Klaus Teuber, the board game designer most well-known for making the incredibly popular Catan, has died following a brief illness.
Teuber’s love for board games and their design began at age 11 when he was gifted the game Romans vs. Carthaginians, to which he added his own rules. After high school and military service, Teuber studied chemistry and joined his father’s dental practice.
Though he originally worked as a dental technician, he found his passion in tabletop game design. Four of his games won the German Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) Award: Barbarossa, Adel Verpflichtet, Drunter und Drüber, and Settlers of Catan. What started as a pastime blossomed into a full career. Teuber founded the company Catan in 2002, which continued to produce variations and expansions of the beloved Catan game, such as Rivals for Catan: Age of Enlightenment, Catan: Seafarers, and Catan: Cities & Knights.
Settlers of Catan, later rebranded as just Catan, is possibly one of the most influential board games to be published. The game has received a number of awards and honors beyond the first Spiel des Jahres in 1995. It’s been adapted into a video game format numerous times, with releases on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo systems. The game and Klaus Teuber himself also feature heavily in the 2012 documentary Going Cardboard, which examines German-style board games that are loved in America.
Teuber is survived by his sons Benjamin and Guido, his wife Claudia, and his daughter, who have all been involved in the Catan company. The Teuber family has requested time and space to bid farewell to their loved one.
