L. A. Deqler Hons Wall Sees Germqn Yords Agoin

Hans Wall, an enterprising little lumber merchant who owns the General Lumber & Supply Co. at 806'Sunset Blvd., a thriving small retail yard right in downtown Los Angeles, is just back from Berlin, Germany, where he was finally allowed to look after his affairs at the old family lumberyards in property now surrounded by the Soviets. He continued to receive his copies of The CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT there and wrote us in November that "it was real home to read it."

Young Hans Wall first came to the United States in 1910 and started in a New York City lumberyard located on the East River. He returned to Germany shortly before World War I but made frequent trips back and forth. He came to California in 1938 and opened the yard on Sunset.

He has created much goodwill and accumulated many fine friends in this retail operation, which has high standing in the local industry despite its limited size. He joined HooHoo in 194O and added still more lumbermen to his long list of friends through that affiliation.

Of his trip to Germany, Mr. Wall wrote that "it is a bit exciting behind the Iron Curtain right now. West Berlin, where my property is located, is surrounded by the Soviets, and this does not feel too good, but I still will have to work here for about four weeks."

During his stay in Berlin, Hans Wall rvas invited to ad- dress the Society of Berlin Lumber Dealers and Importers. He was later presented a memento rvhich read:

From our membership meeting, to rvhich

1\'e invited our former member of many years, Mr. Hans Wall of Los Angeles, we the lumber dealers and importers of the Capital Berlin, the island behind the lron Curtain, are extending to our colleagues in Los Angeles ancl Southern California, the Hoo-Hoo Club and The California Lumber Merchant, our very best regards and best wishes for a very happy Christmas and a peaceful; prosperous 1957. (Signed) Max Pannenberg, President.

In his speech to th,e Berlin dealers, Wall told them a little about Los Angeles "and our screwball market," he says, "but f have the feeling they've got us beat here. It is an awful feeling to have the Russians and other Cornmies right around you, I think."

It's an experience few other Southern California lumber dealers would ever have.

There are about 270 lumberyards in the Berlin area, Dealer Wall reports. It was the most-bombed part of the

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Lumber arrives in railroad cars or by truck-andtrailer. These have to pass through the Iron Curtain, which is sometimes difficult and disagreeable, he says, and adds, "f think our drivers on 101 are much better off."

The trucks are modern, mostly Diesels-they have radios, bed, heater, etc., but have no rollers as they are unloaded by hand. The yards are rvell equipped, with planing mills but no cranes or hoists. In some of these mills they have women, and doing a fine job with a happy smile.

Some yards are doing a tremendous business as the buildings are going up fast, he reports; apartments, offices, wareheuss5-and even a freeway, and this one would run straight through, part of Wall's German yard I On this account, the Los Angeles retailer had to talk with all kinds of German Senate offices in order to clear the matter.

Wall's Berlin yard is about five acres u'ith 300-yard frontage, and one western Germany lumber firm is doing a nice business on it, he said.

The population of the western sector of Berlin today is about 2l million people. It is an interesting city, he reports, with good hotels (Hilton is building a new one), good restaurants and theatres. But of course, you cannot drive very far with your car without getting into the Soviet sector, he points out.

Hans Wall suggests that Americans, and Californians in particular, "give these hard-l'vorking West Berliners our best wishes for their industrial recovery and continuing fight against Communism," and hopes that the Hoo-Hoo fraternity and other dealers in the Southern California Retail Lumber Association will wish their German counterparts much good in the New Year 7957.

As he returns to the comparative peace and quiet of his smaller Los Angeles retail yard, Dealer Wall's mind returns often to those now leasing his old family yards far over the ocean, where the problems are not so much the 2/o profit margin as when war clouds mi$ht darken again and entire cities, lumberyards and people be caught up once more in the horrible backwash of war.

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