- Daughter of a shipyard worker in Hamburg, Germany who lost his job in the 1930s. Her mother would earn money by sewing. She was one of three children.
- She had aspired to study biology but became a teacher instead. She studied biology after World War II but remained a teacher until 1970. She met her husband when they were schoolchildren.
- She is survived by her husband, Helmut Schmidt (former West German Chancellor from 1974 to 1982) of Hamburg, Germany; a daughter, Susanne Schmidt; their son, Helmut Walter Schmidt was born in June 1944 and died in March 1945.
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