{"id":17337,"date":"2026-09-21T11:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T08:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/?p=17337"},"modified":"2026-09-21T11:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T08:05:13","slug":"the-last-statesman-of-a-great-generation-helmut-schmidt-bahri-yilmaz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/2026\/09\/the-last-statesman-of-a-great-generation-helmut-schmidt-bahri-yilmaz\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Statesman of a Great Generation: Helmut Schmidt – Bahri Y\u0131lmaz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Helmut Schmidt (23 December 1918 \u2013 10 November 2015) is one of the most important figures in German politics. Many Germans, regardless of their party affiliation, consider him a statesman in the truest sense of the word. Twenty-five years after the end of his term as Federal Chancellor (1974-1982), he made an assessment and, with his peculiar clarity, addressed the fundamental issues of our time. Helmut Schmidt explained his purpose as a writer as follows: “Towards the end of my life, I wanted to write down what I believe I have learned politically over the decades<\/a>.”[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most important feature of Helmut Schmidt is his ability to analyze the problems of his country and international system and the relations between them through history, economy and politics. In summary, he was making a balance sheet of his life and career. He was discussing his mistakes with great sincerity. He was sharing his views on the future of both Germany and international relations with the public. In recent years, his books and videos containing interviews with him have started to be published one after the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his books, which are like a lesson, he gives important advice to politicians and emphasizes the importance of political ethics. He underlines that the most important element for a politician is “reliability and honesty”. He also states that politicians must have a profession as well as a good knowledge of their own and neighboring countries’ history, and emphasizes that the most important virtue in democracies is “compromise”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He expresses his views very openly on all issues, from the financial crisis of our time to environmental problems. While opposing “Savage Capitalism”, he explains the importance of ethics in politics and life to those who govern the country. He analyzes Germany’s recent history, the lessons to be learned and its role in the EU. He criticizes the leadership skills of elected leaders, today, which do not exceed the mediocre. In his view, this is the most important characteristic of the first and second generations of statesmen of the post-war eras. He attributes this to the fact that they had emerged from the world wars and had experienced all the suffering those wars entailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schmidt was born in Hamburg in 1918. His father was a teacher, and his mother was a housewife. He served in the military for eight years from 1937 to the end of 1945. He describes his childhood and years during the Hitler era in his book Kindheit und Jugend unter Hitler<\/em> (Childhood and Youth under the Hitler regime) published in 1991. During the war, he married his wife Hannelore. After the war, he completed his economics education at the University of Hamburg at the same time as the famous sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf. After becoming Hamburg Senator for the Interior, he entered the German Parliament in 1952 as an SPD deputy. Wwhen he voluntarily withdrew from politics in 1986, he started to write for the famous “Die Zeit”, one of Germany’s leading weekly newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a successful political career, he continues to convey his experiences, opinions, beliefs and his own truths to the public as an extremely prolific writer. He continues to give conferences in the visual and written media and at universities in different countries, especially in Germany. He is a conscious and convinced European. He played an important role in the enlargement of the European Union and the implementation of the European Monetary Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was closely interested in political philosophy and history and stated that he was influenced by philosophers and social scientists such as Karl Popper, Max Weber, Richard L\u00f6wenthal and Karl Dietrich Bracher in his life. In particular, he adopted Karl Popper’s principle of carrying out economic, social and state reforms step by step. Pragmatism and being reliable are other basic principles that determine his political and life philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of his most important characteristics was his political life, and the other one was his friends. Among his friends there are famous artists, politicians, scientists, businessmen and journalists of his time. He describes these in detail in his book Weggefaerten (Companions) which was published in 1996. One of his closest friends was the murdered President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat. He stated that he learned the commonalities and similarities of the three holy religions from Sadat. Besides Sadat, Henry Kissinger, former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew and former US Secretary of State George P. Schultz were among Scmidt\u2019s close friends. He was a fan of Marlene Dietrich, renowed conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan was one of his closest friends, and his piano concert with the famous German musicians Christoph Eschenbach and Justus Frantz accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra is still remembered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This colorful personality trait played an important role in his success in politics. In this sense, Schmidt constantly emphasized his belief that personal friendships and private conversations contribute to the solution of problems in politics. I think there may be very important lessons that today’s politicians can learn from him. T\u00fcrkiye needs such well-equipped, wise people, especially in these extraordinary times.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had the opportunity to read all the books and articles written by Helmut Schmidt. First of all, his memoirs Menschen und Machte<\/em> (People and Powers) which was published in 1990, is a book that emphasizes the historical relations of countries rather than personal memoirs and examines human-human relations as a part of these historical events. 

His interview book with China expert Frank Sieren in 2006, titled Nachbar China<\/em> (Neighbour China), and his<\/a> recently published book Ein letzter Besuch<\/em> (Last Visit) in 2013 give us extensive information about the latest developments in China. If you want to get to know China, you should definitely read this book covering history, economy and memories. During his first visit to China as German Chancellor in 1975, he describes his long and interesting meetings with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the creator of modern China. From that day on, he visited China periodically, met with its leaders, and discussed in detail the inner world, problems and future position of this country. Schmidt, who was interested in Confucian philosophy, also focused on the country’s role in the region and its relations with the USA and Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The translation of his book, Auf der Suche nach einer \u00f6ffentlichen Moral (The Search for Social Morality), which is a manifesto of political and social ethical values, <\/a>was published by Sabanc\u0131 University. After obtaining the translation rights for this book, I wrote a letter to Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and asked him to write a foreword for the Turkish translation of the book. He suggested that I write it. I tried to fulfill this task with great pride. I will remember this honor as one of the best memories of my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of his last interviews that I watched on German television, the presenter asked him about his last wish at the end of such a successful life. The answer of a statesman who spent his years to the fullest and was satisfied was very simple: \u201ca death without pain\u201d. He passed away on November 10, 2015 at the age of 96.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/sup><\/a> Helmut Schmidt, Ausser Dienst, Siedler, 2008, p.7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Helmut Schmidt (23 December 1918 \u2013 10 November 2015) is one of the most important figures in German politics. Many Germans, regardless of their party affiliation, consider him a statesman in the truest sense of the word. Twenty-five years after the end of his term as Federal Chancellor (1974-1982), he made an assessment and, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":275,"featured_media":17343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[486],"tags":[537,650],"class_list":["post-17337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-germany","tag-turkiye"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17337"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17346,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17337\/revisions\/17346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}