Helmut Schreyer

Who was Helmut Schreyer?

Helmut Theodor Schreyer was a German inventor. He is mostly known for his work on the Z3, one of the first computers.

Helmut Schreyer was the son of the minister Paul Schreyer and Martha. When his father started to work in a parish in Mosbach, the young Schreyer went to a school there. He earned his Abitur in 1933. He then worked as an intern at AEG.

Schreyer started to study electronic and telecommunications engineering at the Technical University of Berlin in 1934. He got to know Konrad Zuse in the fraternity AV Motiv in 1935 and then helped him to construct the computer Z1. In 1938 he earned his diploma and then worked as a graduate assistant at Prof. Wilhelm Stäblein's institute. Schreyer belonged, together with Herbert Raabe, to the first assistants of Wilhelm Stäblein, who had worked at AEG's research division until 1936. During WWII Schreyer was not drafted because his work was considered essential to the war effort. Schreyer e.g. worked on detection technology for unexploded ordnance. He then worked on the accelerometer for the V-2-rocket.