Ralph Jimmy Schulz (22 October 1968 – 25 November 2019) was a German technology executive and politician of the Free Democratic Party who served as a member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

from the state of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

from 2009 to 2013 and again from 2017 until his death in 2019. Prior to politics, Schulz founded and sold an internet service provider called Cyber Solutions GmbH.

Biography

Jimmy Schulz was born on 22 October 1968 in

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. He was raised in

Ottobrunn Ottobrunn () is a suburban municipality southeast of Munich, Bavaria, Germany, founded in 1955. Ottobrunn consists of mainly semi-detached and detached houses, as well as extensive garden areas. Ottobrunn is also the German Headquarters of Airbus ...

in Bavaria. After finishing school, he spent one year as an exchange student at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

. He then entered the Bavarian School of Public Policy. In 1995, he founded his own company, Cyber Solutions GmbH which was one of the companies that set up the wireless internet service in Munich's

English Garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (, , , , ), is a style of "landscape" garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal ...

. In 2000, he took his firm public. In 2000, he joined the Free Democratic Party and began running in local elections in Hohenbrunn. In 2008, he failed to win election to the Bavarian legislature. In

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, he was elected to the German Bundestag. He served only one term as the Free Democrats failed to reach the five percent threshold in the 2013 election, costing it all of its seats. Schulz returned to the Bundestag in the 2017 election. As a technology executive, Schulz was active in promoting technology. He was the first member to read a speech from a tablet. He was active in fighting digital rights and privacy issues. Shortly after his election, Schulz was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died on 25 November 2019 at the age of 51.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schulz, Jimmy 1968 births 2019 deaths Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Germany Members of the Bundestag for Bavaria Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany)