{{Short description|German chess player (1912–1974)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}} '''Georg Klaus''' (28 December 1912, Nuremberg – 29 July 1974, Berlin) was a German philosopher, cybernetician, chess master, and functionary.
In 1928, he started his chess career in Nuremberg, playing at ''Arbeiterschachklub Nürnberg'', then ''Nürnberger Schachklub Noris''. In 1933, he won in the Franconian championships. In that time, he began to study mathematics at the University of Erlangen in 1932, and became a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). In 1933, he was arrested by Nazis, and spent two years in a Nuremberg prison and three years in the Dachau concentration camp, until 1939.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ballo.de/zettel_182.htm |title=Harald E. Balló :: Zettel 182 - Georg Klaus |access-date=12 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110208204026/http://www.ballo.de/zettel_182.htm |archive-date=8 February 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
After his releasing, he worked in a factory (''Faber-Castell bzw. Schwan-Bleistift''), and again played chess in Nuremberg (''Schachklub Noris''). During World War II, he took 2nd, behind Friedrich Nürnberg, in Regensburg in March/April 1942 (the South German championship), shared 2nd with Hans Müller, behind Ludwig Rellstab, in Bad Oeynhausen in June/July 1942 (the 9th German Chess Championship),<ref>[http://www.rogerpaige.me.uk/tables13.htm Roger Paige Chess Site :: 1942] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070807064131/http://www.rogerpaige.me.uk/tables13.htm |date=7 August 2007 }}</ref> and took 4th in Bad Krynica in November/December 1943 (the 4th General Government chess tournament, Josef Lokvenc won).<ref>[http://www.rogerpaige.me.uk/tables%2014.htm Roger Paige Chess Site :: 1943] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070222064906/http://www.rogerpaige.me.uk/tables%2014.htm |date=22 February 2007 }}</ref>
In October 1942, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht, and sent to the Eastern Front in March 1943. He fought in the Kharkov region and in the Battle of Kursk in July 1943. He was injured in combat, and awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd Class.<ref>"Klaus wird für seinen Einsatz mit dem Eisernen Kreuz zweiter Klasse und dem silbernen Verwundetenabzeichen versehen" ([http://www.ballo.de/zettel_182.htm Harald E. Balló :: Zettel 182 - Georg Klaus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110208204026/http://www.ballo.de/zettel_182.htm |date=8 February 2011 }}).</ref> Then, he spent several weeks in a field hospital in Bad Blankenburg, Thuringia. In March 1945 he was in the Western Front, and after Western Allied invasion of Germany, he had been taken into Allied captivity. From April to September 1945, he was kept in an American army camp (''Lager 2227'') in Ostend, Belgium.
After his release on 2 September 1945, he returned to Nuremberg, and next to Bad Blankenburg, then the Soviet occupation zone. In February 1946, he became a political functionary of KPD and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in Sonneberg, Thüringen. He received a doctorate of pedagogy (1948), and a habilitation in philosophy (1950) from the University of Jena, Thuringia. In 1953, he played in a friendly match GDR vs. Bulgaria in Sofia,<ref>[http://www.olimpbase.org/index.html?http%3A%2F%2Fwww.olimpbase.org%2Fother%2Ffriendlies.html OlimpBase :: Friendly matches]</ref> and was the ''Präsident der Sektion Schach der DDR'' in 1953/54.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://brettspiele-schach.info/deutscher_schachbund-3.html |title=Deutscher Schachbund - Weitere Informationen |access-date=12 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721185959/http://brettspiele-schach.info/deutscher_schachbund-3.html |archive-date=21 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
From 1953, he worked at the Humboldt University of Berlin, and from 1959 in the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic. Klaus published in 1963 a collection of papers on "Cybernetics in Science, Technology, and Economics in the GDR." After fighting a running battle with bureaucracy in the journals from 1963 on, Klaus was asked to prepare a "Cybernetic Dictionary" as his contribution to the Seventh Congress of the SED in 1967.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.foia.cia.gov/CPE/ESAU/esau-45.pdf |title=CIA :: Intelligence Report - The Prussian Heresy: Ulbricht's Evolving System (ESAU XLVI/70) |access-date=12 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527111256/http://www.foia.cia.gov/CPE/ESAU/esau-45.pdf |archive-date=27 May 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Klaus, Georg}} Category:1912 births Category:1974 deaths Category:Sportspeople from Nuremberg Category:University of Jena alumni Category:University of Erlangen���Nuremberg alumni Category:Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Category:Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin Category:20th-century German chess players Category:20th-century German philosophers Category:German Army personnel of World War II Category:Recipients of the Iron Cross (1939), 2nd class Category:German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States Category:20th-century German male writers