4 ms·

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

126 points by andrewstuart 4mo ago

netsharc 4mo 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.
- andrewstuart 4mo ago
  The writing seems odd because it’s from the BAI (Before AI) era.
  - deleted 4mo ago
    [deleted]
- aldrich 4mo 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.
  - bratwurst3000 4mo 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.
    - expedition32 4mo ago
      It makes me worried for Ukraine. I fear parts of that country will just be wasteland no matter who wins.
      - bratwurst3000 4mo ago
        maybe it takes the edge of. my city was completly destroyed by bombings. took 15 years and it was back again and germany was ok after war. I hope the best for ukraine. It is worth it
      - ramplank 4mo ago
        understandable, but then we have wo1 and the old battlegrounds in Belgium and northern France are not wastelands. They do still find tons and tons of old bombs each year though farmers drive with a armor plates under there tractors and they pile up the unexploded explosives next to their field
        Someone 4mo ago
        Some parts still are wastelands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_rouge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_rouge: “The Zone rouge (French for 'Red Zone') is a chain of non-contiguous areas throughout northeastern France that the French government isolated after the First World War. The land, which originally covered more than 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles), was deemed too physically and environmentally damaged by conflict for human habitation. Rather than attempt to immediately clean up the former battlefields, the land was allowed to return to nature. Restrictions within the Zone rouge still exist today, although the control areas have been greatly reduced. The Zone Rouge was defined just after the war as "Completely devastated. Damage to properties: 100%. Damage to Agriculture: 100%. Impossible to clean. Human life impossible". […] The areas are saturated with unexploded shells (including many gas shells), grenades, and rusting ammunition. Soils were heavily polluted by lead, mercury, chlorine, arsenic, various dangerous gases, acids, and human and animal remains. The area was also littered with ammunition depots and chemical plants. The land of the Western Front is covered in old trenches and shell holes. Each year, numerous unexploded shells are recovered from former WWI battlefields in what is known as the iron harvest. According to the Sécurité Civile, the French agency in charge of the land management of Zone rouge, 300 to 700 more years at this current rate will be needed to clean the area completely. Some experiments conducted in 2005–2006 discovered up to 300 shells per hectare (120 per acre) in the top 15 centimetres (6 inches) of soil in the worst areas. [better source needed] Some areas still remain heavily contaminated. For example, at a site in the vicinity of Verdun known as the Place à Gaz (49.3116°N 5.5888°E), arsenic constitutes up to 176 grams per kilogram (18%) in the soil. In the 1920s, chemical warfare shells containing arsenic were destroyed there by thermal treatment. ”
andrewstuart 4mo ago
The photos are amazing. What an astounding treasure trove.
mh-cx 4mo 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 4mo ago
  Sounds like SAP donated $250k to fund it. https://www.pressebox.de/pressemitteilung/sap-ag-walldorf/computer-history-museum-sap-spende-ermglicht-erwerb-historischer-computersammlung/boxid/109935?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://www.pressebox.de/pressemitteilung/sap-ag-walldorf/co...
- jeffwask 4mo 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 4mo ago
    There is HNF in about 250 km from Aachen. Transportation there would probably be cheaper.
  - jamesfinlayson 4mo ago
    Yeah an old colleague told me that a decommissioned mainframe where he'd worked had reportedly been sold for scrap metal.
- rconti 4mo ago
  As a USian, I had the same thought!
- ogou 4mo 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.
xg15 4mo 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 4mo 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 4mo 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 4mo 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-ameling https://www.aachen-gedenkt.de/traueranzeige/profdr-ingwalter...
  - asdefghyk 4mo 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 4mo 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.
asdefghyk 4mo ago
Seems to be the origianl collector of equipment ...? https://de-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Walter_Ameling_(Elektrotechniker)?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp 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_Aachen?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp https://de-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Computermuseum_... https://web-archive-org.translate.goog/web/20230601221853/http://www.aachener-geschichtsverein.de/Online-Beitraege/wo-bleibt-das-aachener-computermuseum?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp 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 4mo 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ZZkZk9QRk Some of it went to museums too.
Shorel 4mo ago
Ohh I wish it stayed in Europe. So I could visit and see them.
tedesign 4mo ago
Where are the eastern bloc computers?
gabrielsroka 4mo ago
Actual title: "Explorers of the Lost Computers", 2025. Probably a reference to "Raiders Of The Lost Ark"

