Sublime

1/? the (abridged) story of Curt Herzstark, the brilliant Viennese engineer who invented an incredibly complex handheld mechanical calculator in the Buchenwald concentration camp

1/? the (abridged) story of Curt Herzstark, the brilliant Viennese engineer who invented an incredibly complex handheld mechanical calculator in the Buchenwald concentration camp

In the late 1940s, Hertzstark had filed new patents and eventually found a backer in the Prince of Liechtenstein. The country, where Hertzstark resettled until his death in 1988, was looking to expand its economy and the Prince agreed to help set up a company to build and market the Curta, the Contina AG Mauren, with Hertzstark holding 30 percent... See more

Then along came Curt Herzstark, a young man who in the 1920s regularly traveled through the former Austrian Empire selling mechanical calculators to banks and other businesses. It was on these travels that he heard the same complaints from his customers.

By 1938, Hertzstark had applied for patents for his new design and had made a couple of prototypes of the basic mechanism out of Bakelite plastic to demonstrate the principle. Unfortunately, that's as far as he got because in March 1938 the Anschluss took place and Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht marched over the border to annex Austria.

The inside of a... See more

HERZSTARK: The second war... yes, yes. My father had owned, by the way, a movie theater for many years. As

The following was the result: one of the customers of the Glogowski company was a banker by the name of Gustav Perger and he often visited the company. He became familiar with my father, of whom he had a very good opinion, and he suggested that they set up a factory for the production of calculating machines together. In fact he had an ulterior... See more

There was a will from 1913 and my parents each left everything to the other partner so that there could be no dispute. This will was still in existence but my mother did not want to use it. Instead she suggested, "You get the factory and your brother Ernst, will get the cinema and I will receive a pension from each of you." That was '37, '38 and we... See more