[409]  In those days there was a Holiday on 6 October, which was later eliminated. I started my work in the laboratory on 7 October 1926. The conditions were terrible. In comparison Barrande Hesse's lab in La Paz was a princely palace. Ovens, vent hoods, and washing were all in one room. It was not in the least organized. The samples lay un-numbered on a table. If they had been laying long enough and not finished, someone would toss them in the fire and they would no longer be there. Filter paper and other discards were thrown on the floor. Everything was lacking. Even the analytical balance was rented from a private lab, and for two years already the had been paying 50 Bolivianos a month rent. That made 600 Bolivianos per year, for which one could buy two new balances, which are still in use now, 17 years later. On my first day there I experienced a fire in a vent hood, the chemist Burose slapping a young worker, and coming close to poisoning the whole lab - the flask with Barium Chloride, which is needed for making solutions, accidentally contained potassium cyanide.

Slowly the work came into swing and the lab into order. Out of a disreputable stinkhole, where thanks to the stupidity of the firm's chemist it could happen that the company bought a freight car of antimony ore as bismuth ore, magnetite as nickel ore, there gradually developed an institute that had an authoritative reputation, not only in Bolivia, but in all south America and even North America, from which scientific work about new minerals and new mineral occurrences came out. But more of that later.

This was in the year 1926. Manager for Oruro was Pablo Biggemnan, with head clerks [prokuristen] Rantz and Ederheimer. The clerks held themselves aside as something better. Aside from Ederheimer I was the only Jew in the firm in Oruro. In La Paz there were none, in Potosi Goldschmidt was chief, cousin of Moritz, and raised in Hochschild's house. Moritz Hochschild, in many ways a quite outstanding person, had a unexpectedly weak knowledge of chemistry. He always enthused about young "dynamic" people. He fell for every faker, this lack of  people knowledge also made possible his successes. Pablo Biggemann, a young boy who sold nails in his fathers shop for 5 cenatavos, befriended himself with the employees of the firm in Potosi, was hired, and in a short time became chief of Oruro. At that time, 1925, he was making 1000 pounds annually, and an equal amount as a Christmas bonus. He was not even 25 years old then. Naturally, one earned accordingly at the time. We had the export of the mine Porvenir Huanuni. It produced a blende that was about 40% zinc, 4% tin, and 1/2 % silver. The ore was shipped directly from there, the office in Oruro only prepared the paperwork, and we in the lab made the analysis. The firm earned only a trifle of 1 pound per ton, but since the mine shipped 2,000 tons monthly, the 2000 pounds covered all expenses of the Oruro branch, and all earnings from the other ores were pure profit - some ores earned 50 pounds per ton. Naturally there were also losses, loans to customers that would not be paid, purchases of the wrong ores, swindles such as the one of Amonzabel  He sold us lead ores with 2-3 % silver, got paid, and it arrived in Europe with .02% silver. Amonzabel had either bribed or cleverly cheated the sample collector at a remote sampling site, and smuggled legitimate  ore (over 60% silver) into the sample packets. There also were unknown losses, such as those from the ores of the Turk Kunkar, who provided ore with 2% silver, which was used to enrich silver poor lead ores. Only in 1935, when the Kunkar mine had long stopped working, did I receive (through Block an Ahlfeld) samples for analysis, and found there the new minerals Blockite and Ahlfeldite. The Kunkar ore was something unique in mineralogy. Blockite contained 70% selenium, about 400 gram platinum per ton, the 2% silver, nickel, cobalt and mercury. As Kunkar delivered the ore in many tons, nobody had noticed it. The ores were mixed with silver containing lead ores, and processed in some lead smelter. The valuable selenium was lost in the roasting gases, and, surprisingly, one found platinum and palladium in the silver, of unknown origin. So, after all, the firm went very well.

Now came the revolution in the firm. Moritz had gradually separated himself from his brothers. Some of them ran an ore business in Chile, Sammy Hochschild & Co. Instead of these he took a cousin into the firm, Dr. Phillip Hochschild of Frankfort. Phillip was the son of the founder of the Frankfort Metal Company, and came from a patrician house, while Moritz's father was a miserable cattle dealer. Phillip also studied in Freiberg, but did not have much to do with his cousin. He did his Doctor's thesis in mineralogy with Victor Goldschmidt in Heidelberg, but took his exam in Erlangen. Phillip, heir to a large fortune and tradition, interested himself much more in old etchings and Chinese ceramics, in which he was a specialist, than in the business, but pretended otherwise. During his stay in Belgium during the first world war he married his secretary, "Germaine", whom he later transplanted to Frankfort as an exotic plant in his Frankfort Jewish milieu; she never assimilated herself, even though she spoke a genuine Frankfort German. In 1925 Phillip became a partner  and went to south America with Germaine, where they settled in Vina del Mar. Phillip brought his nephew Heinrich Ellinger along. Phillip's sister was married to Prof. Alexander Ellinger, an important Pharmacologist, professor at the universities of Konigsberg and Frankfort. He died soon after the world war, and the young son came to south America with Phillip.

