Word: schmidts
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...political crisis to confront the Federal Republic should do much to allay those fears. Less than two weeks after Willy Brandt stunned his countrymen by suddenly resigning as Chancellor, a new government was functioning smoothly in Bonn. Last Thursday, in the modern and austere Bundestag chambers, Social Democrat Helmut Schmidt, 55, took the oath as West Germany's fifth Chancellor...
...Schmidt, the former Finance Minister, apportioned the seats in his coalition Cabinet in almost the same ratio as they were in Brandt's: eleven Social Democrats and four Free Democrats. About half of the incumbent Ministers retained their portfolios. The most significant change was the departure of Free Democrat Chief Walter Scheel as Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister. Last week he was elected to a five-year term as West Germany's President, a ceremonial office with little real power...
...Hamburg schoolteacher, Schmidt joined the Hitler Youth when the Nazis came to power in 1933 and later served as an artillery battery commander in the Wehrmacht during World War II until he was captured by the British. After the war, he studied economics at the University of Hamurg, where he was a star pupil of Karl Schiller, who later served as Brandt's first Finance Minister. Schmidt entered politics while still a student and became leader of the German Socialist Student Union, precursor of today's vociferous, left-wing Young Socialists (Jusos). He won a seat...
After the Social Democrats won the 1969 election, Brandt chose Schmidt -who would have preferred to be Foreign Minister-as his defense chief. In that thankless job, Schmidt modernized the West German arsenal and shook up the creaky officer corps, earning high marks from NATO leaders. One top American diplomat in Bonn called him "the best German Defense Minister since the war." He raised military morale and attracted volunteers by improving barracks life and allowing them to sport Beatle-length hair. To traditionalists' complaints that he was turning the Bundeswehr into the "German hair force," Schmidt asserted: "I couldn...
...Schmidt succeeded his former mentor Schiller as Finance Minister and tackled Germany's major economic problem: inflation, now running at 7.8% a year. A staunch proponent of a free market, Schmidt relied on tight-money policies rather than wage and price controls, an approach that has helped earn him the enmity of the Jusos, who make up about 25% of his own party. Last week Juso Chairman Heidi Wieczorek-Zeul called Schmidt "the worst possible choice" as Brandt's successor. Schmidt has also recently been at odds with the S.P.D.'s coalition partners, the Free Democrats...