The rainbow never sets

fortnight in February next year.

There was another pleasant surprise awaiting me, before winter set in. Our bosses hired a bus and took us all to Travemünde, by the Baltic Sea, where we could swim, had a lovely dinner and a fling at the casino. It certainly had helped to improve the atmosphere at the office.

I was still the junior at the office, but Jürgen Siemering wanted me to get more involved with wool tops, which was his department. At the beginning of the new wool season in Australia, on the 28.8.50, prices had made an unprecedented jump upwards. As the war in Korea had worsened, wool prices went through the roof. It had always been said that the wool price index is an indicator for the political situation in the world. This price rise proved it to some extent. As the war escalated even further, it became more difficult to buy wool. Jürgen Siemering had a good nose for business, and so he ordered 200 bales of greasy wool from Australia. He had it shipped immediately and consigned to the Bremer Woll Kämmerei, for sorting, scouring and combing for our firm. By the time the tops were ready, prices had increased four or five fold and our firm made stacks of money from it. I had my first experience of seeing greasy wool being sorted and I liked it. The smell of sheep reminded me of my farming days, which seemed a long time ago.

Mutter came to visit me in October. She was able to stay at Frau von Guenther's and I showed her Bremen and all the famous sights. It was so nice to have her there and I think she was pleased with what she saw.

As Wunder & Siemering have had a good year, everybody in the firm received a parcel as a Christmas bonus. When I opened mine there was a suit-length of the finest worsted woollen cloth, black with a fine silver pin stripe, woven by the famous firm of Nickel & Müller. I had never seen anything like it in my life, let alone handled it or called it my own. Such cloth was extremely scarce even then, and I was very pleased with it. I went to a taylor, recommended by Frau von Guenther, who made it into a double breasted suit, which lasted for over thirty years.

My plans for going to Emersleben for Christmas 1950 did not look very promising. The Russians had closed the border to stop an ever increasing flow of people from east to west. Conditions in the east had become more and more intolerable. We had heard of arrests, of shooting of illegal border crossers, and it seemed that I would not be able to see my parents for Christmas that year. However, as I found out eventually, there was one way left. I had to go via Berlin. Berlin was still administered by the four occupying forces, and the border between East Berlin and the rest was not controlled. Fräulein Meyer wanted to visit her friends in Berlin again, so I joined her on the bus from Bremen to Berlin. Once we had arrived in West Berlin, I caught a suburban train to the east sector and from there to Halberstadt. Between the east sector of Berlin and the east zone there was no border control. I arrived safely in Emersleben and was very pleased to celebrate Christmas again with the family.

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