Refugee in search of a homeland

The following weekend I helped Frau von Guenther and Wolfgang move into a newly built two room flat, a great improvement from their previous one room shared flat. They seemed very happy in their new surrounding.

On Jürgen Siemering's prompting, I started a wool classing course on 2 April at the Bremer Woll Kämmerei, a combing mill in Bremen Lesum. I went there by bus each day and was assigned to one woman classer, who taught me the different types of wool. She had about ten baskets around her sorting table. Each fleece was spread over the table and if it had been classed properly in the country of origin, the quality was assessed and the whole fleece put into the appropriate basket. But more often than not the classing had not been according to German standards, and some pieces had do be down graded, and we had to see that the quality always remained the same. It was an excellent way of learning wool quality, that is to see a difference for example between wool with a diameter of 21 microns and 22 microns.

Among the other participants of the course were a lot of young people from all over the world, like Belgium, France, England, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. They wanted to familiarise themselves with German worsted mill standards and requirements. Many of them came from the wool selling countries, who were learning to become wool buyers. During my three month course I had the opportunity to see wool from all four countries Germany imported wool from Ñ Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America. In the end I could tell the country of origin in most cases. I could also practice my English and French on the others, and I felt the time spent had been well worth while.

Towards the end of April the tennis season opened again, and most weekends would see me playing. I took a couple of more coaching sessions with Herr Ramisch, and my tennis had improved to such an extent that I was encouraged to enter the club tournament. I didn't do too well, though, as my first game was against a seeded player.

For the Pentecost holidays I had been invited by Onkel Wilhelm to Dahlhausen, where I also had the opportunity to have a long chat with Onkel Rudolf Hardt, the boss of Hardt, Pocorny & Co., and cousin of Opa Tieman. He and Tante Marie were most kind to me. He had always been very conscious of our family ties, and welcomed his grand nephew with open arms. "Why don't you come to Hardt Pocorny as part of your training to see how wool is spun into knitting yarn, Dieter," he asked?

"That's a great idea," I said. "Do you think that would be possible?" "Everything is possible if you want to. I'll have a word to Onkel Wilhelm and we will see what we can do."

I was quite excited. To learn in a worsted yarn spinning mill would give me an edge on selling tops at a later stage.

"Do you think I could also look into the worsted spinning mill of Johannes Wülfing & Co, as they spin yarn for weaving, and also do the weaving themselves?"

229