Loki Schmidt:More than just Chancellor's wife

Loki Schmidt became known as the wife of Helmut Schmidt - but above all she was a committed conservationist. Hamburg's honorary citizen died ten years ago.

Teacher, botanist, author:Hannelore "Loki" Schmidt was more than "just" the wife of her prominent husband Helmut Schmidt. The Hamburg native liked to get involved in current social issues such as school politics and was committed to protecting endangered plants. It has received several awards for its commitment to the environment. Even as Chancellor's wife from 1974 to 1982, she received great sympathy and recognition nationwide.

She met Helmut when she was ten

Hannelore Glaser, born on March 3, 1919 in Hamburg-Barmbek, grew up as the daughter of an industrial electrician in modest circumstances in the districts of Hammerbrook and Hamm. She attended the Lichtwarkschule in Winterhude, one of the few reform schools of the higher education system in the Weimar Republic. There she became friends with her future husband Helmut at the age of ten. At the same age, the two smoke their first cigarette together. "Loki and I have been smoking together for more than 70 years," Helmut Schmidt once said.

When Loki's father became unemployed in 1931, his mother had to take care of the family as a seamstress. Loki takes care of her younger siblings during the day and often doesn't get to work on her schoolwork until late at night. Her father thanks her in his own way:"Then my dear father made me a cup of coffee, put a cigarette on the saucer and pushed it quietly over to me," Loki later says of her youth. Apparently this kind of reward burns deep in Loki's memory - she says she never skimped on cigarettes or coffee later.

First a teacher, then the chancellor's wife

After graduating from high school, Loki completed a pedagogical course in Hamburg until 1940. The original career aspiration as a biologist fails due to the high tuition fees. From 1940 to 1972, Loki Schmidt worked as a teacher at Hamburg elementary and secondary schools before she took on the public duties as the wife of a federal minister and then federal chancellor.

Loki married Helmut Schmidt, who was about two months older than him, in June 1942. The marriage produced two children. The first child, Helmut Walter, was born in 1944 but died only a few months later - presumably from meningitis. Daughter Susanne was born in 1947. The doctor of economics and business journalist lives in London.

Married for 68 years

Loki and her husband Helmut share a love of art and music, chess and their house on the Brahmsee. The two have been married for 68 years. Helmut Schmidt is said to have had numerous affairs. In his last book, "What I wanted to say," he himself made public a long-standing love affair with a woman from Hamburg who was 18 years his junior. However, he strictly rejected Loki's proposed divorce, he writes.

Commitment to plant and nature protection

Between 1974 and 1982, when her husband was chancellor, Loki Schmidt took on many protocol-related tasks, but remained down-to-earth. When heads of state like Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Gerald Ford or Leonid Breschnew visit the house in Hamburg-Langenhorn, she cooks kale, Labskaus or roast beef with fried potatoes and makes red fruit jelly. But Loki Schmidt does not hide in her husband's shadow. As a committed plant protector, she is building up her own field of activity. "I took advantage of my husband's time in Bonn to get a hearing," she later said. Numerous foundation activities can be traced back to Loki Schmidt's initiative.

At her own expense, she accompanies research trips by scientists, mostly from the Max Planck Society. In 1985, on a trip to Mexico, she discovered an unnamed bromeliad species. Experts therefore give the plant the name "Pitcairnia loki-schmidtiae". As a thank you for her tireless commitment, both a species of balsam ("Impatiens loki-schmidtiae") and an orchid hybrid from a Dahlenberg breeder ("Doriella Loki Schmidt") are named after her. There is also a scorpion and a dahlia that bear her name.

Numerous publications and awards

From the 1970s, Loki Schmidt advocated the botanical gardens as important institutions for researching and preserving biological diversity. An illustrated book she published in 1997 with the first complete overview of Germany's botanical gardens and their important collections was highly praised. She researched for the book for two years and traveled 26,000 kilometers. In 1976, Loki Schmidt founded the Board of Trustees for the Protection of Endangered Plants, which, as the Loki Schmidt Foundation, has been awarding the "Flower of the Year" every year since 1980. She has also written several books on the subject, including "The Flowers of the Year" (2003). In the same year the book "Loki - Hannelore Schmidt tells about her life" is published.

On her 80th birthday, she received an honorary professorship from the University of Hamburg for her services in the field of botany. In 2000, the Department of Biology at the University of Hamburg awarded her an honorary doctorate. In December 2008, the Hamburg Senate decided to honor her with the honorary citizenship of the Hanseatic city. The award will be presented to her on February 12, 2009. The Othmarscher Kirchenweg school, where she taught for 13 years, is now called "Loki-Schmidt-School".

Moving funeral service at Michel

On the night of October 21, 2010, Loki Schmidt died at the age of 91. With a moving funeral service on November 1st in Hamburg, family, friends and companions say goodbye to her. More than 2,000 people come to the main church of St. Michaelis, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, the former Federal Presidents Richard von Weizsäcker and Horst Köhler, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and numerous political companions of Helmut Schmidt. Loki Schmidt is buried in the cemetery in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf.

Mementos of Loki Schmidt

Since October 2012, the Klein Flottbek Botanical Garden has been called Loki-Schmidt-Garten. A bust on the site is reminiscent of the popular Hamburger. A museum on the site is also dedicated to her - the Loki Schmidt House. The museum - a futuristic blue cube - provides information about useful plants, current research and Loki Schmidt's commitment to nature. It also shows changing special exhibitions. On the occasion of the 100th birthday, a commemorative plaque for Loki Schmidt will be unveiled in the botanical garden in 2019.

Editor's note:In a previous version of the article, the title of a book by Helmut Schmidt was given as "What else I would have to say". The correct title of the book to which the statements refer is "What else I wanted to say". We apologize for the error.