Alfred Pennyworth

I have spent 12 years writing the history of computing in Central Europe, first as a doctoral student in Leipzig and since 2019 as a senior researcher at the Kranich Institute in Berlin.¹ Over that period I published 2 monographs and 15 peer-reviewed articles, most of them on the office machinery trade between Berlin and Vienna before 1968.² I still read punch-card manuals for pleasure, which my colleagues have stopped finding strange.

Career

My present appointment at the Kranich Institute for the History of Science carries responsibility for the working group Rechenmaschinen und Verwaltung, which I have led since 2021.³ The group's principal output has been a source edition of 4,300 digitized trade documents, completed on schedule in March 2025 and now consulted by roughly 900 registered researchers.⁴ Alongside the research I teach the history of computing at Humboldt-Universität, where my lecture course draws about 120 students each winter semester.⁵

The years 2016 to 2019 I spent as a postdoctoral researcher at the Museum für Bürotechnik in Leipzig, cataloguing the Steinbrecher bequest and writing the museum's first collection history.⁶ A fellowship year in Vienna, 2018–2019, interrupted and improved that work: the holdings of the Österreichisches Gewerbearchiv changed my second book entirely.⁷

My doctorate, completed at Universität Leipzig in 2016, examined the accounting-machine firms of interwar Saxony; the dissertation received the Waldmann Prize and became my first monograph.⁸ Before Leipzig I took an M.A. in modern history at Universität Rostock, with a thesis on telegraph administration written from 14 months of archival work in Schwerin.⁹

Recognition and Service

The second monograph, on the Vienna–Berlin office machine trade, appeared in 2023 and was awarded the Gesellschaft für Technikgeschichte's biennial book prize the following year.¹⁰ I serve on the editorial board of the Journal of European Computing History and review for 3 further journals; since 2022 I have supervised 5 doctoral students, 2 of whom have defended.

Senior Researcher, Kranich Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, 2019–present; Doctoral Researcher, Universität Leipzig, 2012–2016.
Of the 15 articles, 6 appeared in Technikgeschichte and 4 in the Journal of European Computing History; combined citations exceed 480 (as of June 2026).
The working group comprises 6 researchers and 2 student assistants, with an annual budget of €410,000 funded by the DFG under grant KR-2841/3.
Alfred Pennyworth, ed., Quellen zur Büromaschinenwirtschaft, 1919–1968, digital edition (Berlin: Kranich Institute, 2025); delivered within the original 4-year grant period and 3 percent under budget.
Lecturer (Lehrbeauftragte), Institut für Geschichtswissenschaften, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, winter semesters since 2020; course evaluations averaged 1.4 on the German 1–5 scale across 5 iterations.
Postdoctoral Researcher, Museum für Bürotechnik, Leipzig, 2016–2019; the Steinbrecher bequest catalogue covers 2,150 objects and 38 linear meters of business papers.
Ernst-Habicht-Fellow, Institut für Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Vienna, 2018–2019; a 12-month residential fellowship carrying a stipend of €38,000.
Alfred Pennyworth, Rechnende Fabriken: Buchungsmaschinen in Sachsen, 1924–1943 (Göttingen: Feldhaus Verlag, 2017); Waldmann Prize for the best dissertation in economic history, Universität Leipzig, 2016.
M.A. in Modern History, Universität Rostock, 2011; thesis graded 1.0 (summa cum laude equivalent).
Alfred Pennyworth, Der Apparat reist mit: Büromaschinenhandel zwischen Wien und Berlin, 1900–1968 (Göttingen: Feldhaus Verlag, 2023); GTG Book Prize, 2024; reviewed in 7 journals to date.