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Conservationist wife of German chancellor Schmidt dies

21 October 2010 19:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Hannelore "Loki" Schmidt, the wife of former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and an early conservationist in her own right has died aged 91, her husband’s parliamentary office said Thursday, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
Loki met her husband, a Social Democrat who served as chancellor from 1974 to 1982, in primary school. They had been married for 68 years.
She started a foundation for the protection of endangered plants in 1976 and, on her 80th birthday, received a University of Hamburg professorship to honor her efforts in conservationism.
Two plants, the puya lokischmidtiae and the pitcairnia lokiae as well as the scorpion tityus lokiae have been named after her.
The Schmidts were well known for smoking in public. In 2008, they caused outrage among anti-smoking activists when they lit up in a Hamburg theater shortly after the city introduced a new smoking ban.
Helmut Schmidt, 91, is now revered as an elder statesman in Germany and polls show he is one of the most popular post-war chancellors.