Helmut Schmidt is the neglected chancellor of modern German history, overshadowed by the greats-Bismarck, Adenauer, Brandt, and Kohl. This book retrieves Schmidts true significance as a pivotal figure who helped reshape the global order during the crisis-ridden 1970s. This major reinterpretation, based on detailed research in Schmidts private papers and numerous archives in Europe and America, reveals him as a leader equally skilled in economics and security and adept at personal diplomacy, who dared to act as a double interpreter between the superpowers during the nadir of the Cold War. Schmidt was no mere crisis manager: in fact he brought to the chancellorship a depth of reflection, evident in two decades of writings and speeches that justifies considering him an intellectual statesman on a par with Henry Kissinger. His achievements were prodigious. Hailed as the world economist, Schmidt helped create the G7 forum for global economic governance and the European Monetary System at a time when capitalism seemed on the rocks. And as the strategist of balance, he designed NATOs dual-track response to the crisis caused by the massive Soviet arms build-up of Euro-missiles. This decision, Kristina Spohr argues, played a crucial part in holding together the Western alliance and paved the way to defusing the Cold War in Europe. Schmidt brought his country to the top table of world politics-what he unashamedly called Weltpolitik-as an equal of the victor powers. It was through his chancellorship that West Germany came of age on the global stage.