It may sound strange, but it is a fact that in the next few years the fate of Mauricio Hochschild & Co. was not determined by Moritz and Phillip, but by the ambition of Germaine and Ellinger. Germaine came from fairly small, insignificant, french circles. Petite, dainty, pretty, unusually clever, and well educated, she used every opportunity as a springboard to higher goals. She felt best as the only woman in a large group of men, and sought to dominate everything. Ellinger came to Potosi as an apprentice with Goldschmidt, with whom he got into a fight on the first day. But, since both belonged to the family, the break was papered over. Ellinger, very talented, diligent, and with untamed ambition, recognized fully the influence and significance of Germaine. She immediately took charge of Vina del Mar, especially raising Moritz's son Gertie. She baptized him, and from then on the picture of his late mother no longer hung in his room, instead the Madonna. Then she took on Moritz. She induced in him her ambition. It did not suit her at all that he was a shabby ore swindler or trader, which came to the same thing. He had to become, nolens volens, and industry magnate. Patino caught her eye; when she passed by a Patino building in Oruro, I heard from her how she only could think of the time when Moritz would over-shadow Patino. Moritz bought the tin mine near Carabuco on lake Titicaca from Barrande Hesse, and named it "Mina Matilde" after his late wife, but Matilde's pearl necklace, which cost 5000 pounds, went to Germaine for "luck."  A valuable contribution to her jewel box, which was filled with the most expensive jewelry for all occasions, as insurance.

Then Moritz took over management of the first large mine, the Compania Huanchaca de Bolivia, in Pulacayo, and of this mine I must tell you a story.

You will have seen a monument on the plaza in Oruro. It is Arce, a former president. The monument was dedicated to him since he built the first railroad in Bolivia. And the railroad went from Antofogasta, over Uyuni, to the Huanchaca mine to bring its silver ores to the coast, and to bring up mining equipment. Until that time, everything was brought up from the coast by mules, even pianos. All Bolivians merchants rode to the coast with their mules loaded with sacks of silver in coin and utensils [chafalonia] (even chamber pots in Bolivia were made of massive silver) to trade them for all the needed wares in Tacna and Arica. When the railroad was finished, which later was extended to Oruro and La Paz, (the railroad from Arica to La Paz did not come till 1904, and the connection to Argentina in 1925), this stopped, and the firms on the coast, Bottinger, Hirschmann, Nater, moved their businesses to Bolivia. [ 419]. So, the mine had a rail connection to the coast. It became a stock company, in fact incorporated in France. The ores were very rich in silver - 4 to 5%. and the stockholders were swimming in money. The administration building was equipped with the costliest french furniture, the french engineers even set up a french bordello, and the french whores bathed in french wine.

At the beginning of the 20th century the main stockholder was a certain Jaques Lebaudy who no longer had any idea of what to do with his money. He named himself Jaques I, Emperor of the Sahara. He equipped a corps of adventurers in fantasy uniforms in order to conquer the Sahara. They willingly took his money and his uniforms, they landed in Africa, but when they noticed that the Berbers also shot with real bullets they ran off and disappeared into the desert sand like the rest of the story.

Then Jaques married a pretty American widow, with an even prettier daughter. Thus a large part of the Huanchaca came into American ownership. But, on one fine day when Mrs. Lebaudy caught her husband with her daughter in flagrant flirtation, she simply shot him with her revolver, and thus ended Jaques I, Emperor of the Sahara. Around this time the ores of the Huanchaca had lost their high silver content, there was only about 1% silver in it, and the ores showed a lead-zinc mix the smelters did not want to buy any more.  Phillipp owned a large part of the shares, and so the firm of Mauricio Hochschild & Co got the management and restoration of the mine. Moritz had little joy and much worry with the mine from the beginning until now. But Germaine's wish was fulfilled, Moritz had become a mine magnate.

Somewhat later the consolidation and management of the Potosi mines of the Compania Minera Unificada del Cerro de Potosi was added, and the lease of the Villazon-Atocha railroad. Ellinger was transferred from Potosi to Oruro. He became manager jointly with Biggemann; Ranz and Ederheimer left and disappeared in the collapse. It did not take long before Biggemann also had to disappear. He earned plenty, but wanted more and made his own ore dealings. As he was swindled, and Moritz found the losses in his account, anyone else would have fled, but he did not curb himself, rather he sought further business. Near Oruro there was a pitiful field of tin slag. The supply was estimated as a few hundred tons. Erwin Kittel was director of the Mining School then, now he is professor of geology in Buenos Aires. He estimated the supply as 5000 tons. When the expert report came Biggemann told me "These professors are such idiots, he has no idea that the field has at least a few 100,000 tons." He bought the slag field under the pretense that Moritz was making bad blood in the land due to his monopoly lust, and was thus buying in Biggemann's name instead of the firm's name. When the purchase was complete he declared that the field belonged to him and started to work it. Now he had to perform and noticed only too late that he had been the one to fall for the hoax. He married, bought a car, and took a honeymoon trip to Europe in the luxury cabin of the Cap Polonia. He left the extraction work to a friend. The friend stole the few hundred tons of worthwhile slag by buying the adjacent empty field and selling the slag as his own. Biggemann sat in Germany and cabled for money, but there was none, the car had to be sold, and the newlyweds returned to south America in third class. The slag dream was dreamed out. [423]

