Love in times of war

Luftwaffe First Lieutenant Helmut Schmidt and teacher Hannelore »Loki« Glaser say »I do« here. It’s a wartime marriage that will last for 68 years. The pair’s church ceremony is held in Hambergen, a village north of Bremen. Neither Helmut nor Loki are practising Christians. But as they explain later, they have high hopes for the Church’s ability to provide political and societal strength after the end of the war and dictatorship. In 1992, Schmidt recalls his thoughts about entering into the marriage in a longer essay: »What will our joint future look like? Will there be a time for us without war and without Nazis?« The building in the Uhlenhorst district is now used for commercial purposes.