He studied physics and mathematics at the University of Berlin where Max Planck and Albert Einstein had been among his teachers.
He had some Jewish parentage and left Germany to join GEC in Wembley as a researcher into valve technology.
[6] Prinz was recruited to the Ferranti factory at Moston, Manchester, in 1947 by Eric Grundy who was setting up a team to study the potential uses of electronic computers.
Prinz had learned programming on the Mark I from seminars led by Alan Turing and Cicely Popplewell.
[14] Prinz also developed simple logical machines with the Manchester University philosophy lecturer Wolfe Mays[14] and also worked in the area of computer music.