Helmut Schmidt - Snuff Instead of Smoking
This man was seen by many as a medical wonder. A kind of extreme athlete in a very peculiar discipline—one that, in today’s fitness-obsessed and vegetable-loving world, is on the verge of extinction. Not least because its devotees constantly defy health risks to indulge their greatest passion: smoking. Helmut Schmidt was no chain smoker, for even a chain has a beginning and an end. Helmut Schmidt, on the other hand, did not. This man cherished his vice for over 80 years—longer than the average life expectancy of a German. His favorite? Cigarettes, of course. And when those weren’t an option, he turned to his beloved snuff tobacco, inhaling it through his nasal cavities.
Is Smoking Bodily Harm?
Helmut Schmidt didn’t take up snuff entirely voluntarily. During his time as a member of the German Bundestag, a strict smoking ban was—and still is—in place. Schmidt was not exactly known for subordinating his passion for tobacco to anything else. His smoking escapades during public appearances are legendary. While guests and dignitaries refrained from smoking due to regulations, Schmidt and his wife Loki casually mingled with the crowd, puffing away. However, the strict customs of the parliamentary chamber left Schmidt no choice but to adapt, turning instead to snuff—a sophisticated and historically significant form of tobacco consumption. The fact that the Chancellor allowed his tobacco habit to be restricted in this way was entirely uncharacteristic of him. From like-minded tobacco enthusiasts to non-smoking libertarians fed up with rules, overregulation, and coercion, Schmidt received at least tacit approval for his defiance of contemporary norms. The title of a book about him, “The Last Smoker,” fittingly describes him as a rock in the storm. Helmut Schmidt wouldn’t let anyone ban him from smoking. Even a lawsuit against him and his wife for “bodily harm” left him unfazed—after all, the two had unapologetically indulged their passion during a New Year’s punch event in 2008 at the Winterhuder Fährhaus comedy theater, despite all the guests. Schmidt once remarked that the public prosecutor’s office had investigated him three times in his life: in 1944 for making jokes about the Nazis, in the early 1960s during the Spiegel Affair for alleged treason, and finally because of irritated New Year’s guests.
Black and Brown: The Pleasure of Snuff
Snuffing tobacco began with the Aztecs and Incas, and it certainly won’t end with Helmut Schmidt. In fact, snuff is experiencing growth today that would have been unthinkable years ago. This is not only due to the increased resistance of the public and politicians to smokers. Another reason—perhaps the most decisive one—is that snuffing is a healthier alternative to conventional smoking. Despite extensive medical research into tobacco, no one has yet managed to prove that snuff causes cancer—not even nasal cancer. Dr. Önder Götkas, a senior physician in the ENT department at Charité in Berlin, openly admits that it has not yet been possible to “convict” snuff tobacco. Helmut Schmidt would have welcomed these scientific findings. Perhaps they might even have encouraged him in his later years to indulge more regularly in the black-brown pleasure and give up his beloved cigarettes. His suffering contemporaries, at least, would have been grateful for it…
