Did Alan Turing interrogate Konrad Zuse in Göttingen in 1947?
Herbert Bruderer · Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) · 2013
Turing and Zuse had many similar ideas. But they did not know each other, they were isolated. It was not until the end of World War II that they heard about their respective achievements. And in late summer 1947 there was a mysterious meeting in Göttingen. British scientists of the National Physical Laboratory (Teddington, London) interrogated German researchers. Participants included Arthur Porter, Alan Turing and John Womersley (England) as well as Heinz Billing, Helmut Schreyer, Alwin Walther and Konrad Zuse. This reunion is described by the memoir of the German computer pioneer Billing from the Max Planck Institute for Physics (Munich). However, in the memoirs published by Porter and Zuse the colloquium at Göttingen is not mentioned. With the exception of Heinz Billing all the actors have died. Therefore it is difficult to verify the story. We are still looking for further evidence.