Klaus Tschira
Klaus Tschira (7 December 1940 – 31 March 2015) was a German businessman and co-founder of SAP AG, a leading German software company. He earned a Diplom in physics at the University of Karlsruhe and worked at IBM before helping start SAP in 1972 in Mannheim with Hans-Werner Hector, Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, and Claus Wellenreuther. Tschira served on SAP’s board from 1998 to 2007. He was married to Gerda Tschira and had two sons, Harald and Udo. He died on 31 March 2015 in Heidelberg.
In 1995 he established the Klaus Tschira Foundation (KTF), a non-profit that funds projects in natural and computer sciences and mathematics, with a focus on public understanding. The foundation is based at Villa Bosch in Heidelberg, the former home of Nobel laureate Carl Bosch. In 1999 he received the Deutscher Stifterpreis from the Studienstiftung. In 2008 he and his wife founded the Gerda and Klaus Tschira Foundation.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 12:19 (CET).