Hi Mark,

I found the following preliminary information by tracking the patent application number through the German Museum Archives and the World Intellectual Property Organization. I don't speak German, but perhaps these are good starting points:

If you wouldn't mind an unofficial transcription of the application, it appears that you may find one here, thanks to the Zuse archive:
http://zuse.zib.de/album/Uc4YiqKixaG2NAnK/item/EYgALUJiKnCyc9MH

If you want to look at the original patent application, you may need to contact the German Museum Archives. Here is a link to an archive entry that may help you move forward: http://kalliope.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/en/ead?ead.id=DE-210A_NL_207_0990. 

Did that specific patent application ever yield an actual published patent? According to WIPO, there's a patent filed in 1936 and issued to Zuse in 1954, but its filing date is May 9 1936, and not November 4, 1936 (as the Zuse archive document suggests). (https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE99582118). 

I hope that this helps you to get started. I love finding patents, so please do keep me posted on how the search goes. 

Best,
Con

On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 2:58 AM, Mark Priestley <m.priestley@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear list,

Zuse's 1936 patent "Method for Automatic Execution of Calculations with the Aid of Computers" is reprinted in Brian Randell's "Origins of Digital Computers" collections. Does anyone know if/where I can get hold of the German original?

Thanks in advance.

Mark


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--
Gerardo Con Diaz
Assistant Professor (Starting late June 2016)
Science and Technology Studies
University of California, Davis