1962: An Italian Gastarbeiter family in Walsum (this woman's husband is a miner working for the German Walsum Mines)

Gastarbeiter (plural, "Gastarbeiter") (German pronunciation: [ˈɡastˌʔaɐ̯baɪtɐ] ( listen)) is German for "guest worker." It refers to migrant workers who had moved to West Germany (BRD) mainly in the 1960s and 70s, seeking work as part of a formal guest worker programme (Gastarbeiterprogramm). On a smaller scale, the Netherlands and Belgium had a parallel scheme, called the gastarbeider programme.

East Germany (DDR) had a similar programme and referred to the workers as "Vertragsarbeiter".

Historical background[link]

During the Nazi era the term Fremdarbeiter (German for foreign worker) was largely used. Most of the so called Fremdarbeiter were in fact doing forced labour. They were brought against their will from German-occupied Europe to the Third Reich. After WW II, this term had negative connotations and thus a new word was created.

West Germany[link]

During the 1950s and 1960s, West Germany signed bilateral recruitment agreements with Italy in 1955, Greece in 1960, Turkey in 1961, Morocco in 1963, Portugal in 1964, Tunisia in 1965 and Yugoslavia in 1968.^[1][2] These agreements allowed the recruitment of Gastarbeiter to work in the industrial sector for jobs that required few qualifications.

There were several reasons for signing those contracts. First of all during the 1950s and 1960s Germany experienced a so called Wirtschaftswunder "economic miracle" and needed laborers. The labour shortage was made more acute by the creation of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, which reduced the large-scale flow of East German immigration virtually to zero overnight. Besides this the Federal Republic saw it as a form of developmental aid. It was hoped that the Gastarbeiter would learn useful skills in Germany, which could help them build their home countries after returning home.^[3]

Turkey and Germany

The first Gastarbeiter were recruited from European nations. Turkey however pressured the Federal republic to allow their countrymen to become guest workers.^[3] Theodor Blank, Secretary of State for Employment, was opposed to such agreements. He held the opinion that the cultural gap between Germany and Turkey would be too big and also held the opinion that Germany needed no more labourers, because there were enough unemployed people living in the poorer regions of Germany, who could fill these vacancies. The USA however, put some political pressure on Germany. It wanted to stabilize Turkey. The German Department of Foreign Affairs carried on the negotiations after this and in 1961 an agreement was reached.^[4][4]

After 1961, Turkish citizens (largely from rural areas) soon became the largest group of Gastarbeiter in West Germany. The perception at the time on the part of both the West German Government and the Turkish Republic representatives was that working in Germany would be only "temporary". The migrants, mostly male, were allowed to work in Germany for a period of one or two years before returning to the home country in order to make room for other migrants. Many migrants did return, after having built up savings for their return.

Until very recently Germany was not perceived as a country of immigration ("kein Einwanderungsland") by both the majority of its political leaders and the majority of its population. When political leaders realized that many of the persons from certain countries living in Germany were jobless, some calculations were done and according to that calculations paying unemployed foreigners to leave the country in the long run was cheaper than paying unemployment benefits. A "Gesetz zur Förderung der Rückkehrbereitsschaft" ("law to advance the willingness to return home") was passed. The government started paying jobless people from a number of nations, such as Turks, Morrocons and Tunisians, a so called "Rückkehrprämie" ("Repatriation grant") or "Rückkehrhilfe" ("repatriation help") if they returned home. A person returning home received 10.500 Deutsche Mark and an additional 1.500 Deutsche Mark for his spouse and also 1.500 Deutsche Mark for each of his children if they returned to the country of his origin.^[5][6]

The agreement with Turkey ended in 1973 but few workers returned because there were few good jobs in Turkey.^[7] Instead they brought in wives and family members and settled in ethnic enclaves.^[8] By 2010 there were about 4 million people of Turkish descent in Germany. The generation born in Germany attended German schools, but some had a poor command of either German or Turkish, and thus had either low-skilled jobs or were unemployed. Most are Muslims and are reluctant to become German citizens.^[9][10] Germany used to have a Jus sanguinis, a "right of the blood". This is a policy by which nationality or citizenship is not determined by place of birth, but by having an ancestor who is a national or citizen of the state. It contrasts with Jus soli (Latin for "right of soil") that can be found in other States such as the USA. According to the Jus Sanguinis children born to Gastarbeiter were not automatically granted citizenship; instead they were granted the "Aufenthaltsberechtigung" ("right to reside") and might choose to apply for German citizenship later in their lives. German citizenship was granted to persons who had lived in Germany for at least fifteen years and fulfilled a number of other preconditions (they must work for their living, they should not have a criminal record and other preconditions). Nowadays the Jus Sanguinis has been modified. Children of foreigners born on German soil now will be automatically granted the German citizenship if the parent has been in Germany for at least eight years as a legal immigrant. As a rule those children have the additional citizenship of the home country of their parents. Those between 18 and 23 years of age must choose to keep either German citizenship or the other citizenship. The governments of the German States have begun campaigns to persuade immigrants to acquire German citizenship,^[11] which has become much easier now that people must have lived only 8 years in Germany rather than 15.

