»Pleasing level of understanding and knowledge«

From 1929 to 1937, Schmidt attends the progressive secondary school named after the Kunsthalle art gallery’s first director, Alfred Lichtwark. At the school, a great deal of value is placed on personal development and interdisciplinary thinking – in stark contrast to the »cram schools« that are common at the time, at which knowledge is rigidly learned by heart. From an early age, Schmidt receives plenty of practice in developing his own judgements and connecting different topics – skills that will greatly assist him on his journey into politics. And there’s another peculiarity: boys and girls are instructed together. This explains how the ten-year-old Helmut gets to know his later wife, Hannelore »Loki« Glaser. It is not for nothing that he later describes this period as being a »stroke of luck« in several ways.