Founder Profile
Klaus Tschira
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Klaus Tschira?
Klaus Tschira is a founder of SAP SE, which was founded in 1972 with Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Hans-Werner Hector and Claus Wellenreuther.
- Company founded
- SAP SE
- Founded
- 1972
- Co-founders
- Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Hans-Werner Hector and Claus Wellenreuther
Background
Studied physics at the University of Karlsruhe and worked as a systems engineer at IBM Germany before co-founding SAP in 1972.
Founding Story
Klaus Tschira (1940-2015) was one of SAP's five co-founders and a long-serving member of its Executive Board and later its Supervisory Board. In 1995 he set up the Klaus Tschira Foundation, one of Germany's largest privately funded foundations, which supports natural sciences, mathematics and computer science.
Education: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Tschira was born on December 7, 1940 and died on March 31, 2015. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).