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.