Those who have German citizenship have a number of advantages. For example only those holding German citizenship may vote in certain elections. Also there are some jobs that may only be performed by those holding German citizenship. As a rule these are jobs which require a high identification with the government. Only those holding German citizenship will be allowed to be a schoolteacher, a policeman or a soldier.^[12] Most jobs however do not require the person to hold German citizenship. Those who do not hold German citizenship, but the Aufenthaltsberechtigung ("right to reside") will be granted most rights every citizen has. They may attend schools, receive medical insurance, be paid children's benefits, receive welfare and housing assistance.

In many cases the Gastarbeiter integrated neatly into the German society. Dietrich Tränhardt did some scientific work on the integration of the Spanish Gastarbeiter. While many Spanish that came to Germany were illiterate peasants, their offspring were successful when it came to academic achievement (see: Academic achievement among different groups in Germany) and did well on the job market. Spanish were also very likely to marry Germans, which can be counted as a sign of assimilation. According to a study in 2000, 81.2% of all Spanish or partly Spanish children in Germany were from a inter-racial Spanish-German family.^[13]

There were some and still are some tensions in German society, because Muslim immigrants feel they have been religiously discriminated against. For example while the Christian churches are allowed to collect Church tax in Germany, Muslims cannot do so because they are not as yet organised in a corporative association (which is sometimes criticised as forcing Christian organisation-style on non-Christians). While German universities educated Jewish, catholic and Protestant clerics and religious teachers in the past none of the German universities offered education for Muslim teachers and clerics. However nowadays such university courses exist.^[14] Also Muslims were often not pleased with the fact that the Christian cross is a common item to be found in German classrooms, and used to be more so. The fact that most schools offer Catholic and Protestant religious education and ethics but no Islamic religious education has also been criticised (especially because religious education is compulsory, replaceable by ethics). Students are allowed to wear a normal headscarf in school, however recently a Muslim student has sued a Gymnasium headmaster, because she was not allowed to wear a Khimar in school.^[15]

East Germany[link]

A guest worker from Cuba, working in a German factory (Chemiefaserkombinat "Wilhelm Pieck"), 1986

After the division of Germany into East and West in 1949, East Germany faced an acute labour shortage, mainly because of East Germans fleeing into the western zones occupied by the Allies; the building of the Berlin Wall (1961) exacerbated the labour shortage, and in 1963 the GDR (German Democratic Republic) signed its first guest-worker contract with Poland. In contrast to the guest-workers in West Germany, the guest-workers that arrived in East Germany came mainly from socialist and communist countries allied with the Soviets and the SED used its guest-worker program to build international solidarity among fellow communist governments.

1990: Vietnamese costermonger in Gera

The guest workers in East Germany came mainly from the Eastern Bloc, Vietnam, North Korea, Angola, Mozambique and Cuba. But their opportunities were controlled by the Stasi. Residency was typically limited to only 3 years. The conditions East German Gastarbeiter had to live in were much harsher than the living-conditions of the Gastarbeiter in Western Germany. They had to live in single-sex dormitories.^[16] In addition, contact between guest-workers and East German citizens was extremely limited; guest-workers were usually restricted to their dormitory or an area of the city which Germans were not allowed to enter. Sexual relations with a German led to deportation.^[16][17][18] Female Vertragsarbeiter were not allowed to fall pregnant during their stay. If they did they were forced to have an abortion.^[19]

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification in 1990, the population of guest-workers still remaining in the former East Germany faced deportation, premature discontinuation of residence and work permits as well as open discrimination in the workplace. Out of the 100,000 guest-workers remaining in East Germany after reunification, about 75% left because of the rising tide of xenophobia in former East German territories.^{[citation needed]}

Also the Vietnamese (in contrast to other Gastarbeiter) were not granted the "right to reside", because of diplomatic reasons. Thus they lived in a "grey zone". Many started selling goods at the roadside. Ten years after the fall of the Berlin wall most Vietnamese were granted the right to reside however and many started opening little shops.^[17]

The children of the Vietnamese Gastarbeiter caused what has been called the "Vietnamese miracle".^[20] As shown by a study while in the districts of Lichtenberg and Marzahn, Vietnamese account for only 2 percent of the general population, they make up 17 percent of the university preparatory school population of those districts.^[21] According to the headmaster of the Barnim Gymnasium, a university preoparatory school that has a focus on the natural sciences, 30 percent of the schools freshmen come from Vietnamese families.^[20]

Currently[link]

Today, the term Gastarbeiter is no longer accurate, as the former guest worker communities, insofar as they have not returned to their countries of origins, have become permanent residents or citizens, and therefore are in no meaningful sense "guests". However, despite the fact that many of the former "guest workers" have now become German citizens, the term Ausländer is still colloquially applied to them as well as to their naturalised children and grandchildren. A new word has been used by politicians for several years: Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund (German term for: people with an immigration background). The term was thought to be politically correct because it includes both immigrants and those who, being naturalized, cannot be referred to as immigrants—who are colloquially (and not by necessity xenophobically) called "naturalized immigrants" or "immigrants with a German passport". To emphasize their Germanness, they are also with quite a frequency called fellowcitizens, which may result in calling "our Turkish fellow citizens" also those who are foreigners still, or even such Turks in Turkey who never had any contact to Germany.

