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The Smokers Club, Inc. - Germany Helmut Schmidt flouting smoking ban
Helmut Schmidt will turn 90 in December.
Public smoking ban makes rebels of Germans
May 29, 2008
BERLIN (AFP) —In Europe, even the Italians and French are respecting public smoking bans, but Germany's bid to implement one is proving as relapse-prone as the New Year's resolutions of nicotine addicts.
A ban has been in force in most of the normally order-loving nation since January 1, the day cafes in France put away the ashtrays after more than a century of tobacco-stained bonhomie and smokers decamped to the pavement.
That evening former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt was photographed lighting up at a Hamburg theatre and five months later the air has still not cleared.
Helmut Schmidt will turn 90 in December.