Helmut Schmidt was born in Hamburg on December 23, 1918.

After his release from British captivity after the Second World War, he studied economics and political science until 1949. At the same time, he became politically active in the SPD. Following his studies, he was employed by the Hamburg Ministry of Economics and Transport.

In 1953, he was elected to the German Bundestag for the first time, where he remained a member until 1987 (with the exception of the years 1961 to 1965). Between 1961 and 1965, he served as Senator of the Interior in Hamburg and gained great popularity for his crisis management during the storm surge of 1962. In federal politics, he rose to become parliamentary party leader and held various ministerial posts before being elected the fifth Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1974.

In this function, he was received by Lord Mayor Rudi Schmitt in Wiesbaden City Hall on March 11, 1978. Schmidt was honored and thanked him for the kind invitation. He then signed the city's Golden Book.

After the failure of his social-liberal coalition, he was replaced as Federal Chancellor by Helmut Kohl in 1982. His security policy was continued by the new government and led to further rapprochement between East and West. As co-editor of the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit", Schmidt has been largely active as a journalist and advisor since 1983.