126 points by andrewstuart 4mo 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.

andrewstuart 4mo ago
The writing seems odd because it’s from the BAI (Before AI) era.
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]
aldrich 4mo 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.
- bratwurst3000 4mo 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.
  - expedition32 4mo ago
    It makes me worried for Ukraine. I fear parts of that country will just be wasteland no matter who wins.
    - bratwurst3000 4mo ago
      maybe it takes the edge of. my city was completly destroyed by bombings. took 15 years and it was back again and germany was ok after war. I hope the best for ukraine. It is worth it
    - ramplank 4mo ago
      understandable, but then we have wo1 and the old battlegrounds in Belgium and northern France are not wastelands. They do still find tons and tons of old bombs each year though farmers drive with a armor plates under there tractors and they pile up the unexploded explosives next to their field
      - Someone 4mo ago
        Some parts still are wastelands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_rouge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_rouge: “The Zone rouge (French for 'Red Zone') is a chain of non-contiguous areas throughout northeastern France that the French government isolated after the First World War. The land, which originally covered more than 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles), was deemed too physically and environmentally damaged by conflict for human habitation. Rather than attempt to immediately clean up the former battlefields, the land was allowed to return to nature. Restrictions within the Zone rouge still exist today, although the control areas have been greatly reduced. The Zone Rouge was defined just after the war as "Completely devastated. Damage to properties: 100%. Damage to Agriculture: 100%. Impossible to clean. Human life impossible". […] The areas are saturated with unexploded shells (including many gas shells), grenades, and rusting ammunition. Soils were heavily polluted by lead, mercury, chlorine, arsenic, various dangerous gases, acids, and human and animal remains. The area was also littered with ammunition depots and chemical plants. The land of the Western Front is covered in old trenches and shell holes. Each year, numerous unexploded shells are recovered from former WWI battlefields in what is known as the iron harvest. According to the Sécurité Civile, the French agency in charge of the land management of Zone rouge, 300 to 700 more years at this current rate will be needed to clean the area completely. Some experiments conducted in 2005–2006 discovered up to 300 shells per hectare (120 per acre) in the top 15 centimetres (6 inches) of soil in the worst areas. [better source needed] Some areas still remain heavily contaminated. For example, at a site in the vicinity of Verdun known as the Place à Gaz (49.3116°N 5.5888°E), arsenic constitutes up to 176 grams per kilogram (18%) in the soil. In the 1920s, chemical warfare shells containing arsenic were destroyed there by thermal treatment. ”

andrewstuart 4mo ago

The photos are amazing. What an astounding treasure trove.

mh-cx 4mo 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 4mo ago
Sounds like SAP donated $250k to fund it. https://www.pressebox.de/pressemitteilung/sap-ag-walldorf/computer-history-museum-sap-spende-ermglicht-erwerb-historischer-computersammlung/boxid/109935?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://www.pressebox.de/pressemitteilung/sap-ag-walldorf/co...
jeffwask 4mo 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 4mo ago
  There is HNF in about 250 km from Aachen. Transportation there would probably be cheaper.
- jamesfinlayson 4mo ago
  Yeah an old colleague told me that a decommissioned mainframe where he'd worked had reportedly been sold for scrap metal.
rconti 4mo ago
As a USian, I had the same thought!
ogou 4mo 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.

xg15 4mo 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 4mo 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 4mo 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 4mo 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-ameling https://www.aachen-gedenkt.de/traueranzeige/profdr-ingwalter...
- asdefghyk 4mo 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 4mo 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.

asdefghyk 4mo ago

Seems to be the origianl collector of equipment ...? https://de-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Walter_Ameling_(Elektrotechniker)?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp 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_Aachen?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp https://de-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Computermuseum_... https://web-archive-org.translate.goog/web/20230601221853/http://www.aachener-geschichtsverein.de/Online-Beitraege/wo-bleibt-das-aachener-computermuseum?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp 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 4mo 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ZZkZk9QRk Some of it went to museums too.

Shorel 4mo ago

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

tedesign 4mo ago

Where are the eastern bloc computers?

gabrielsroka 4mo ago

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