His wife was fatally injured in a car accident while he was competing at the 1973 World Championships, leaving him with two daughters of eight and ten years old. Gnas retired from competitions in 1977 due to injuries, remarried, and opened two cleaning companies in Nuremberg and Röthenbach an der Pegnitz. His second wife Renata died in October 2008 of a sudden organ failure.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gnas, Horst}} 5 : 1941 births|Living people|German male cyclists|People from Dessau-Roßlau|Sportspeople from Saxony-Anhalt