PDA

View Full Version : Helmut Schmidt in serious condition!


HarmanKardon
11-09-2015, 02:35 AM
Former chancellor Helmut Schmidt (96) is in a very serious physical condition. He is the most respected, most popular person in Germany, an icon of integrity!

HarmanKardon
11-09-2015, 06:54 AM
About 40 years ago...

donquixote99
11-09-2015, 07:28 AM
For a guy who got a pacemaker back in '81 he's got on pretty well....

Boreas
11-09-2015, 08:20 AM
It's too much to hope that, at 96 and with a 35 year old pacemaker, this crisis isn't likely to be his final one. I just hope his exit is a peaceful one bathed in love.

HarmanKardon
11-09-2015, 10:22 AM
He was an excellent piano player and he loved Bach more than anything else. "Since I cannot play piano anymore", he said some years ago due to disfunctions in his hands, "life is not pretty much worth living anymore".

Pio1980
11-09-2015, 10:27 AM
That would be worth having.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

HarmanKardon
11-10-2015, 09:53 AM
This afternoon he started his final journey.

Boreas
11-10-2015, 09:56 AM
Bon voyage.

finnbow
11-12-2015, 08:22 AM
Here's a nice article about Herr Schmidt.

www.nytimes.com/2015/11/13/opinion/why-germans-loved-helmut-schmidt.html

RIP, sir.

bobabode
11-12-2015, 09:34 AM
RIP Mr. Schmidt.

catswiththum
11-12-2015, 01:50 PM
An ardent fighter against domestic terror during the worst days of the cold war.

Also, a former Hitler Youth instructor, but WTF - half of the German gov. ministers were former Nazis in the 70's and 80's.

No big deal, right?

catswiththum
11-12-2015, 02:13 PM
But, I suppose everyone has to decide how much good outweighs how much bad. Von Braun got us to the moon - no telling how many Jews perished slaving away in his complex.

If I were Jewish, I wouldn't live anywhere but Israel - everyone gets around to f*&king with them sooner or later.

Anyway - on Schmidt from this week's Economist:

Fairness, not fads
His toughness towards the nihilist terrorists of the Red Army Faction outraged many liberal-minded Germans, who felt that extensive snooping, interrogations and quasi-military justice had dreadful echoes of the Nazi period. They flinched when he urged America to beef up its nuclear presence in Europe in response to the Soviet Union’s growing stockpile of medium-range missiles. But for him social democracy was based on fairness, not fads. He had no time for greenery, feminism or culture wars. Anyone with a vision should go and see a doctor, he once said. Far more important was bolstering the welfare system, building more houses and making Germany safe at home and abroad.

Boreas
11-12-2015, 03:32 PM
An ardent fighter against domestic terror during the worst days of the cold war.

Also, a former Hitler Youth instructor, but WTF - half of the German gov. ministers were former Nazis in the 70's and 80's.

No big deal, right?

But, I suppose everyone has to decide how much good outweighs how much bad. Von Braun got us to the moon - no telling how many Jews perished slaving away in his complex.

If I were Jewish, I wouldn't live anywhere but Israel - everyone gets around to f*&king with them sooner or later.



Yeah, mentioning the name Hitler is always good for a knee-jerk negative reaction but, as it happens, Schmidt was basically kicked out of the Hitler Youth for his anti-party views. This was pretty early on, in 1936. It also happens that Schmidt had Jewish ancestry.

HarmanKardon
11-14-2015, 01:10 PM
Thank you so much for mentioning the Barking Monster in this memorial thread. You are so wonderful! Thank you very very very much. I deeply appreciate it!

THANK YOU!

Nothing could be more typical of America. And once more:

THANKS!

Pio1980
11-14-2015, 05:00 PM
The dogma of the Third Reich was wallpaper for Germans of a certain age for 12 years, it's to be expected that it would involve him somehow, tho he did not dishonor his legacy with his experiences with its inevitability.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Boreas
11-14-2015, 07:44 PM
Thank you so much for mentioning the Barking Monster in this memorial thread. You are so wonderful! Thank you very very very much. I deeply appreciate it!

THANK YOU!

Nothing could be more typical of America. And once more:

THANKS!

I certainly hope you're wrong about that, Chris, but more and more I'm coming to think you're right.

HarmanKardon
11-15-2015, 02:36 AM
However, sometimes cynism is the only solution.

Boreas
11-15-2015, 06:53 AM
However, sometimes cynism is the only solution.


Cynicism is never a solution. It's a response which tends to preclude solutions.

HarmanKardon
11-15-2015, 06:58 AM
Okay. Sometimes cynism is a device for coping with certain issues a bit better.

ebacon
11-15-2015, 03:48 PM
Here's a nice article about Herr Schmidt.

www.nytimes.com/2015/11/13/opinion/why-germans-loved-helmut-schmidt.html

RIP, sir.

"Mr. Schmidt would be the first to disagree. He would have brushed such an idea aside with a wave of his hand, letting the smoke from his ever-present cigarette cover his grumpy face."

RIP. Sounds like he was a fun guy. Seriously.

HarmanKardon
11-23-2015, 07:32 AM
"Mr. Schmidt would be the first to disagree. He would have brushed such an idea aside with a wave of his hand, letting the smoke from his ever-present cigarette cover his grumpy face."

RIP. Sounds like he was a fun guy. Seriously.

There was a memorial ceremony today in Hamburg. Music has been conducted by Kent Nagano - Bach and Pachelbel. There were just three orations, held by the mayor of Hamburg, Kissinger and Merkel. The mayor quoted Schmidt:

"So eine Scheisse wie der zweite Weltkrieg darf nie mehr passieren." "Such a crap (!!!) like WWII should never happen again."

Picture shows Henry Kissinger after his remarkable and moving oration in German language.