Life-long passion

The collection of expressionist works keeps enticing Schmidt – who has been interested in art since his schooldays – back to the brick building near the central railway station. The extensive collection includes 11 paintings and 136 works on paper by Emil Nolde, who in Schmidt’s view is the most important artist of the 20th century, along with the sculptor Ernst Barlach. Schmidt purchases his first Nolde drawing while a student in 1948. His office in the Chancellery, which he moves into in 1976, is called the »Nolde Room«. One of Schmidt’s last texts is a foreword for the Kunsthalle’s exhibition »Nolde in Hamburg« in 2015 for which he is a patron. While Nolde was a committed anti-Semite and Nazi, Schmidt deems Nolde’s background to be less important than his artistic achievements.