Computer History Museum Recovers Over 2,000 Retro Artifacts from German Warehouse

Over 2,000 computing artifacts from the 1930s to the 1980s have been recovered from an abandoned warehouse in Castrop-Rauxel, Germany. The Computer History Museum (CHM) called the haul "astonishing." The collection was assembled by a professor from Aachen University, who died in 2010.

Collection assembled by Aachen University professor

The artifacts include mainframes, minicomputers, disk drives, line printers, punch card equipment, and various media types. Transporting them required seven tractor-trailers. The CHM expanded with a new climate-controlled facility to house the collection.

Work on the recovery was briefly interrupted when an unexploded World War II bomb was discovered nearby. The bomb scare caused a temporary halt but did not damage any artifacts. The collection spans five decades of computing history.

The CHM curators described the find as "astonishing" and noted the scale of the operation. The artifacts are now part of the museum's collection and will be preserved for future study and display.