Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German Social Democratic (SPD) politician who served as Chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. Prior to becoming Chancellor, he had served as Minister of Defense (1969–72). As Minister of Finance (1972–74), he gained credit for financial policies that consolidated the Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle), giving Germany the most stable currency and economic position in the world. He had also served briefly as Minister of Economics and as 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 1987, after clashing with the SPD's left wing, who opposed him on defense and economic issues. In 1986 he was a leading proponent of European monetary union and a European central bank.
Helmut Schmidt was born in Hamburg in 1918, the first of two sons of two teachers, Ludovica (born Koch) and Gustav Ludwig Schmidt. Schmidt studied at Hamburg Lichtwark School, graduating in 1937. Schmidt's father was the biological son of a German Jewish businessman Ludwig Gumpel and a Christian waitress Friederike Wenzel and then covertly adopted, although this was kept a family secret for many years. This was confirmed publicly by Helmut Schmidt in 1984, after Valéry Giscard d'Estaing revealed the fact to journalists, apparently with Schmidt's assent. Schmidt himself was a non-practising Lutheran.
 
Schmidt was a group leader (Scharführer) in the Hitler Youth organization until 1936 when he was demoted and sent on leave because of his anti-Nazi views. On 27 June 1942, he married his childhood sweetheart Hannelore "Loki" Glaser (3 March 1919 – 21 October 2010). They had two children: Helmut Walter (26 June 1944 – February 1945, died of meningitis), and Susanne (b. 1947), who works in London for Bloomberg Television. Schmidt resumed his education in Hamburg after the war, graduating in economics and political science in 1949.
Schmidt was conscripted into military service in 1937 and began serving with an anti-aircraft battery at Vegesack near Bremen during World War II. After brief service on the Eastern Front, including the Siege of Leningrad, he returned to Germany in 1942 to work as a trainer and advisor at the Ministry of Aviation. He attended the People's Court, presided over by Roland Freisler, as an army spectator at some of the show trials for officers involved in 20 July plot where an unsuccessful attempt was made to assassinate Hitler at Rastenburg and was disgusted by the whole process. Toward the end of the war, from December 1944 onwards, he served as an Oberleutnant in the Flakartillery on the Western Front. He was captured by the British in April 1945 on Lüneburg Heath and was a prisoner of war until August. During his service in World War II Schmidt was awarded the Iron Cross.
Schmidt joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1946, and from 1947 to 1948 was leader of the Socialist German Student League, the student organisation of the SPD. Upon leaving the university, he worked for the government of the city-state of Hamburg, working in the department of economic policy. Beginning in 1952, under Karl Schiller, he was a senior figure in the Behörde für Wirtschaft und Verkehr (the Hamburg State Ministry for Economy and Transport).
He was elected to the Bundestag in 1953, and in 1957 he became a member of the SPD parliamentary party executive. A vocal critic of conservative government policy, his outspoken rhetoric in parliament earned him the nickname "Schmidt-Schnauze" (Schmidt, the loud mouth). In 1958, he joined the national board of the SPD (Bundesvorstand) and campaigned against nuclear weapons and the equipping of the Bundeswehr with such devices. In 1958, he gave up his seat in parliament to concentrate on his tasks in Hamburg.
The government of the city-state of Hamburg is known as the Senate of Hamburg, and from 1961 to 1965 Schmidt was the Innensenator, that is Minister of the Interior. He gained the reputation as a Macher (doer) – someone who gets things done regardless of obstacles – by his effective management during the emergency caused by the 1962 flood.
In 1965, he was re-elected to the Bundestag. In 1967, after the formation of the Grand Coalition between SPD and Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he became chairman of the Social Democrat parliamentary party, a post he held until the elections of 1969. In 1968, he was elected deputy party chairman, a post that he held until 1984. Between 1968 to 1983, Schmidt was deputy chairman of the SPD. Unlike Willy Brandt and Gerhard Schröder, he never became chairman of the party.
In October 1969, he entered the government of Willy Brandt as defense minister In July 1972, he succeeded Karl Schiller as Minister for Economics and Finances, but in November 1972.
Schmidt became Chancellor of West Germany on 16 May 1974, after Brandt's resignation in the wake of an espionage scandal. The worldwide economic recession was the main concern of his administration, and Schmidt took a tough and disciplined line, reducing public spending. Schmidt was also active in improving relations with France. Together with the French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, he was one of the fathers of the world economic summits, the first of which assembled in 1975. In 1975, he was a signatory of the Helsinki Accords to create the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the precursor of today's OSCE.
He remained chancellor after the 1976 elections, in coalition with the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP). He adopted a tough, uncompromising line with the indigenous Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorists. He authorized the GSG 9 anti-terrorist unit to end the Palestinian terrorist hijacking of the Lufthansa aircraft Landshut, undertaken to secure the release of RAF leaders imprisoned in Stammheim Prison, after it landed in Mogadishu by assaulting the aircraft during the German Autumn of 1977. Three of the four terrorists were killed during the hostage rescue.
Schmidt was re-elected as chancellor in November 1980. In October 1981, he was fitted with a cardiac pacemaker. Concerned about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Soviet superiority regarding missiles in Central Europe, Schmidt issued proposals resulting in the NATO Double-Track Decision concerning the deployment of medium-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe should the Soviets not disarm. The decision was unpopular with the German public. A mass demonstration against the deployment mobilized 400,000 people in October 1981.

Source: Wikipedia.org