stay at Buchenwald until the camp's liberation in 1945, by which time he had redrawn the complete construction from memory. Wilhelm Gustloff (January 30, 1895-February 4, 1936) was the German leader of the Swiss Nazi party. ... Nazi propaganda poster. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ...

Trivia

The Curta is referenced in chapter four of William Gibson's Pattern Recognition (novel). The chapter is entitled 'Math Grenades', referring to protagonist Cayce Pollard mistaking them for hand grenades at first glance. There are a number of people who have been (or are) named William Gibson. ... Book cover Pattern Recognition (G. P. Putnams Sons 2003, ISBN 0-425-19293-8) is William Gibsons eighth novel, the first to be set in the contemporary world. ... A hand grenade is a hand-held bomb, made to be thrown by a soldier. ...

Reference

• Cliff Stoll, Scientific American, 290(1):92–99, January 2004.

Scientific American is a popular-science magazine, published (first weekly and later monthly) since August 28, 1845, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ...

External link

• Biographical information about Curt Herzstark and the Curta calculator.