Ellinger however was still not the lone ruler; in Biggemann's place came a new manager, Emil Zeul, from Madrid, who later brought out the bookkeeper Beck. But Ellinger's influence rose from month to month. I was treated well, if it was real friendship from Moritz and Philipp, at that time maybe also Germaine, it was surely only calculation on Ellinger's part, since he had no true friendships. In September 1927 I lost my voice due to a cold. Moritz and Germaine brought me to the clinic in Chuquicamata, where I spent a week, then I was in Antofogasta for a week, the voice returned. As I returned to Bolivia, already at Uyuni the voice got lost again. For months I could only whisper, then eventually the voice came back, but my mezzo-soprano I lost forever, and can hardly sing a scale any more. But I bought myself gramophone records, we already had a player in the Rancho, and consoled myself with canned music.

In 1928 I went to Valparaiso on vacation, where I was the guest of Philip Hochschild for a week. They lived in Vina del Mar, in the Palace "Los Aromos". The first house, "Los Pinos" had burned sown. The houses on the Chilean coast are either earthquake resistant reinforced concrete, or light halftimbered houses, made to look on the outside like massive stone buildings. In 1928, as usual, there were some earth shocks which had caused an unnoticed crack in the wall of the fireplace at "Los Pinos". One day, while Philipp was in Santiago, and Germaine with Gertie were sitting in front of the fireplace, she noticed a fireglow in the wall that did not belong there, the house blazed fiercely in an instant - if one has not experienced this in Chile, one cannot imagine the speed with which the fire spreads. So Germaine with Gertie and the household help ran into the street, and before the firefighters arrived only a smoking heap of ashes was left. Naturally Germaine had to travel immediately to Europe, to use the proceeds of the insurance to buy the furnishings for the new house, "Los Aromos." It was also wonderfully appointed, furniture, paintings, porcelain, library, royal service, and I spent a very pleasant week there. Philip travelled to Europe, Moritz to Bolivia. It was soon clear that the marriage of Philip and Germaine was not well cemented . Philipp travelled alone, Moritz always together with Germaine, whether to Bolivia or to Europe.

In the meantime a new ore business had opened in Oruro, Philipp Brothers, represented by Arthur Grunebaum. With Moritz"s position in the country a new firm should not have had anything to laugh about, but times had changed. Just as much as Moritz was loved and respected by all, so Ellinger, who kept becoming a bigger madman, was  little esteemed. There was here a firm Blajine Brothers. The leader was a Russian, who still lives here: Sergei Nikolayevitch Blashin. He was in the Russian Caucasus army in the first world war, came from old but not wealthy Russian nobility. He was made a liaison officer with the English army that was fighting Turkey. When the war ended he acquired British citizenship and was consequently able to bring his wife Katerina Ivanovna and his small daughters to Bolivia. In England he had graduated from a mining school, and was active first in Chile, then in Bolivia. It went well for him. He had a few tin mines of his own, and also bought tin from smaller producers. He sold the entire lots to Hochschild, from whom he got advances on ore deliveries.

Then, when better organized conditions started to reign at Hochschild, one insisted on accounting, recognition of debt obligations, and this did not work. According to Hochschild Blajine owed him about 10,000 pound sterling, according to Blajine it was just the opposite. It came to a lawsuit, and although Moritz wanted to settle it with Blajine in any case, Ellinger stubbornly fought through the suit. Blajine lost, but Moritz got not even a pittance. Of course, no money, and the proceeds of the sale of property did not cover the cost of the suit. The whole thing was very distressing to me, since I was in a friendly relationship with Blajine, and employed by Hochschild. The suit, though nominally a victory for Hochschild, was no victory, but the consequences were even worse. Blajine leased his whole house, warehouse, office, lab to Grunebaum. The sign Blajine Bros. was repainted as Philipp Bros., and Grunebaum settled himself in. (426). The customers came habitually to the old building, and it did not take long before Grunebaum had a successful ore business. His ability and skill with people, his marriage to a Bolivian, Corina Guzman Tellez, brought the business high very soon, and thus, out of the Blajine skeleton a very unpleasant competition for Hochschild developed. [428]  (end of text)
 
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