Gastarbeiter, as a historical term however, referring to the guest worker programme and situation of the 1960s, is neutral and remains the most correct designation. In literary theory, some German migrant writers (e.g. Rafik Schami) use the terminology of "guest" and "host" provocatively.

The term "Gastarbeiter" lives on in Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Slovene languages, generally meaning "expatriate" (mostly referring to a second generation from the former Yugoslavia or Bulgaria born or living abroad). The South Slavic spelling reflects the local pronunciation of gastarbajter (in Cyrillic: гастарбаjтер or гастарбайтер). In Belgrade's jargon, it is commonly shortened to gastos (гастос), and in Zagreb's to gastić.

In modern Russia, the transliterated term gastarbeiter (гастарбайтер) is used to denote workers from former Soviet republics coming to Russia (mainly Moscow and Saint Petersburg) in search of work. These workers come primarily from Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Also for a guest worker from outside Europe, from China, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Angola, Mozambique and Ethiopia. In contrast to such words as "gastrolle" (гастроль, сoncert tour), "gast professor" (invited to read the course at another university), which came to Russian from German, the word "gastarbeiter" - is not neutral in modern Russian and has a negative connotation.

See also[link]

• Buffer Theory
• Turks in Germany

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gastarbeiter

• German Embassy: Reform of Germany's citizenship and nationality law

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the German Wikipedia. (September 2011) Don't speak German? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the German article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|de|Gastarbeiter}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Schmidt in 1976
Chancellor of Germany
In office 16 May 1974 – 1 October 1982
President	Gustav Heinemann (1974) Walter Scheel (1974-1979) Karl Carstens (1979-1982)
Deputy	Hans-Dietrich Genscher (1974-1982) Egon Franke (1982)
Preceded by	Willy Brandt Walter Scheel (acting)
Succeeded by	Helmut Kohl
Federal Minister of Finance
In office 7 July 1972 – 16 May 1974
Preceded by	Karl Schiller
Succeeded by	Hans Apel
Federal Minister of Economics
In office 7 July 1972 – 15 December 1972
Preceded by	Karl Schiller
Succeeded by	Hans Friderichs
Federal Minister of Defence
In office 22 October 1969 – 7 July 1972
Preceded by	Gerhard Schröder
Succeeded by	Georg Leber
Personal details
Born	(1918-12-23) 23 December 1918 (age 93) Hamburg, German Empire
Political party	SPD
Spouse(s)	Hannelore "Loki" Glaser (1942–2010) (her death)
Profession	Economist, Civil servant
Religion	Lutheran
Signature

Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (German pronunciation: [ˈhɛlmʊt ˈʃmɪt]; born 23 December 1918) is a German Social Democratic politician who served as Chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. Prior to becoming chancellor, he had served as Minister of Defence and Minister of Finance. He had also served briefly as Minister of Economics and as acting Foreign Minister. He is the oldest surviving German Chancellor and the last surviving person to have been solely Chancellor of West Germany (Helmut Kohl was Chancellor of both West Germany and reunified Germany). He is also the oldest living Federal German Minister, after the death of his Interior Minister Werner Maihofer.

Background[link]

Helmut Schmidt was born in Hamburg, as son of two teachers. He studied at Hamburg Lichtwark School, graduating in 1937. He was conscripted into military service and began serving with an anti-aircraft battery at Vegesack near Bremen during World War II. After brief service on the Eastern Front he returned to Germany in 1942 to work as a trainer and advisor at the Reichsluftfahrtministerium. Also in 1942, on 27 June, he married his childhood sweetheart Hannelore "Loki" Glaser (3 March 1919 – 21 October 2010), with whom he fathered two children: Helmut Walter (26 June 1944–February 1945, died of meningitis), and Susanne (b. 1947), who works in London for Bloomberg Television. Toward the end of the war, from December 1944 onwards, he served as an Oberleutnant in the artillery 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.^[1]

Schmidt's father was the illegitimate son of a German Jewish businessman, although this was kept secret in the family.^[2][3] This was confirmed publicly by Helmut Schmidt in 1984, after Valéry Giscard d'Estaing had, apparently with Schmidt's assent, revealed the fact to journalists. Schmidt himself is a non-practicing Lutheran.^[4]

Schmidt completed his education in Hamburg, studying economics and political science. He graduated in 1949.

Political career[link]

Early years[link]

Schmidt had joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 1946, and from 1947 to 1948 was leader of the Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund, the then-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 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".^[5] 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.

From 27 February 1958, to 29 November 1961, he was a Member of the European Parliament, which was not directly elected at the time.

Senator[link]

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. Schmidt used all means at his disposal to alleviate the situation, even when that meant overstepping his legal authority, including federal police and army units (ignoring the German constitution's prohibition on using the army for "internal affairs"; a clause excluding disasters was not added until 1968). Describing his actions, Schmidt said, "I wasn't put in charge of these units - I took charge of them!"

