Helmut Jahn was born in Germany in 1940 right after World War 2 had ended. Much of Germany had been destroyed by bombings and Germany was in a very tough spot economically. As Helmut Jahn grew Germany slowly became more prosperous and began reconstruction. Helmut Jahn witnessed Germany being rebuilt almost from the ground up. Later in his life, he would get to help rebuild Germany himself after the fall of the Berlin Wall. From the ages 20-25 Jahn studied at the Technical University of Munich, graduating with a degree in architecture. This degree was equal to a Masters degree in the United States and immediately started working for an influential architecture firm in Munich after receiving a fellowship. A year later Jahn left Munich to study in Chicago at The Illinois Institute of Technology but left school before earning his degree. Helmut Jahn was no doubt influenced by the famous architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe who left Germany two years before Jahn was born and became head of the architecture school at the Illinois Institute of Technology and helped design the Campus. Jahn left the university to work at an architecture firm called C.F. Murphy Associates. This firm was later renamed Murphy/Jahn in the eighties and became known simply as JAHN in 2012. The firm is very successful and is consistently recognized as one of the top 20 Architecture Firms in the United States and is probably the most influential firm in Chicago.