Commemorating Helmut Schmidt

Helmut Schmidt was born in Hamburg and went to the Lichtwark School, a progressive institution. He later described himself as a "lazy" student who was yet a voracious reader. His high school was closed down under Nazi rule in 1937 and Schmidt was one of the last students to graduate. He is pictured above at the age of 14 in 1932.

They met each other at the age of 10 in school and apparently smoked their first cigarette together. Hannelore "Loki" Schmidt, who later became a teacher and a biologist, was more than just the wife of her prominent husband. She was highly engaged in politics and cut a popular figure alongside the Chancellor. They remained inseparable until Loki died in 2010; he passed away five years later.

Leaders of the FDP and SPD parties are shown here preparing the government's agenda in Bonn in 1969 that would underpin the new social-liberal coalition. Willy Brandt was to become Chancellor, while Helmut Schmidt, until then chairman of the Social Democratic parliamentary party, would be named Defense Minister of the German Federal Republic.

Schmidt, Herbert Wehner and party leader Willy Brandt puff away as they follow results on election night on November 19, 1972 in the SPD party headquarters. The trio was nicknamed the "Smoking Colts." On that election, the Social Democrats obtained the best results in the party's history.

Chancellor Willy Brandt (right) at an SPD board meeting in Berlin in 1973. Schmidt was Minister of Finance in Brandt's cabinet. The third man in this picture also made history shortly afterwards: Brandt's personal assistant, Günther Guillaume, turned out to be an East German spy. The scandal triggered Brandt's resignation and Schmidt became the new Chancellor on May 16, 1974.

The West German Chancellor, with his trademark sailor's cap, meets the head of East Germany, Erich Honecker, wearing a fur hat. Through his visit to the GDR in December 1981, Schmidt pursued a rapprochement policy. The two leaders are shown here waiting for the Bonn delegation in front of the the official GDR guesthouse, the Hubertusstock hunting lodge at lake Werbellinsee north of Berlin.

Schmidt is shown here departing from the 1981 meeting as the GDR's Erich Honecker offers him a cough candy. Upon his arrival in West Germany, Schmidt faced a series of demonstrations against the arms race between the East and the West as well as the nuclear rearmament of West Germany. Schmidt nevertheless won the general election of 1982 against Franz Josef Strauss (CSU).

Side to side in executive seats: Interior Minister Gerhard Baum and Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher (both FDP) doze during a Bundestag debate next to Chancellor Schmidt. Disputes led the social-liberal coalition to collapse in the late summer of 1982. Helmut Kohl (CDU) replaced Schmidt as Federal Chancellor, and as the leader of a coalition between the Christian Democrats and the liberals.

"He sailed the way he drove a car — always close to the wind," once said SPD politician Hans Apel of his political colleague. Sailing was Schmidt's hobby. The Brahmsee Lake in Schleswig-Holstein was his favorite spot. This is where Schmidt, considered a workaholic, would relax and write his books.

The fall of 1977 marked the peak of Red Army Fraction (RAF) terror. Hanns-Martin Schleyer, president of Germany's peak employer and industry groups, was kidnapped and Lufthansa Flight 181 was hijacked. Schmidt ordered the storming of the aircraft to rescue the hostages, but took responsibility when senior RAF members committed suicide in their jail cells the next day and Schleyer was murdered.

Bach was a Schmidt favorite. He recorded his works with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and played with the Hamburg Philharmonic. Even while he was Chancellor, he would sit down at the piano at night and play Bach's fugues. "When he played the piano, he could shake off everything else," said the pianist Justus Franz of his prominent colleague. His wife Loki would listen at his side.

Soon after the end of his chancellorship, Schmidt retired from politics. He became co-editor and author for the weekly "Die Zeit" newspaper. He was involved in foundations, wrote books and gave lectures and received countless honors. The highly respected political figure died on November 10, 2015.

On December 23, 2018, Schmidt would have turned 100. Among events marking the anniversary, the Friedrich Ebert foundation in Bonn is holding the exhibition "Helmut Schmidt - the Chancellor Years" with photos by Jupp Darchinger. Hamburg is paying tribute to its prominent son with a light installation, while a Schmidt stamp has been issued along with a commemorative version of his skipper cap.