This characteristic was coupled with a pragmatic attitude and opposition to political idealism, including those of student protests, best symbolised by his well known remark that "People who have a vision should go see a doctor."

Return to Federal politics[link]

In 1965, he was re-elected to the Bundestag. In 1967, after the formation of the Grand Coalition between SPD and CDU, he became chairman of the Social Democrat parliamentary party, a post he held until the elections of 1969.

In 1967, he was elected deputy party chairman.

In October 1969, he entered the government of Willy Brandt as defence minister. During his term in office the military conscription time was reduced from 18 to 15 months. Additionally, Schmidt decided to introduce the Bundeswehr universities in Hamburg and Munich to broaden the academic education of the German officer corps. In July 1972, he succeeded Karl Schiller as Minister for Economics and Finances, but in November 1972, he relinquished the Economics department, which was again made a separate ministry. Schmidt remained Minister of Finances until May 1974.

From 1968 to 1984, Schmidt was deputy chairman of the SPD (unlike Willy Brandt and Gerhard Schröder, he was never actually chairman of the party).

Chancellor[link]

He 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. During his term, Germany had to cope with the oil crisis of the 1970s; according to some judgments, Germany managed better than the most of the industrial states. 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 Final Act 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 FDP.

Regarding the terrorist Red Army Faction he held to a tough, no compromise line. Specifically, he authorized the GSG 9 anti-terrorist unit to end the hijacking of the Lufthansa aircraft Landshut by force in the German Autumn of 1977.

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. He was re-elected as chancellor in November 1980. In October 1981, Schmidt was fitted with a cardiac pacemaker.

At the beginning of his period as Bundeskanzler, Schmidt was a proponent of Keynesian economics, and pursued expansionary monetary and fiscal policies during his time as chancellor. Between 1979 and 1982, the Schmidt Administration pursued such policies in an effort to reduce unemployment. These were moderately successful, as the fiscal measures introduced after 1977, which reductions in income and wealth taxes and an increase in the medium-term public investment programme, was estimated to have created 160,000 additional jobs in 1978-79, or 300,000 if additional public sector employment was included in the figure).^[6] The small fall the unemployment rate, however, was achieved at the cost of a larger budget deficit (which rose from 31.2 billion DM to 75.7 billion DM in 1981), brought about by fiscal expansion).^[7]

During the Seventies West Germany was able to weather the global financial storm far better than almost all the other developed countries, with unemployment and inflation kept at comparatively low levels. During the 1976 election campaign, the SDP-FDP coalition was able to win the battle of statistics, whether the figures related to employee’s incomes, strikes, unemployment, growth, or public sector debts. Amongst other social improvements, retirement pensions had been doubled between 1969 and 1976, and unemployment pay increased to 68% of previous earnings.^[8]

By the end of his term, however, Schmidt had turned away from deficit spending, due to a deteriorating economic situation, and a number of welfare cuts were carried out,^[9] including smaller increases in child benefits and higher unemployment and health contributions.^[10] Large sections of the SPD increasingly opposed his security policy while most of the FDP politicians strongly supported that policy; while representatives of the left wing of the Social Democratic Party opposed reduction of the state expenditures, the FDP began proposing a monetarist economic policy. In February 1982, Schmidt won a Motion of Confidence, however on 17 September 1982, the coalition broke apart, with the four FDP ministers leaving his cabinet. Schmidt continued to head a minority government composed only of SPD members, while the FDP negotiated a coalition with the CDU/CSU. During this time Schmidt also headed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On 1 October 1982, parliament approved of a Vote of No-Confidence and elected the CDU chairman Helmut Kohl as the new Chancellor. This was the first and only time in the history of the Federal Republic that a Chancellor was ousted from office in this way.

Domestic reforms[link]

Although Schmidt did not feel that he was in a position to substantially extend the social reforms of the Brandt Administration, due to the economic problems he encountered during his time as chancellor, a wide range of reforms were nevertheless carried out under his administration. These included:

