Back
العربية
Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Schmidt · Hans Schafgans, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Person

Helmut Schmidt

1918 – 2015 · aged 97

Chancellor of West Germany (1974–1982)

Born
23 Dec 1918 · Hamburg
Died
10 Nov 2015 · Hamburg
Part ofGermany1,250 BCE – todayLutheranism1471 – today

Life timeline

Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.

Showing 112 years
  1. 23 Dec 1918BornBorn in Hamburg
  2. 1939 – 1945WarWorld War II
  3. 1941AwardIron Cross (1939), 2nd class
  4. 1953 – 1957RoleMember of the German Bundestag
  5. 1957 – 1961RoleMember of the German Bundestag
  6. 1958 – 1961RoleMember of the European Parliament
  7. 1961 – 1962RoleMember of the German Bundestag
  8. 1961 – 1965RoleSenator of the Interior
  9. 1965 – 1987RoleMember of the German Bundestag
  10. 1966 – 1968RoleSubstitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
  11. 1969 – 1972RoleMember of the German Bundestag
  12. 1969 – 1972RoleFederal Minister of Defence
  13. 1972 – 1974RoleFederal Minister of Finance
  14. 1972RoleMinister of Economic Affairs
  15. 1972 – 1976RoleMember of the German Bundestag
  16. 1972AwardOrden wider den tierischen Ernst
  17. 1974 – 1982RoleFederal Chancellor of Germany
  18. 1975AwardFinancial Times Person of the Year
  19. 1976 – 1980RoleMember of the German Bundestag
  20. 1978AwardTheodor Heuss Award
  21. 1979AwardHonorary doctor of Harvard University
  22. 1979AwardHonorary doctor of the Paul Cézanne University
  23. 1980 – 1983RoleMember of the German Bundestag
  24. 1981AwardDoctor honoris causa from the Paris-Sorbonne University
  25. 1982RoleFederal Minister for Foreign Affairs
  26. 1983 – 1987RoleMember of the German Bundestag
  27. 1983AwardHonorary citizen of Bonn
  28. 1983AwardHonorary citizen of Hamburg
  29. 1983AwardHonorary citizenship
  30. 1988AwardFour Freedoms Award – Freedom Medal
  31. 1989AwardHonorary citizen of Berlin
  32. 10 Nov 2015DiedDied in Hamburg

Loading from Wikipedia and Wikidata…

Meanwhile in the world

Major world events during their lifetime (1918 – 2015).

  1. 1919 – 1920Paris Peace Conference
  2. 1920Treaty of Versailles
  3. 1933 – 1945The Holocaust
  4. 19341934 FIFA World Cup
  5. 19361936 Summer Olympics
  6. 1937 – 1945Second Sino-Japanese War
  7. 19381938 FIFA World Cup
  8. 1938Munich Agreement
  9. 1939 – 1940Winter War
  10. 1940 – 1945Auschwitz concentration camp
  11. 1941Attack on Pearl Harbor
  12. 1941 – 1945Eastern Front
  13. 1941Operation Barbarossa
  14. 1942 – 1943Battle of Stalingrad
  15. 1945Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  16. 1945 – 1946Nuremberg trials
  17. 19501950 FIFA World Cup
  18. 1950 – 1953Korean War
  19. 1953 – 1959Cuban Revolution
  20. 19541954 FIFA World Cup
  21. 1955 – 1975Vietnam War
  22. 1956Hungarian Revolution of 1956
  23. 1956Suez Crisis
  24. 19581958 FIFA World Cup
  25. 1959Antarctic Treaty System
  26. 19621962 FIFA World Cup
  27. 1962Cuban Missile Crisis
  28. 19661966 FIFA World Cup
  29. 1966 – 1976Cultural Revolution
  30. 1968Prague Spring
  31. 1969Apollo 11 Moon landing
  32. 19721972 Summer Olympics
  33. 19741974 FIFA World Cup
  34. 19781978 FIFA World Cup
  35. 1978 – 1979Iranian Revolution
  36. 1979 – 1989Soviet–Afghan War
  37. 1980 – 1988Iran–Iraq War
  38. 19841984 Summer Olympics
  39. 1985Schengen Agreement
  40. 19891989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre

Biography

Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (German: [ˈhɛlmuːt ˈʃmɪt] ; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. He was the longest lived chancellor in German history and had the longest post-chancellorship, at over 33 years.

He was the only chancellor to serve in the Wehrmacht during World War II.

Before becoming chancellor, he served as the minister of defence (1969–1972) and the minister of finance (1972–1974) in the government of Willy Brandt. In the latter role he gained credit for his financial policies. He had also briefly been minister of economics and acting foreign minister.

As chancellor, he focused on international affairs, seeking "political unification of Europe in partnership with the United States". He was an energetic diplomat who sought European co-operation and international economic co-ordination. He was re-elected chancellor in 1976 and 1980, but his coalition fell apart in 1982 with the switch by his coalition allies, the Free Democratic Party.

He retired from Parliament in 1986, after clashing with the SPD's left wing, which opposed him on defence and economic issues. In 1986, he was a leading proponent of the European monetary union and a European Central Bank.

Text from the Wikipedia article Helmut Schmidt, CC BY-SA 4.0

About this information

Dates and life events come from this person’s Wikidata entry.

We only show events that the sources give a date for. Anything without a date is left out rather than guessed.