Social Democrat Helmut Schmidt (born 1918) served as chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1974 to 1982. He led his nation into a more prominent role in European and Atlantic alliance affairs and strengthened the West German economy.

Helmut Schmidt was born in a working class section of Hamburg on December 23, 1918. His stern father and his brother were teachers, and he married a teacher. Schmidt received a good education, becoming fluent in English and an accomplished musician. He maintained a student's passion to always learn and the schoolmaster's impatience with those who are lazy. He was 14 when Hitler came to power and was 16 or 17 when he was told and then guarded the dangerous family secret: his paternal grandfather was Jewish.

In 1937 Schmidt was drafted, spending eight years in the army, participating in the 1941 invasion of Russia, and earning an Iron Cross as an artillery officer before being...