• The introduction of employment creation schemes to help young workers.^[11]
• Major improvements in welfare provision for the elderly.^[12]
• The Training Opportunities Act (1976) which, over a four-year period, helped to increase the number of vocational training places from 450,000 to 630,000 a year.^[13]
• The replacement of tax allowances by child benefit as well as payment for the first child (1975).^[14]
• A new declaration of social rights (1976).^[15]
• A Sex Discrimination Act (1977).^[16]
• The introduction of a "parity" system (although in a weakened form) on the supervisory boards of all companies employing over 2,000 workers, a reform which West German trade unions had long fought for.^[17] This law improved employee representation on the supervisory boards of companies outside the steel and coal industries. The main provision of this new piece of legislation was that in the 650 major companies that accounted for 70% of West Germany’s output, employee representation on the supervisory boards rose from one-third to one-half.^[18]
• The 1976 Act for the Promotion of Urban Development and the 1977 Housing Modernisation Act, which (together with the 1971 Act for the Promotion of Urban Development passed by the Brandt Administration) by the end of the Seventies had enabled most West German cities to introduce programmes aimed at renovating their pre-war residential areas.^[19]
• Improvements in family allowances, with monthly subsidies for children increased by over 100% (1975).^[20]
• The introduction of additional tax reforms that lowered the tax burden on low-income households, and which played an important role “in pre-empting a real decline in the income and purchasing power of workers”.^[21]
• The introduction of social policy legislation in the late seventies which increased family allowances (though by a smaller amount than in 1974) and maternity leave benefits.^[22]
• A tax relief act, which reduced income taxes and provided additional tax benefits for housing allowances.^[23]
• The introduction of several policy changes between 1976 and 1982, such as tax credits and family allowances, which compensated unions for wage restraint and “guaranteed the maintenance of a constant income level for employed persons and their families”.^[24]
• A substantial increase in the child allowance (1979).^[25]
• The launching of an experimental retraining programme on the shop floor (lasting from 1979 to 1981), which benefited 45,680 people.^[26]
• The Law to Improve Occupational Old Age Pensions (1974), which extended coverage of occupational pensions whilst also “co-ordinating them more closely with state pensions and setting minimum standards as regards benefit levels and the preservation of pension rights.” By 1976, as a result of this legislation, 65% of private sector employees were covered by occupational schemes and over two-thirds of these workers were eligible for benefits equal to more than 15% of their earnings at retirement.^[27]
• Improvements in invalidity and old-age pension provision for the unemployed, who (from 1977 onwards) were technically insured free of charge under the old-age pension and invalidity scheme. Previously, there had only existed partial and restricted coverage for the unemployed.^[28]
• A reform of naming for partners after marriage (1976).^[29]
• A reform of marriage law, which eliminated “moral guilt” as a criterion for alimony payment obligations (1976).^[30]
• Increases in child benefits, which rose on a regular basis (particularly for families with more than one child) for most of the years that the Schmidt Administration was in office.^[31]
• The introduction of a provisional law (1976) to boost the number of apprentices, which reduced the numbers of young people out of work.^[32]
• The First Marriage Reform Law (1976), which stated that pension entitlements acquired during marriage must be shared with the economically weaker spouse following divorce.^[33]
• The Artists’ Social insurance Law (1981), which introduced compulsory insurance for artists below a certain income-limit.^[34]
• Increases in pensions, which went up in numerical terms by 11.1% (1975), 11.0% (1976), 9.9% (1977), 4.5% (1979), 4% (1980), 4% (1981), and 5.8% (1982). Adjusted for changes in the annual price index, pensions went up in real terms by 5.1% (1975), 6.7% (1976), 6.2% (1977), 0.4% (1979), and 0.6% (1982). However, the rate of pension was not changed in 1978 (even though prices increased by 2.7%), and in 1980 and 1981 the real value of pensions fell by 1.5% and 2.3%, respectively.^[35]
• The Introductory Tax Reform Law (1974), which increased bad weather payments, part-time workers’ benefits and insurance benefits to 68% of net wages, fixed special benefits during vocational training at 90% of net earnings, increased assistance benefits to 58% of net earnings, and abolished special family benefits “in favour of the inclusion of the unemployed under general child allowance scheme”.^[36]
• The Maintenance Security Law (1979), which introduced public advance payments for single parents “not in receipt of maintenance payments from the liable parent.” These benefits were made payable up to 36 months, and private claims against a parent not meeting a maintenance liability were taken over by the state.^[37]
• The extension of entitlement to educational allowances to cover all tenth-grade pupils in vocational education (1978).^[38]
• The adoption of the European directive on equal treatment for women in paid employment (1979).^[39]
• The passage of the Detergents Law (1975) and the Effluency Levies Act (1978) to encourage environmental protection.^[40]
• The introduction of four months paid parental leave for working mothers (1979).^[41]
• The introduction of a law which enabled married women to enter employment without the permission of their husbands (1977).^[42]
• The strengthening of the legal status of people from other countries by facilitating the acquisition of unlimited residence permits (1978).^[43]
• An amendment to the legal code for residency permits (1978), which granted foreign residents the right to unlimited residence permits after five years of continuous residency. The amendment also stated that legal residents would be eligible for a residence entitlement after eight years if certain conditions were met, such as language fluency.^[44]
• A reduction in poverty between 1978 and 1982.^[45]

Cabinets during Schmidt´s Chancellorship[link]

Schmidt's first term as Federal Chancellor, 16 May 1974–15 December 1976

• Helmut Schmidt (SPD) - Chancellor
• Hans-Dietrich Genscher (FDP) - Vice Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Georg Leber (SPD) - Minister of Defense
• Werner Maihofer (FDP) - Minister of the Interior
• Hans Apel (SPD) - Minister of Finance
• Hans-Jochen Vogel (SPD) - Minister of Justice
• Hans Friedrichs (FDP) - Minister of Economics
• Walter Arendt (SPD) - Minister of Labour and Social Affairs
• Josef Ertl (FDP) - Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Forestry
• Kurt Gscheidle (SPD) - Minister of Transport, Posts, and Communications
• Karl Ravens (SPD) - Minister of Construction
• Katharina Focke (SPD) - Minister of Youth, Family, and Health
• Hans Matthöfer (SPD) - Minister of Research and Technology
• Helmut Rohde (SPD) - Minister of Education and Science
• Erhard Eppler (SPD) - Minister of Economic Cooperation
• Egon Franke (SPD) - Minister of Intra-German Relations

Changes

• 4 July 1974 - Egon Bahr (SPD) succeeds Eppler as Minister of Economic Cooperation.

