Background

Schmidt was born on December 23, 1918 in Hamburg, Germany as the son of teachers, and was raised in that city's working-class district of Barmbeck.

Education

Schmidt studied at Hamburg Lichtwark School, graduating in 1937. He received a good education, becoming fluent in English and an accomplished musician.

He maintained a student's passion to always learn and the schoolmaster's impatience with those who are lazy.

He studied economics at the University of Hamburg and entered the administration of his native city.

Career

Schmidt was elected to the Bundestag (1953-1961), returned to service in Hamburg (1961-1965), and was reelected to the Bundestag in 1965. Schmidt became vice-chairman of the Social Democratic Party in 1968 and served as minister of defense (1969-1972) and minister of finance (1972-1974) in the government of Chancellor Willy Brandt.

As a leading member of the Social Democratic Party, which held power through its alliance with the liberal Free Democratic Party, Schmidt was elected to the chancellorship of West Germany on May 16, 1974, following the resignation of Brandt. Schmidt proved to be a capable and popular chancellor and was reelected in 1976 and 1980. During the worldwide recession of the early 1980s, however, his refusal to cut West Germany’s social welfare programs prompted the centrist Free Democrats to defect from his governing coalition. Having lost his voting majority in the Bundestag, Schmidt resigned the chancellorship upon a vote of no confidence in the Bundestag on October 1, 1982. His successor was Helmut Kohl of the Christian Democratic Union. Schmidt continued to serve as a member of the Bundestag until his retirement from politics in 1986. He was the author of numerous books on German political affairs and European international relations. From 1983 until his death, Schmidt was also copublisher of Die Zeit.

During his chancellorship Schmidt won the esteem of many West Germans and became one of the most respected and influential of Western Europe’s leaders. In foreign affairs he sought reconciliation with the Soviet-bloc countries of eastern Europe while at the same time maintaining West Germany’s partnership with the United States. He similarly cultivated closer ties with the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) while maintaining West Germany’s pivotal membership in the European Community and NATO military alliance.

Achievements

• Schmidt was a Social Democratic politician who was chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Global Ethic and Global Responsibilities: Two Declarations

    (This book contains the text of the Universal Declaration ...)

  • Die Mächte der Zukunft: Gewinner und Verlierer in der Welt von morgen (German Edition)

    (Wie sieht die Welt in den nächsten zwanzig Jahren aus? Vo...)

  • A Grand Strategy for the West: Anachronism of National Strategies in an Interdependent World (The Henry L. Stimson Lectures)

    (The former West German chancellor examines the political ...)

  • Men and Powers: A Political Retrospective

    (Schmidt journeys behind the closed doors of the Oval Offi...)

  • Nachbar China. Helmut Schmidt Im Gesprach Mit Frank Sieren (Chinese Edition)

    (In Nachbar China. Helmut Schmidt Im Gesprach Mit Frank Si...)

  • Die Selbstbehauptung Europas: Perspektiven fu?r das 21. Jahrhundert (German Edition)

    (Hard to find book)

  • Balance of Power
  • Auf der Suche nach einer öffentlichen Moral. Deutschland vor dem neuen Jahrhundert.
  • The Soviet Union: Challenges and Responses As Seen from the European Point of View (Singapore Lecture Series)

Politics

During his eight years as West Germany's chief executive Schmidt continued the foreign policy of his Social Democratic predecessor, Willy Brandt, seeking reconciliation with the Communist countries of eastern Europe (Ostpolitik) while strengthening ties to the European Common Market and the United States.

His administration, like that of Brandt, depended on the support of the small Free Democratic Party.

Later, as a British prisoner, he accepted the tenets of social democracy. In 1946 Schmidt, at the University of Hamburg, joined the Social Democratic Party.

But the deterioration of the West German economy during a worldwide recession eroded the popularity that the Social Democrats had earned during a decade of government.

Schmidt's refusal to sharply cut social benefits afforded the Free Democrats an opportunity to maneuver a vote in the Bundestag that forced his resignation.

Membership

Member of the SPD parliamentary party executive, member of the Bundestag, member of the European Community

Interests

• Schmidt was a talented pianist, and recorded piano concertos of both Mozart and Bach with German pianist and conductor Christoph Eschenbach. Schmidt recorded Mozart's piano concerto for three pianos, K. 242, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Eschenbach in 1982 with pianists Eschenbach and Justus Frantz for EMI Records. In that recording, according to the CD's liner notes, Schmidt played the part written for Countess Antonia Lodron's youngest daughter Giuseppina, "almost a beginner" who commissioned the work. The part brilliantly "enables any reasonably practiced amateur to participate in a performance". The same musical notes also indicate that Schmidt and Frantz had played duets during Frantz's student days. In 1990 Schmidt joined Eschenbach, Frantz, Gerhard Oppitz and the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra in Deutsche Grammophon's recording of Bach's Concerto in A minor for four harpsichords.

Connections

Schmidt's father was born the biological son of a German Jewish banker, Ludwig Gumpel, and a Christian waitress, Friederike Wenzel, and then covertly adopted, although this was kept a family secret for many years.

Father:

Gustav Ludwig Schmidt

Mother:

Ludovica Koch

Spouse:

Hannelore "Loki" Schmidt

She was a German environmentalist.

Daughter:

Susanne Schmidt

She works in London for Bloomberg Television.

Son:

Helmut Walter

Friend:

Anwar Sadat

References

• Helmut Schmidt: Helmsman of Germany
• Helmut Schmidt: Perspectives On Politics
• People and politics: The years 1960-1975
• Germany in Our Time: A Political History of the Postwar Years.