Reading and landscape painting

1937 is an important year for Schmidt (left) for three main reasons: He passes his »Abitur« school-leaving qualification at the Lichtwark school, he completes his time in the Reich Labour Service in the summer and he is conscripted to the Wehrmacht in December. The Reitbrook labour camp was located near the Neuengamme concentration camp that was built in 1938. When recalling his service, Schmidt remembers having a large amount of time for reading (including for Proust and Dostoevsky), a work colleague with communist views whom he liked, and the »effectively daft« political instruction from the camp’s leadership. Schmidt reports that he mainly painted watercolour landscapes for his superior, rather than undertaking physical work. All buildings are torn down by 1956. The areas now form part of a nature reserve.