Dietmar Hopp

Dietmar Hopp (; born 26 April 1940) is a German software engineer and billionaire businessman. He was one of the founders of SAP SE in 1972 with other former IBM employees Hans Werner Hector, Klaus Tschira, Claus Wellenreuther and Hasso Plattner and owner of Bundesliga football club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. In September 2021, Forbes estimated his net worth at US$8.3 billion. Early life and business career Hopp grew up in Hoffenheim, a small village in Baden Württemberg, Southern Germany. His father, Emil Hopp, was a Truppführer of the Nazi Party paramilitary organization Sturmabteilung, and led as a commanding officer the destruction of a synagogue in Hoffenheim during the Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938. After graduating from high school with an Abitur, he studied telecommunications engineering in Karlsruhe until 1966. After graduating from university, he worked as a software developer and consultant at IBM.