By Olympic Gold Medallist M. N. Masood
| Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 |
 |
Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 |
Hamburg and Hanover | We visited the famous Pelican Company,
manufacturers of office and drawing materials. This is the largest company
of its kind in Germany, and was founded 100 years ago.
A pelican feeds its young with its own blood if necessity arises, and the founder of the Co., Gruther Wagner, with this end in view, named it Pelican. How far he succeeded in his noble aim could be judged by looking at the happy faces of the Company's numerous employees. |
|||||
| Page 7 | Page 8 | Page 9 | Page 10 | Page 11 | Page 12 | |
e
arrived at Hamburg Main Station at 3:00 pm on 31st August, and lodged in Hotel
Esplanade. Hamburg looked big and busy after the quiet little Bremen; its lake,
the river and numerous canals providing beautiful scenic surroundings.
The Germans call it 'Venice of the North', and the citizens of Hamburg claim it to be more beautiful than Berlin. It certainly has charm supplied by its lake, river and canals which Berlin has not.
The following day we started at 11:20 am for a sight-seeing excursion in a char-a-banc. Our guide was very witty and explained all the things in his own way.
Hamburg is one of the oldest cities in the north of Germany, and is claimed to be the largest seaport of Europe. The greater part of old Hamburg was destroyed by the great fire of 1842, but some of the old buildings are still standing.
The Alster lake, widened and now forming two large basins, lies in the heart of the town. Its banks are lined by public gardens and charming villas and provide excellent opportunities for yachting and rowing.
The celebrated Hagenbeck's Park, whose circus toured India very recently and was very popular here, is in Hamburg. The gigantic monument of Bismarck, 108 feet high, and the church of St. Michael, sharply silhouetted against the skyline, are the two chief landmarks of the city, which is built around the Town Hall.
The Elbe tunnel, which connects the St. Paul's quarter with the industrial districts in the free port area impressed us most. It is 1300 feet long, 65 feet below the river and 72 feet below the street. We had never seen the like of it before. We had glimpses also of the tallest city buildings, imposing blocks of offices, school buildings, museums and university buildings where, we were told, twenty-six foreign languages are taught.
We had a very quiet lunch at Harvestehuder Tennis and Hockey Club, which gave each of us an eight-page history of the club. On the first page are written the names of the 21 members who were killed in the Great War.
India 3 - North German Hockey Association 1
India played her eighth match of the tour against North German Hockey Association in Hamburg on September 1st, at 5:30 pm. The crowd was not as big as was expected, and a cold wind was blowing, making the spectators uncomfortable. The ground was bumpy and cork balls were used, which sometimes jumped like tennis balls on a hard court.
India gave yet another disappointing display. A team's strength lies in its combination and confidence in itself, and she was sadly lacking in both.
Jaffar and Roop Singh were vying with each other in being spectacular and starving their wing-forwards. Dhyan seemed to ponder all the time as to who was his more spectacular inside-forward.
India won 3-1, Roop scored two goals and Jaffar 1. Roop's second goal was a powerful angular shot which left the goalkeeper guessing, and which could only come off the supple wrists of a Roop. There is no apparent swing of the stick in such shots, only a mere easy drive. But there is a tremendous power behind this drive.
The Germans scored a goal in the second half off a short-corner and caught Allen napping.
Each player was presented with a bronze medal after the game. Those who did not play got nothing; a discouraging discrimination on the part of the Hamburg Government which sanctioned only eleven medals to be distributed among India's contingent of twenty.
The Indian team was as follows: Allen; Tapsell and Mohammad Hussain; Nimal, Cullen and Gallibardy; Shahabuddin, Jaffar, Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh and Peter Fernandes.
After a hasty dinner, we left Hamburg on 1st September at 9:30 pm for Hanover, and sped through a moonlit night for about two hours. It is a pity that our stay in Hamburg was so short, of about thirty hours only.
Hanover
We arrived in Hanover at 11:48 pm on 1st September, and stayed in Hotel Central. This hotel appeared shabby after the comforts we had enjoyed at one of the luxurious hotels in Hamburg. A light supper sent us to bed.
The following morning, we visited the famous Pelican Co., manufacturers of office and drawing materials. This is the largest company of its kind in Germany, and was founded a hundred years ago, starting with only three employees.
A pelican feeds its young with its own blood if necessity arises, and the founder of the Co., Gruther Wagner, with this end in view, named it Pelican. How far he succeeded in his noble aim could be judged by looking casually at the faces of the company's numerous employees, who seemed to be very happy, working and moving about in a sort of family atmosphere and having absolute confidence in their employers, who would feed them with their own blood if the occasion arose.
We were shown all over the premises of the company by one of the Managing Directors, who took great pains to explain to us in detail what every process meant. Soft drinks and biscuits were served to us before we left the company in a tram to Hotel Central. We did not see anything else in Hanover which could have appealed to us except its zoological garden, which is considered to be the largest and best assorted on this side of the Channel.
India 2 – Lower Saxony 1
India played her ninth match of the tour against Lower Saxony in Hanover at 5:30 pm on September 2nd in a vast football stadium. The ground was better than at Hamburg, the weather warm, and the crowd, though pretty big, occupied a small portion of the stadium which is capable of accommodating about 40,000 persons.
India repeated her sad tale of poor display. A win of 2-1 in her favour gives a fair idea of the run of the play. If Lower Saxony had brought a bit of dribbling in it, it would have been rather difficult to judge the relative superiority of the two sides.
Jaffar and Dhyan were the scorers in each half of the play, and Lower Saxony scored in the second half.
The Indian team was as follows: Mitchie; Phillips and Mohammad Hussain; Nimal, Cullen and Gurcharan Singh; Ahmad Sher Khan, Emmett, Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh and Jaffar.
The young autograph hunters of Hanover will never be forgotten. Each one of us had to be rescued by the policemen and led to the char-a-banc after the game.
The Mayor of Hanover welcomed us in the stadium before the commencement of the game and presented Dhyan with a portrait of the town hall. The Deutscher Hockey Club invited us to a dinner and dance in the evening. We left Hanover on 3rd September at 11:23 am for Cologne.
Photographed in the Municipal Hall of Frankfurt, with the Mayor in the centre