Schmidt's second term as Federal Chancellor, 15 December 1976–5 November 1980

• Helmut Schmidt (SPD) - Chancellor
• Hans-Dietrich Genscher (FDP) - Vice Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Georg Leber (SPD) - Minister of Defense
• Werner Maihofer (FDP) - Minister of the Interior
• Hans Apel (SPD) - Minister of Finance
• Hans-Jochen Vogel (SPD) - Minister of Justice
• Hans Friedrichs (FDP) - Minister of Economics
• Herbert Ehrenberg (SPD) - Minister of Labour and Social Affairs
• Josef Ertl (FDP) - Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Forestry
• Kurt Gscheidle (SPD) - Minister of Transportation, Posts, and Communications
• Karl Ravens (SPD) - Minister of Construction
• Antje Huber (SPD) - Minister of Youth, Family, and Health
• Hans Matthöfer (SPD) - Minister of Research and Technology
• Helmut Rohde (SPD) - Minister of Education and Science
• Marie Schlei (SPD) - Minister of Economic Cooperation
• Egon Franke (SPD) - Minister of Intra-German Relations

Changes

• 7 October 1977 - Otto Graf Lambsdorff (FDP) succeeds Friedrichs as Minister of Economics.
• 16 February 1978 - Hans Apel (SPD) succeeds Leber as Minister of Defense. Hans Matthöfer (SPD) succeeds Apel as Minister of Finance. Volker Hauff succeeds Matthöfer as Minister of Research and Technology. Dieter Haack (SPD) succeeds Ravens as Minister of Construction. Jürgen Schmude (SPD) succeeds Rohde as Minister of Education and Science. Rainer Offergeld (SPD) succeeds Schlei as Minister of Economic Cooperation.
• 8 June 1978 - Gerhart Baum (FDP) succeeds Maihofer as Minister of the Interior.

Schmidt's third term as Federal Chancellor, 5 November 1980–17 September 1982

• Helmut Schmidt (SPD) - Chancellor
• Hans-Dietrich Genscher (FDP) - Vice Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Hans Apel (SPD) - Minister of Defense
• Gerhart Baum (FDP) - Minister of the Interior
• Hans Matthöfer (SPD) - Minister of Finance
• Hans-Jochen Vogel (SPD) - Minister of Justice
• Otto Graf Lambsdorff (FDP) - Minister of Economics
• Herbert Ehrenberg (SPD) - Minister of Labour and Social Affairs
• Josef Ertl (FDP) - Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Forestry
• Volker Hauff (SPD) - Minister of Transport
• Dieter Haack (SPD) - Minister of Construction
• Antje Huber (SPD) - Minister of Youth, Family, and Health
• Andreas von Bülow (SPD) - Minister of Research and Technology
• Jürgen Schmude (SPD) - Minister of Education and Science
• Rainer Offergeld (SPD) - Minister of Economic Cooperation
• Kurt Gscheidle (SPD) - Minister of Posts and Communications
• Egon Franke (SPD) - Minister of Intra-German Relations

Changes

• 28 January 1981 - Jürgen Schmude (SPD) succeeds Vogel as Minister of Justice. Björn Engholm succeeds Schmude as Minister of Education and Science.
• 28 April 1982 - Hans Matthöfer (SPD) succeeds Gscheidle as Minister of Posts and Communications. Manfred Lahnstein (SPD) succeeds Matthöfer as Minister of Finance. Heinz Westphal (SPD) succeeds Ehrenberg as Minister of Labour and Social Affairs. Anke Fuchs (SPD) succeeds Huber as Minister of Youth, Family, and Health.
• 17 September 1982 - All the Free Democratic ministers quit the government. Helmut Schmidt (SPD) succeeds Genscher as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Jürgen Schmude (SPD) succeeds Baum as Minister of the Interior, remaining also Minister of Justice. Manfred Lahnstein (SPD) succeeds Lambsdorff as Minister of Economics, remaining also Minister of Finance. Björn Engholm (SPD) succeeds Ertl as Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Forestry, remaining also Minister of Education and Science.

Life after politics[link]

In 1982, along with his friend Gerald Ford, he co-founded the annual AEI World Forum.

In 1983, he joined the nationwide weekly Die Zeit newspaper as co-publisher. In 1985, he became Managing Director. With Takeo Fukuda he founded the Inter Action Councils in 1983. He retired from the Bundestag in 1986. In December 1986, he was one of the founders of the committee supporting the EMU and the creation of the European Central Bank.

Contrary to the current line of his party, Helmut Schmidt is a determined opponent of Turkey's entry into the EU. He also opposes phasing out nuclear energy, something that the Red-Green coalition of Gerhard Schröder supported. Further, Schmidt regards the climate debate “hysteric”^[46] and the IPCC reports skeptical.^[47] About the Internet, Schmidt said, he perceives it as a "threatening".^[48]

Schmidt is author of numerous books on his political life, on foreign policy and political ethics. He remains one the most renowned political publicists in Germany.

