German chancellor Helmut Schmidt survived Nazi taint to revive nation’s reputation
Helmut Schmidt escaped forever being associated with a Nazi past to become known as the man who helped revive the reputation of Germany
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One way to sum up the career of the late former West German chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, is to say he was “a good man to have in a crisis”. Schmidt, who died on November 10, came to prominence for his role in organising rescue efforts during a flood in Hamburg in 1962 and took over the chancellorship in 1974 during a time of financial crisis and domestic terrorism in West Germany. He steered his country on a solid course through both.
Always outspoken, he was dubbed Schmidt-schnauze (Schmidt the gob) by parliamentary colleagues, but was a gifted statesman and politician who overcame his Nazi past to earn the respect of the electorate and politicians.
Outside politics he was also an accomplished author of several books and a pianist who released several recordings. He was born Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt on December 23, 1918, to teacher parents.
His father Gustav was the illegitimate son of a German-Jewish businessman and a waitress, but had been adopted by a German couple. Helmut’s Jewish heritage was kept secret for years, especially during the reign of the Nazis.
Schmidt joined the Hitler Youth and after graduating from the Lichtwark Schule (which encouraged independent and critical thought) in 1937 he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht.
He would later say his Jewish background kept him from ever completely becoming a Nazi and that sympathetic commanders saved him from disciplinary action when he expressed anti-Nazi opinions.
His service records show he was often commended for his “perfect Nazi attitude” and was even awarded an Iron Cross. During the war he married Hannelore “Loki” Glaser and at the end of the fighting he was imprisoned by the British.
Schmidt was one of generation of Germans who felt betrayed by the Nazis and the depth of their criminality. They felt robbed of a decade of their lives.
Like other Germans, Schmidt now tried to rebuild his life. Before the war he had wanted to be an architect and town planner but decided he now wanted to do something to alleviate the poverty of the people whose economy had been ruined by war.
He studied economics and joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
In 1949 he went to work for the local government in Hamburg as an economic adviser.
Politics beckoned. He was elected to the German parliament, the Bundestag, in 1953 representing Hamburg and in 1961 became Hamburg’s interior minister. After only two months in the job he earned praise for dealing decisively with devastating floods in Hamburg that had killed 300 people.
Re-elected to the Bundestag in 1965 he rose to become vice-chairman of the SDP, then minister for defence in 1969 under chancellor Willy Brandt, a controversial choice given his background as a Nazi officer.
In 1972 he became minister of finance. When Brandt resigned in 1974, after it was discovered that Brandt’s personal assistant was an East German spy, Schmidt stepped up to the chancellorship.
Having inherited a nation in recession brought on by the oil crisis, he took tough decisions to cut spending. He was also tough when it came to dealing with terrorism.
When a Lufthansa aircraft was hijacked in 1977 he refused to give in to the demands of the hijackers and dispatched an elite anti-terrorist unit to rescue all of the hostages.
One of his major achievements was improving relations with France, becoming personal friends with French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing.
A lifetime of smoking had an impact on his health and in 1981 he was fitted with a pacemaker after developing myocarditis. He gave up the cigarettes for the time being and his health improved. His stint as chancellor ended when members of a coalition party defected to bring about a vote of no confidence against him in 1982.
While he remained outspoken in parliament, losing the chancellorship gave him time to focus on music, yachting and writing.
He retired from the Bundestag in 1986 but his opinions and expertise were often sought by governments and the media. His wife died in 2010 and in 2012, at the age of 93, he revealed he had found love again with 79-year-old Ruth Loah. Over the past decade, despite becoming the longest lived ex-chancellor, his health troubled him, no doubt exacerbated by his return to smoking. He died after complications from surgery for a blood clot.
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