Discovery of Cold War-era rare Eastern Bloc computers in a German hangar

https://computerhistory.org/stories/explorers-of-the-lost-computers/

by andrewstuart • 2 months ago

126 31 2 months ago

netsharc• 2 months ago

God, what an odd first paragraph... wow, how did this collection of computers, most of which are probably from 1950s onwards, survive Allied bombing of the 1940s?

Then again, it's from 2006, which probably explains the style of writing...

Edit: The HTML source indicates the article was written in 2025. With video recorded in 2006 (in glorious 360p) and uploaded to YouTube last year.

andrewstuart2• 2 months ago

The writing seems odd because it’s from the BAI (Before AI) era.

aldrich• 1 month ago

Read on to the last paragraph, I think what they meant to hint at is this:

And about those WWII bombing raids? Midway through our work, we noticed a demolition team carefully dismantling a live 500-pound Allied bomb just 350 feet from our location. According to a local office worker, this wasn’t unusual; numerous unexploded bombs had been found on-site in the years prior, prompting evacuations in 2004.

If you live in Europe, there's a reasonable chance you've had the experience of being (or living) in the proximity of an uncovered leftover WW2 bomb at some point that needed to be defused. Because those bombs didn't all disappear in the 40s.

I'm guessing in this case that could've meant somebody could've found that entire hangar and its contents and just cleaned the "junk" out entirely.

bratwurst30002• 1 month ago

little anecdot. I have a garden in my hometown in germany and the garden was only so cheap because it is impossible to build on it because it has wayyyy to many WWII Bombs underneath and its not economical to get rid of them.

andrewstuart2• 2 months ago

The photos are amazing. What an astounding treasure trove.

mh-cx• 1 month ago

As a German I wonder why was this treasure given away to a US museum? Also what is the legal status of ownership of all this? Would have been interesting to read more about this.

cj• 1 month ago

Sounds like SAP donated $250k to fund it.

https://www.pressebox.de/pressemitteilung/sap-ag-walldorf/co...

jeffwask• 1 month ago

It's a pretty monumental effort to transport, store, refurbish and show these massive computers. There aren't a lot of organizations even willing to put in the effort which is why most of this stuff gets landfilled or sent to the recycler. I would assume they asked around and no one else was interested.

cocodill• 1 month ago

There is HNF in about 250 km from Aachen. Transportation there would probably be cheaper.

jamesfinlayson• 1 month ago

Yeah an old colleague told me that a decommissioned mainframe where he'd worked had reportedly been sold for scrap metal.

rconti• 1 month ago

As a USian, I had the same thought!

ogou• 1 month ago

I bet most of these were German government property at some point. Considering the time period they were produced, they were probably under security protocols as well. That doesn't just expire. You are right to wonder what the provenance and legal standing of this transfer was.

scyzoryk_xyz• 1 month ago

Insert joke about Egyptian Mummies and British Museums here

lukan• 1 month ago

I would argue that ancient Egypt was a bit more distant to modern Egypt, than cold war germany to modern germany. My main argument is, I have memories from that time.

But in this case the answer seems simply, in germany the stuff was rotten and nobody took proper care of it anymore, so I guess it was simply sold? The article is not clear about it, but it lead with "abandoned in a warehouse".

hvs• 1 month ago

I know that as technologists we tend to think of this as "treasure" but most other people think of it as "large metal objects that are expensive to store or landfill." Maintaining, storing, and restoring them on top of that is also very expensive. Usually they'll give them to anyone willing to take them off their hands. We only need to look at the closure of the Living Computers Museum closing [1] to see that most people do not see the value in the history of computing. That's why the CHM is doing such is important work.

[1] https://www.geekwire.com/2024/seattles-living-computers-muse...

expedition322• 1 month ago

In my country museums have accumulated so much paintings and historical artefacts over the last 200 years that most of the collection is sitting in climate controlled vaults.

xg15• 1 month ago

According to a local office worker, this wasn’t unusual; numerous unexploded bombs had been found on-site in the years prior, prompting evacuations in 2004.

Yep, this is still a regular (and mostly mundane) occurrence in Germany.

ngruhn• 1 month ago

Kinda crazy if you think about it. In my home town of Cologne, if you dig anywhere you either find roman ruins or WW2 bombs. ~30 bombs last year. I've been evacuated so many times.

ilaksh• 1 month ago

What happened to that professor who owned it? I assume he passed away or something. Unless they just stole it? :P

Maybe give the guy a little bit of credit for the collection even if he couldn't take care of it as well as a museum.

danbruc• 1 month ago

Died in August 2010 [1], so he was still alive when this happened in August 2006.

[1] https://www.aachen-gedenkt.de/traueranzeige/profdr-ingwalter...

asdefghyk2• 1 month ago

The people from computer history muesuem would know moew. They would have asked this info witht hte person that reported the trove too them ...

  Maybe the professor ( or his legal representitive) instigated the donation to CHM???

louwrentius• 1 month ago

I'm so sad that there's no backstory to this huge throve of old computers.

Where are all these machines from? Who owned them, and why? Why were they all there in storage, in a hangar. Would have been even more interesting.

asdefghyk2• 1 month ago

Seems to be the origianl collector of equipment ...?

https://de-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Walter_Ameling_...

Seems he was owner of computer muesuem that closed in 2009 .

The next link has MUCH MORE DETAIL about the closure ...

https://de-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Computermuseum_...

https://web-archive-org.translate.goog/web/20230601221853/ht...

2 pages of links on Google for the name "Prof. Dr.-Ing. Walter Ameling" - However do not know if actually same person mentioned in articale.. Some of them seem to match up .

TacticalCoder• 1 month ago

Sure it's older but it's not dissimilar to a gigantic warehouse full of computers (from the 80s I think) found in Dallas a few years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ZZkZk9QRk

Some of it went to museums too.

Shorel• 1 month ago

Ohh I wish it stayed in Europe. So I could visit and see them.

tedesign• 1 month ago

Where are the eastern bloc computers?

gabrielsroka• 1 month ago

Actual title: "Explorers of the Lost Computers", 2025. Probably a reference to "Raiders Of The Lost Ark"

Discovery of Cold War-era rare Eastern Bloc computers in a German hangar

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