"It's pancreatic cancer, as you may know, there's a two percent chance of survival, and I do not own those two percent." Just a few months ago, the FDP politician Jimmy Schulz had talked to the SPIEGEL about his serious illness (read the interview here). He was fine, he said in June, the chemotherapy had frozen the cancer. On Monday he died after the illness. He was 51 years old.
"The message fills us with great sadness," said FDP leader Christian Lindner. He described Schulz, who was chairman of the Bundestag's Digital Agenda Committee, as the "network politician of the first hour". He was "persistent in the matter" and at the same time "always cordial and cheerful".
Schulz, born in Freiburg, was from 2009 to 2013 and again since 2017 for the FDP in the Bundestag. He worked for various IT companies and was also involved in digital politics.
Warrior for civil rights
Schulz's passion was early on computers and the Internet. On his first own computer, a Commodore 16, Schulz programmed a vocabulary trainer. Schulz also organized the first LAN party in the Bundestag and was the first MP to read his speech from a tablet, not from paper. The iPad is today in the Bonn House of History.
He resolutely fought for civil rights and fought for digital self-determination: for example, against the retention of data, the online search and the Network Enforcement Act, according to Lindner. "Our thoughts are now with his wife, his children and his friends."
Also Schulz 'Bavarian FDP state association paid tribute to the deceased. "With his death, we lose not only one of our most committed advocates of freedom of expression and privacy, but above all a faithful companion and good friend," said the country's chairman Daniel Föst.