Our current corporate value is “Shape Ahead” and describes above all how everything around us is constantly changing and we are adapting accordingly and shaping the future with foresight. What better story to tell than the story of the internet in its infancy and how a handful of people invented the future with bits and bytes.
Anniversary, again
Exactly 40 years ago, Germany was supposedly startled out of its analog slumber when the first digital letter suddenly reached the country. “You’ve got mail!” was the shrill noise in the basement of the main building for the Department of Computer Science at the University of Karlsruhe (now KIT). And the digital age had begun.
Well, this or something similar is how it is often sold to the public today and 10 and 20 years ago when people talk about this “first German e-mail”, which landed on a refrigerator-sized server on August 3, 1984. But it probably made more of a “pliiing” sound from the tin box and this first inbox was of course not completely unexpected. But how did it come about?
The Michael Collins of KIT?
Do you know Professor Zorn? No, this is not a villain from the Marvel or DC universe, but the then head of the computer center and professor at Karlsruhe University (TH). This hero man was responsible for the groundwork, because as early as 1982 he proposed to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with his application “Interconnection of Networks” that the German Research Network (DFN) be connected to the American CSNET. When you read about the first German e-mail today, the professor’s name is usually no longer mentioned, only that of his colleague, Michael Rotert, to whom the famous e-mail was addressed. A bit like sitting in the rocket during the moon landing and watching your friends bounce and jump.
CSNET
But back to the facts. The acronym CSNET, which stands for “Computer Science Network”, was launched in the USA in 1981 and was an academic computer network funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It connected several universities in North America and was intended to simplify inter-university communication both nationally and internationally. This is why CSNET is often referred to as the “first Internet”, as it used communication protocols that correspond to those of today’s Internet.
The co-creator of this computer science network was a man named Lawrence Landweber, who led the first management team that was ultimately responsible for the expansion of this network. By 1981, three campuses were connected: University of Delaware, Princeton University and Purdue University. By 1982, 24 campuses were connected, growing to 84 campuses by 1984, including one in Israel. The second country to join was Germany. Soon after, links were established with computer science departments in Australia, Canada, France, Korea and Japan. CSNET eventually connected more than 180 facilities.
Die erste E-Mail!
On August 3, 1984 at 10:14 a.m., the e-mail arrived confirming that the computer scientists at the University of Karlsruhe were the first in Germany to be officially connected to the cross-border scientific network CSNET. Hooray!
The sender was Laura Breeden from the CSNET administration office in Boston, Massachusetts. It was sent on August 2, 1984, 12:35 p.m. U.S. time:
“Michael, this is your official welcome to CSNET,” the message to Rotert and Zorn read. “We are glad to have you aboard”.
Wait a minute. Sent on August 2nd and received on the 3rd? I know there are time zones in between and all that, but that doesn’t add up, does it? The delay in outgoing and incoming mail was due to Breeden’s email being routed through multiple servers. It took more than 24 hours to finally arrive at the so-called CSNET relay. The mails were collected there and then retrieved from Karlsruhe. Unthinkable today, but a milestone at the time.
The first e-mail?
Even if it is often said today that the first e-mail arrived in Karlsruhe 40 years ago, it is worth briefly mentioning that digital communication was already taking place before August 2, 1983. The “inventor” of e-mail, Ray Tomlinson, sent the first electronic mail back in 1971 and described and explained the @ sign in it. The transmission of digital correspondence via UUCP (Unix to Unix Copy Protocol) was therefore already being used in the 1970s by some enthusiastic private individuals who (illegally) “talked” to people from the USA via telephone modems. Nobody knew what was going on in West Berlin at the time and nobody cared
Internet E-Mail
Dennoch kann man mit Sicherheit sagen, dass die erste E-Mail über das offene Internet in Karlsruhe empfangen wurde. Diese Nachricht war mehr als nur eine technische Errungenschaft; sie symbolisierte den Beginn einer neuen Ära der globalen Kommunikation.
Heute, 40 Jahre später, ist das Internet aus unserem Alltag nicht mehr wegzudenken. Die E-Mail ist zu einem grundlegenden Kommunikationsmittel geworden und das Internet hat sich zu einer unverzichtbaren Plattform für Informationsaustausch, Handel und soziale Interaktion entwickelt. Der Jahrestag des Empfangs der ersten deutschen Internet-E-Mail in Karlsruhe zeigt eindrucksvoll, wie weit wir gekommen sind und wie wichtig technologische Pionierarbeit für den Fortschritt unserer Gesellschaft ist.
Spam!
But with all the celebration and recognition, let’s not forget what makes up a large part of global email today. 46.8% of email traffic is spam. But perhaps this spam is the price we pay for the convenience and efficiency of email communication. After all, no one would take a handwritten letter from a Nigerian prince seriously, would they?
