peter paul sint recalls his first programming class in 1960 at the the at the statistical institute, university vienna. the highlight for the young programmer was - at the end of the course - to catch a glimpse of the machine, a datatron 205.

Computing1960 (audio/mpeg, 621 KB)

one or two years later sint finally was allowed to touch the machine and to programm it, which meant typing of number code. it also might be noted that for making the machine useable an extra dynamo was needed to change the voltage form us to european norm.

1960programming (audio/mpeg, 637 KB)

it was an bulgarian scientist, slawtscho sagaroff, who came to austria in the 1950s where he became professor at the statistical institute, who played a vital role in bringing the datatron 205 to vienna. as it is said elsewhere the burroughs corporation had a special funding program at the time for academics institutions, which brought down the price 50%. that was something but not enough.

additional funding was necessary and came with the help of oskar morgenstern and paul lazarsfeld. – both scientists have decided in the 1930s not to return to austria but to stay in the us. it have been them who convinced the ford foundation to support scientific developments in austria. as a consequence the institute of higher education (ihs) was founded, first called ford institute, and a datatron 205 was brought to the statistical institute.

1960ComputingFunding (audio/mpeg, 490 KB)

the statistical institute became the basis for the computer center at the university of vienna, a vivid place it seems, where the right people met at the right time. again sagaroff and his notion to support people, as peter paul sint states it, was crucial - as well as a tiny accident caused by an unknown visitor and his lid cigarette: a fire broke out in the institute. it happened to be that peter rastl, student at the time and as chemist used to explosions, was in the room, doing some calculations for his dissertation. it was him who put the fire out. sagaroff, who has felt his time has come, thanked rastl by offering him a tiny job at the computer center. not a bad decision as some years later peter rastl became director of that specific center and is today called "the father of austrian internet".

rastl1970s (audio/mpeg, 754 KB)

ZID - as it is called today - became the place that brought the tcp/ip to austria, introduced the .at domain, was part of earnet, easinet, ebone, set up vix, the vienna internet exchange point and is in charge of the aconet infrastructure, the austrian national research network. the notion there was not bureaucracy but to make things happen. it became the meeting place for providers and people interested in networking.

the bayrischer rundfunk has an interview with sagaroff in its archive. (btw it's a shame that german publishing houses forced public radio stations not to publish this kind of content online anymore.)