In recent years, Schmidt has been afflicted with increasing deafness.

Friendships[link]

Schmidt with Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1977)

Schmidt numbered the assassinated Egyptian president Anwar as-Sadat among his particular friends from the world of politics, and sustains his friendship with ex-president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing of France. His circle also includes former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who is on record as stating that he wishes to predecease Helmut Schmidt, because he would not wish to live in a world without Schmidt.^[49]

He was also good friends with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. In 2011 Schmidt, accompanied by Jean Chrétien and Tom Axworthy, made a pilgrimage to the Trudeau family vault in St-Rémi-de-Napierville Cemetery.^[50]

Personal life[link]

• He is a great admirer of the philosopher Karl Popper, and contributed a foreword to the 1982 Festschrift in Popper's honor.^[51]

• The University of Germany's Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg was renamed Helmut Schmidt University - University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg in 2003 in honour of the politician who – as minister of defence – had introduced obligatory academic education for German career officers.

• Born and raised in Hamburg, Schmidt is regarded in Germany as an embodiment of hanseatic values, according to which he has never accepted a medal or an order of merit (not even the Federal Republic's Federal Cross of Merit).

• Schmidt is also a talented pianist, and has recorded piano concertos of both Mozart and Bach with the well-known German pianist and conductor, Christoph Eschenbach.

Helmut Schmidt smoking.

• Schmidt (as was his late wife) is a smoker. He is well known for lighting up cigarettes on TV interviews and talkshows. In January 2008, German police launched an enquiry after Schmidt was reported by an anti-smoking initiative for defying the recently introduced smoking ban. The initiative claimed that Helmut Schmidt had been flagrantly ignoring laws "for decades". Despite pictures in the press, the case was subsequently dropped after the public prosecution service decided that Schmidt's actions had not been a threat to public health.^[52]

• On April 6, 2010, with a lifespan of 33 342 days he surpassed Konrad Adenauer in terms of longevity and is now the oldest former chancellor in German history.

Bibliography[link]

Memoirs[link]

• Menschen und Mächte (Persons and Powers), Siedler, Berlin 1987. Memoirs with focus on cold war politics.
• Die Deutschen und ihre Nachbarn (The Germans and their Neighbours), Siedler, Berlin 1990. Strong focus on European politics.
• Kinder und Jugend unter Hitler, with Willi Berkhan et al. (Childhood and Youth under Hitler). Siedler, Berlin 1992.
• Weggefährten (Companions), Siedler, Berin 1996. Personal memoirs, with focus on personal relations with domestic and foreign politicians

Recent political books (selection)[link]

• Balance of Power, Kimber, 1971, ISBN 978-0-7183-0112-5
• The Soviet Union: Challenges and Responses As Seen from the European Point of View, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1984, ISBN 978-9971-902-75-9
• A Grand Strategy for the West: The Anachronism of National Strategies in an Interdependent World, Yale University Press, reprint 1987, ISBN 978-0-300-04003-6
• Men and Powers: A Political Retrospective, Random House, 1989, ISBN 978-0-394-56994-9
• A Global Ethic and Global Responsibilities: Two Declarations, with Hans Kung, SCM Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0-334-02740-9
• Bridging the Divide: Religious Dialogue and Universal Ethics, Queen's Policy Studies, 2008, ISBN 978-1-55339-220-0
• Auf der Suche nach einer öffentlichen Moral (In Search of a Public Morality), DVA, Stuttgart 1998.
• Die Selbstbehauptung Europas (The Self-Assertion of Europe), DVA, Stuttgart 2000.
• Die Mächte der Zukunft. Gewinner und Verlierer in der Welt von morgen (The Powers of the Future. Winners and Losers in the World of Tomorrow) Siedler, Munich 2004.
• Nachbar China, with Frank Sieren (Neighbour China), Econ, Berlin 2006.
• Ausser Dienst (Out of Service), Siedler, Munich 2008. A political legacy.

References[link]

Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (October 2010)

Further reading[link]

• Carr, Jonathan (1985), Helmut Schmidt: Helmsman of Germany, New York: St. Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-36744-9 .
• Schmidt, Helmut. Men and Power: A Political Retrospective (1990), his memoir

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Helmut Schmidt

• Biography at the German Historic Museum (German)
• Chancellor Site (German)
• Helmut Schmidt University (English)
• Talks:
  • Die Selbstbehauptung Europas im neuen Jahrhundert (German, 2000)
  • Kröten und Paragrafenwahn (German, 2006)
  • Schmidt's talk on the occasion of China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visiting Hamburg (English, 2006)
  • Interview on nuclear strategy in Europe for the WGBH series, War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
  • Booknotes interview with Schmidt on Men and Powers, April 15, 1990.
    • Men and Powers: A Political Retrospective on Google Books.

