The computer king from Paderborn

Heinz Nixdorf recognizes early on that the computer is the technology of the future.
His vision is a computer that fits in every office and on every desk.
At a time when the industry giant IBM was mainly serving large customers with huge computers, he concentrated on small and medium-sized businesses.
In a basement workshop in Essen, Nixdorf develops the prototype of his vision with a tube computer.

At the end of the 1950s, he moved his company headquarters to his hometown of Paderborn and shaped the region like no other.
He turned the small provincial town into an IT stronghold.
Nixdorf drives the local infrastructure forward: several highway connections and an airport are built.
He wanted to make the region independent of the Rhineland.
And with the construction of the Ahorn sports park, he gave expression to his great passion: sporting competition.
He hires top athletes to keep his company and the whole of Paderborn fit.
Because the whole region and especially his employees are close to his heart.

Heinz Nixdorf gives a lot, but demands one thing above all else in return: absolute commitment.
A demand that underpins his success, but which also repeatedly puts him and his health at great risk and ultimately costs him his life.
In 1986, the restless entrepreneur died of a heart attack at the Cebit computer trade fair at the age of just 60.
He would have been 90 years old in 2015.

Today, almost 30 years after his death, he is still everywhere in Paderborn.
The former company building is now the largest computer museum in the world and attracts over 100,000 visitors every year.
Wincor Nixdorf is a leading international provider of IT solutions and continues to produce ATMs and POS systems worldwide.
The ideas and ideals of entrepreneur Heinz Nixdorf also live on in two charitable foundations: the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation and the Westphalia Foundation.
Both are headed by his son Martin Nixdorf.

WDR Television, Friday, June 12, 2015, 8:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.