Helmut Schmidt, the former West German chancellor who steered his country through the world economic crisis and cold war tension of the 1970s and early 1980s has died at the age of 96.
Of the six chancellors who led West Germany between the end of the second world war and its 1990 reunification with the east, none wore the mantle of statesmanship at home and abroad with more poise and more trenchant professionalism than Schmidt.
Angela Merkel, the current chancellor, praised Schmidt as a man who had “rendered outstanding service to his country”. She said she often sought his advice, and had visited him in Hamburg as recently as last year.
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