»Greatest sculptor of the 20th century«

Along with the painter Emil Nolde, sculptor Ernst Barlach occupies another key position in Schmidt’s art universe. Schmidt’s private residence in Langenhorn holds six of Barlach’s sculptures and four of his works on paper. Even as an art-loving schoolboy, Schmidt is impressed by Barlach’s memorial opposite the town hall that remembers Hamburg’s dead from World War I. At the end of 1981, the Chancellor pays a »working visit« to East German leader Erich Honecker. Together with Honecker, Schmidt visits the town of Güstrow, in the Mecklenburg region, to view Barlach’s studio home and the cathedral that features Barlach’s sculpture »Der Schwebende [The Floating]«. For decades, Schmidt is a welcome guest at Othmarschen’s Ernst Barlach House, which is holding the exhibition »Kanzlers Kunst [The Chancellor’s Art]« in 2020/21.