The Sponsors
The Greinert Family and the Dietmar Hopp Foundation promote emerging elite athletes enabling them to reconcile studies and sports. Each year, they sponsor and support top-level student athletes enrolled in different programs.
The Greinert Family
Credit: PP
In 2009, Klaus Greinert and the University of Mannheim initiated the Mannheim Sports Scholarship, which later became the Elite Sports Scholarship Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region and is still supported and sponsored by the Greinert Family.
Greinert himself played 72 matches with the national field hockey team and competed in the Olympic Games 1960 in Rome and 1968 in Mexico. His wife Jutta was a successful field hockey player as well.
Dietmar Hopp Foundation
The Dietmar Hopp Foundation was established in 1995 to enable the implementation of non-profit projects. The foundations’ assets are mainly constituted of SAP stocks, which Dietmar Hopp contributed from his private property. The foundation is one of the largest private foundations in Europe. Since its establishment, it has distributed more than EUR 640 million. The focus of the sponsorship activities is on the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region, with which the founder feels a special bond. Upon request, the foundation promotes projects realized by non-profit organizations in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region in the fields of sports, medicine, social affairs, and education. Besides, the Dietmar Hopp Foundation implements the purposes set forth in its statutes by carrying out its own funding campaigns. “alla hopp!” is the largest campaign to date and encourages all generations to engage in physical activity. From 2015 to 2017, the foundation built recreation areas equipped with outdoor fitness machines, which added up to a total value of EUR 45 million, and donated them to the respective municipalities. The Dietmar Hopp Foundation is member of the following associations: Association of German Foundations, Zukunft Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar, and Sportregion Rhein-Neckar.