Nixdorf built Europe's fourth-largest computer company — and missed the PC entirely

Heinz Nixdorf founded Nixdorf Computer in 1952 in Paderborn, West Germany. His insight was to avoid the expensive mainframe market where IBM dominated and instead build low-cost minicomputers for the office. The Nixdorf 820, launched in 1967, was a breakthrough: it brought computing to mid-size companies that could not afford an IBM mainframe. By the late 1970s, Nixdorf was the European leader in banking terminals and point-of-sale systems.

The company peaked in 1985 with 4 billion DM in revenue, 172 million DM in after-tax profit, and 23,000 employees across 44 countries. Nixdorf was Europe's fourth-largest computer company. Heinz Nixdorf was a German industrial hero — a self-made tech entrepreneur who had built a global company from a small town.

The fatal strategic error was the decision to stay out of the personal computer market. Heinz Nixdorf believed PCs were toys for hobbyists. He committed the company to minicomputers and mid-range systems, the segment that had made Nixdorf successful. The PC revolution passed the company by. When Heinz Nixdorf died suddenly of a heart attack at CeBIT in March 1986, the company had no one to change course.

His successor, Klaus Luft, inherited 5 billion DM in revenue but a product line with no answer to the PC. Within a year, the gap became visible: operating profit in 1987 was 330.6 million DM. In 1988 it was a 59.8 million DM loss. Luft resigned in November 1989. Siemens took over Nixdorf's shares on 1 October 1990. Thousands of Paderborn employees were laid off. The German IT trade tells the Nixdorf story as the definitive case of a founder too committed to a winning formula to see the industry shift until it was too late.