Who was the inventor of the first freely programmable computer?

Konrad Zuse, a German engineer, created the Z3 in 1941, which is widely considered the first freely programmable computer. The Z3 used electromechanical relays and was indeed programmable - it could execute instructions stored on punched tape. Zuse's work was groundbreaking because unlike earlier calculating machines, the Z3 was a true general-purpose computer that could be programmed for different tasks.