Helmut Schmidt sees Josef Ratzinger as a dogmatist

Helmut Schmidt will be 95 tomorrow. To honour one of Germany's most important  post war chancellors  German television screened a 90-minute programme about him this evening.

He was Defence Minister, Finance Minister and from 1974 to 1982 Chancellor of the Federal Republic.

It was an extraordinary 90 minutes of television. Fascinating.

He was born in Hamburg. Spent eight years as a Wehrmacht soldier. Believes that people today who talk freely about war have no idea whatsoever about the brutality and evil of war.

For recreation and relaxation he listened to and played music. Today, due to partial deafness, he no longer plays the piano and has difficulty listening to music. The deafness in his left ear is the result of an injury he sustained on the Russian front.

A commentator in the programme remarked that if he were 30 years younger 80 per cent of the Germans would vote for him as chancellor.

When asked whether he was a loyal supporter of his party, the SPD. He replied he was always loyal to the ideal of the SPD, often the leadership of the SPD did not remain true to the ideals of the party.

He criticised Cardinal Ratzinger and referred to him as being dogmatic. The remark was prompted by the interviewer remarking how Willy Brandy was loved by the Germans, whereas Schmidt was respected. He wondered how priests and bishops, who are not allowed to marry can have so much to say on sexual matters.

He said he cried twice and one occasion was when he was reunited with his wife Loki in 1945. Loki and he kissed for the first time on a park bench in Hamburg . At Berlin's Nollendorf Platz U-Bahn Sation in 1942, on his way to the Russian front, he and Loki promised to marry. They knew each other since they were 10-years-old.

His hero - Marcus Aurelius.

He spoke a lot about his war experience, the fear of being seriously wounded or ending up in a Soviet camp, the nights spent worrying about the people he may have shot down as an ant-aircraft gunner.

His biological grandfather was a Jew. As a young boy he pleaded with his parents to allow him join the Hitler Jugend. They explained to him why he could not join his friends in the Hitler Youth.