v t e Chancellors of Germany North German Confederation (1867–1871) Otto von Bismarck German Empire (1871–1918) Otto von Bismarck Leo von Caprivi Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst Bernhard von Bülow Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg Georg Michaelis Georg von Hertling Prince Maximilian of Baden Friedrich Ebert Weimar Republic (1919–1933) Philipp Scheidemann Gustav Bauer Hermann Müller Konstantin Fehrenbach Joseph Wirth Wilhelm Cuno Gustav Stresemann Wilhelm Marx Hans Luther Wilhelm Marx Hermann Müller Heinrich Brüning Franz von Papen Kurt von Schleicher Third Reich (1933–1945) Adolf Hitler Joseph Goebbels Count Schwerin von Krosigk (as Leading Minister) Allied occupation Governors of British, French, American and Soviet occupation zones Federal Republic (1949–) Konrad Adenauer Ludwig Erhard Kurt Georg Kiesinger Willy Brandt Helmut Schmidt Helmut Kohl Gerhard Schröder Angela Merkel

v t e Economy Ministers of Germany Imperial Economy Secretaries (1871–1918) Rudolf Schwander Hans Karl Freiherr von Stein zu Nord- und Ostheim August Müller Weimar Republic (1918–1933) Rudolf Wissell Robert Schmidt Ernst Scholz Robert Schmidt Johann Becker Hans von Raumer Joseph Koeth Eduard Hamm Albert Neuhaus Rudolf Krohne Julius Curtius Paul Moldenhauer Robert Schmidt Hermann Dietrich Ernst Trendelenburg Hermann Warmbold Ernst Trendelenburg Hermann Warmbold Nazi Germany (1933–1945) Alfred Hugenberg Kurt Schmitt Hjalmar Schacht Hermann Göring Walther Funk German Democratic Republic (1949–1990) Christa Luft Gerhard Pohl Federal Republic of Germany (1949–) Ludwig Erhard Kurt Schmücker Karl Schiller Helmut Schmidt Hans Friderichs Otto Graf Lambsdorff Manfred Lahnstein Otto Graf Lambsdorff Martin Bangemann Helmut Haussmann Jürgen Möllemann Günter Rexrodt Werner Müller Wolfgang Clement Michael Glos Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg Rainer Brüderle Philipp Rösler

v t e Finance Ministers of Germany German Empire (1871–1918) Adolf von Scholz Franz Emil Emanuel von Burchard Karl Rudolf Jacobi Baron Helmuth von Maltzahn Arthur von Posadowsky-Wehner Max Franz Guido von Thielmann Baron Hermann von Stengel Reinhold Sydow Adolf Wermuth Hermann Kühn Karl Helfferich Count Siegfried von Roedern Weimar Republic (1918–1933) Eugen Schiffer Bernhard Dernburg Matthias Erzberger Joseph Wirth Andreas Hermes Rudolf Hilferding Hans Luther Otto von Schlieben Hans Luther Peter Reinhold Heinrich Köhler Rudolf Hilferding Paul Moldenhauer Heinrich Brüning Hermann R. Dietrich Third Reich (1933–1945) Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk East Germany (1949–1990) Hans Loch Willy Rumpf Siegfried Böhm Werner Schmieder Ernst Höfner Uta Nickel Walter Romberg Werner Skowron Federal Republic of Germany (1949–) Fritz Schäffer Franz Etzel Heinz Starke Rolf Dahlgrün Kurt Schmücker Franz Josef Strauss Alex Möller Karl Schiller Helmut Schmidt Hans Apel Hans Matthöfer Manfred Lahnstein Gerhard Stoltenberg Theodor Waigel Oskar Lafontaine Hans Eichel Peer Steinbrück Wolfgang Schäuble

v t e Defence Ministers of Germany Weimar Republic (1918-1933) Gustav Noske Otto Gessler Wilhelm Groener Kurt von Schleicher Third Reich (1933-1945) Werner von Blomberg (1933-1938) East Germany (1949-1990) Willi Stoph Heinz Hoffmann Heinz Kessler Theodor Hoffmann Rainer Eppelmann Federal Republic of Germany (1949-) Theodor Blank Franz Josef Strauss Kai-Uwe von Hassel Gerhard Schröder Helmut Schmidt Georg Leber Hans Apel Manfred Wörner Rupert Scholz Gerhard Stoltenberg Volker Rühe Rudolf Scharping Peter Struck Franz Josef Jung Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg Thomas de Maizière

v t e Foreign Ministers of Germany German Empire (1871–1918) Thile Balan B.E. v. Bülow Radowitz Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst Limburg-Stirum Busch Hatzfeld zu Trachenberg H. v. Bismarck Bieberstein B. von Bülow Richthofen Tschirschky-Bögendorff Schoen Kiderlen-Waechter Jagow Zimmermann Kühlmann Hintze Solf Brockdorff-Rantzau Weimar Republic (1918–1933) Brockdorff-Rantzau Müller Köster Simons Rosen Wirth Rathenau Rosenberg Stresemann Curtius Brüning Neurath Nazi Germany (1933–1945) Neurath Ribbentrop Seyss-Inquart Schwerin von Krosigk German Democratic Republic (East Germany) (1949–1990) Dertinger Ackermann Bolz Winzer O. Fischer Meckel de Maizière Federal Republic of Germany (since 1949) Adenauer Brentano Schröder Brandt Scheel Genscher Kinkel J. Fischer Steinmeier Westerwelle

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